As tensions rose in Westminster over the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement, the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, said Churches need to reassure people that “there’s enough grace about, enough good people about for people not to despair”.
“We have to give reassurance that it is possible to find ways forward, that compromise is not an evil word, that politics is about delivering on the ground,” Bishop McKeown told The Tablet. “We want to avoid both a lack of trust in the political process and despair about the future.”
From a Northern Irish perspective, one of his concerns was the effect a hard border would have on the positive economic developments of recent years.
“There is a real sense of confidence in tourism, a sense that the border is only a line in the sand – with people of all traditions moving backwards and forwards,” the bishop said.
He warned of the danger for society when the political process is “not seen to be delivering for people on the ground” as occurred in 1968. “That is always a dangerous time,” he said.
“We’ve enough experience here in Northern Ireland of the political process being seen as not able to deliver on the ground. And that applies to the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin as well as to Westminster.” Churches needed to be “friendly critics of the system”.
Any political solution had to “benefit the ordinary people on the ground who are always the ones who suffer from economic crashes. The well-off will always survive; it’s the ones who are already sitting on the edge who will be the first ones to suffer. As Churches we have to say ‘this cannot increase problems that have existed for 10 years, due to austerity, for the poor’.”
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