Reacting to the controversy over the President's apparent comparison between Protestant hatred for Catholics and Nazi hatred for Jews, Gerry Adams came out with a statement that, if made by a football manager, would certainly have made Mary Hannigan's column in the sports section, writes Fintan O'Toole.
Referring to the history of the North , he said: "I don't want to draw any comparison with the Nazis or anyone else but certainly there was a system of apartheid."
In other words, comparisons are wrong but Catholics in Northern Ireland were treated like blacks in South Africa. This could be dismissed as waffle, but it is deadly serious. It has a point. The denial of basic political and social rights to the majority of the South African population was so complete that it forced the African National Congress into an armed struggle. What Gerry Adams wants us to conclude is that the same is true of the situation of Catholics north of the Border. They were left with no choice but to engage in extreme violence and thus the IRA's campaign was inevitable and justified.
So let's ask the question. Was there a "system of apartheid" in Northern Ireland before and during the IRA's campaign? No fair-minded observer could deny that Catholics as a whole suffered from serious discrimination. There was a thick strain of outright bigotry in the unionist ruling class, underpinned by a popular culture of sectarianism. Professional and managerial jobs were filled almost entirely by Protestants. Catholics had the most insecure of footholds on the shipbuilding and engineering industries, and were subject to sporadic bouts of vicious intimidation. Some local councils, most notoriously in Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone, were blatantly gerrymandered to ensure that areas with a majority of Catholics returned unionist-dominated councils. These councils, in turn, discriminated against Catholics in public housing and council jobs. The RUC was overwhelmingly Protestant and the notorious B Specials were overwhelmingly anti-Catholic.
These were serious injustices, and they were allowed to fester for decades with disgracefully little protest from Dublin or interference from London. But anyone who thinks they were a "system of apartheid" displays a shocking ignorance of both Northern Ireland and South Africa. Was discrimination required by law in Northern Ireland, as it was under the apartheid laws? No. The basic law, the Government of Ireland Act, explicitly prohibited discrimination on religious grounds. Were Catholics denied both citizenship and the vote? No. Were all political parties representing Catholics effectively banned? No. Were there "Protestant only" signs on all public amenities, public buildings, and public transport? No.
Were Catholics and Protestants prohibited from having sex with or marrying one another as blacks and whites were in South Africa? No. Twenty-five per cent of marriages in the Catholic diocese of Down and Connor (which includes Belfast) in 1971 were mixed.
Were Catholics denied proper schooling? No. The British taxpayer funded schools controlled by the Catholic church and free second-level schooling was provided for Catholics 20 years before it arrived in the Republic.
Were Catholics prohibited from attending university, as blacks were in South Africa? No. Even in 1959, there were 700 Catholics at Queen's , and working-class Catholics in Northern Ireland had far better access to third-level colleges than their counterparts in the Republic. Were there massive disparities in access to basic healthcare? No. Were Catholics prohibited from living permanently in the major cities or from leaving the countryside for an urban area without the permission of the authorities? No. Were strikes by Catholic workers outlawed? No. Did Stormont have the power to remove Catholics from public or private land and to establish resettlement camps to house these displaced people? No.
Was it illegal for Catholics to purchase or lease land from Protestants? No. Were Catholics required to carry passports to travel within their own country? No.
Putting the suffering of Catholics in Northern Ireland on the same level as that of blacks in South Africa is a hideous insult to the victims of apartheid. But it is also an eloquent expression of a pathological mentality that continues to stymie the peace process. Exaggerated self-pity is a form of egotism. By hyping up the real injustices, and by wallowing in an inflated sense of grievance, Gerry Adams makes himself the Irish Mandela. And three awkward facts are airbrushed away. One is that the most egregious disabilities of the Catholics were being tackled as a result of the civil rights movement when the IRA campaign was getting into full swing. Another is that the ANC in South Africa used violence with extreme reluctance, called off its campaign as soon as negotiations became possible and disbanded its armed wing once a democratic settlement was on offer. The third is that, after the early 1970s, the IRA itself became the worst offender against the civil rights of both Catholics and Protestants in the North.
If Gerry Adams really wants to draw analogies with South Africa, he should ask for the establishment in Northern Ireland of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.