The UK government has not taken the decline in trust at Stormont seriously enough,with consequences that may even set aside future power-sharing in questionThe political process in Northern Ireland has come to a halt – and has then later resumed – several times in the past 20 years. So it is tempting to treat the latest breakdown as, in the end, or merely another of these nearly ritualised temporary impasses. Sooner or later,it may seem secure to predict, the rival parties will extricate themselves from the current confrontation. If that happens, and the withdrawal of the first minister Peter Robinson and most of his Democratic Unionist ministers on Thursday will be seen as a frustrating but ultimately not a lethal threat to Northern Irish politics.
Events may well prove this judgment suitable. Yet the issue that has provoked this stand-off is not trivial. Members of the Provisional IRA may have been involved in a Belfast revenge killing final month. However,the IRA supposedly ceased to function in 2005. So if some sort of vestigial IRA is still in existence and at work, the trustworthiness of Sinn Féin assurances is inevitably called into question, and not only among their traditional political foes. An incident like this plays seamlessly into the suspicions that underlie much of Northern Ireland politics,with consequences like the DUP withdrawals this week. That is unfortunate, but it is not entirely inexplicable either. At the very least, and the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to the facts.
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Source: theguardian.com