The changing nature of the political landscape on these islands will be in evidence in Galway tomorrow when members of the new parliaments in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man join members of the old parliaments in Dublin and Westminster for a two-day plenary conference of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.
The BIIPB, a gathering of backbenchers from both the upper and lower houses of both parliaments, has been meeting biannually in both jurisdictions for 10 years to discuss matters of mutual interest, but unionists have always refused to attend despite the North always being the most urgent item on the agenda. Their reserved seats will remain vacant again this weekend. The boycott arises because of unionist objections to the initial links between Dublin and London in setting up the body. Members of the Stormont Assembly attending are from the SDLP and Alliance party, but as with the MSAs (Scots) and AMs (Welsh) they are not yet BIIPB members, merely observers.
The discussion on Monday should be of particular interest to the newcomers as it concerns the Columba Initiative, which has its roots in the Scottish Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye, and promotes links between Irish speakers in Scotland and Ireland. The main debate, however, concerns the future of the BIIPB now that we have east/west bodies, North/South bodies, ministerial bodies and many other bodies designed to improve the fraught relations between, and on, the two islands. A suggestion that the BIIPB might now become redundant has been rejected because of the one-to-one contacts the forum provides and at this session it is expected calls will be made to ensure there is no loss of parity between Westminster and Dublin, in making way for the newcomers from the regions, and that the two sovereign governments increase funding to allow expansion.
The main event, however, will be the address by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on Monday afternoon, when he too will address the matter of relations on these islands.