Derry paper editor says Yes is only way forward

Pat McArt, the editor of the Derry Journal, says the newspaper will be urging people to vote Yes - it is the only way forward…

Pat McArt, the editor of the Derry Journal, says the newspaper will be urging people to vote Yes - it is the only way forward. However, like many other people, his support for the Belfast Agreement is qualified. It is not a perfect document, he says.

Unionists are not happy with the cross-Border institutions and nationalists are unhappy with the assembly and the fact that there will be no united Ireland. There is something in it for everyone, but there are downsides as well.

It does recognise the nationalist community and that is to be welcomed, he adds, but the cross-Border institutions are not as strong as nationalists had hoped. They can recall the Northern Ireland assembly's predecessor in Stormont which was "not exactly a ball of laughs for a lot of people".

Pat McArt is a former RTE journalist; he worked in the political unit for a period reporting Dail debates. He moved to the Journal in Derry and was made editor in 1982, within months of arriving in the newsroom. The Journal both leads and reflects the nationalist community, he says. It sells 27,000 copies in Derry, Inishowen and north Tyrone. He agrees that in urging readers to vote Yes, the newspaper is leading the community. "We are leading because we think it is a good agreement."

READ MORE

He says Sinn Fein has a problem simply coming out in favour. Most people recognise that, he says, and how far Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams has taken the party.

"They have taken the republican movement onto an almost totally political path. That has not been easy. This is a divided, sectarian society. This was not a nice place to live for nationalists. There was an armed insurrection for the past 25 to 30 years. These guys have brought the republican movement onto a new level, a political level, which is the only way this problem can be solved."

The agreement has enhanced John Hume's standing, he believes. "He still walks on water. He is seen as the architect of a peace process that looks like succeeding."

The reaction to the agreement was muted in the region. "No one was jumping up and down." The first ceasefire was different; it was a defining moment - people were in tears. "It was one of the great days of my life," he says. "This agreement is an accommodation, it is not a settlement or a solution. Accommodations always have the potential to break down."

Despite what some people claim, he says there is no evidence of a significant number of nationalists who want to remain British. There are few, if any, who believe that the RUC is an impartial police force, he believes.

Northern Ireland has no ordinary politics, he says, everything is about the constitutional position. Quangos run Northern Ireland. "If you are acceptable, you get onto a library board or a health board. It is not a good way to run a society."

The Journal and its sister publications, the Donegal People's Press and the Donegal Democrat, are constitutional nationalist newspapers. "When I came to the Derry Journal I could not believe its influence and importance. It is almost as we were giving the voiceless a voice. Most people will say if the agreement is good enough for the Journal, it's good enough for me."