The Government's decision to send two members of Cabinet – Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney and Chief Whip Jack Chambers – to Armagh to attend a religious service to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Northern Ireland is an important step.
Last month, President Michael D Higgins said he had declined an invitation to the event, which is being organised by the main churches in Ireland, because he felt the title, which referred to partition, was a "political statement". It was the president's prerogative to accept or decline, and this week's Irish Times/ Ipsos MRBI opinion poll indicated that a large majority of voters in the Republic agreed with his decision. However, the bungled handling of such a sensitive situation caused more damage than the decision itself. Church leaders said nobody communicated the president's concernsto them before they learned of his refusal in the media, and the president's own communications about it, which included a false statement (later corrected) about the way in which he was addressed in the invitation, suggested Áras an Uachtaráin had no plan in place to deal with the fallout. There still has been no explanation from Government or the Áras as to why the communications breakdown occurred.
A Government statement on Thursday defended Higgins's right to decline but said its role was "clearly distinct" from that of the president. In the first instance, it is the Government that will have to repair damage done in recent weeks. While pre-existing tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, as well as the fierce battle taking place within unionism, may have amplified the controversy, it would be wrong to dismiss the real concerns that many unionists clearly have about it. SDLP leader Colum Eastwood put it well when he said his party's decision to attend the service was "about stretching ourselves to heal the wounds of partition". The Government's ambition may be somewhat more modest – to mend relations after a bruising few weeks – but that too is an important political imperative.