Letter: My New Year wish is that unionism will throw off its poor rags and new leaders will emerge

It is now evident that the DUP and the Irish government work together on the same principle “your enemy is my enemy, and that makes you my friend” (Sinn Fein).

I am not against the two countries in Ireland finding common cause and co-operating on matters of mutual interest.

Unfortunately the unionist community is at a disadvantage. I never remember our community so incapable and in such a mess.

Co-operation only works if it flows from a position of strength and mutual respect. The DUP is weak and the Ulster Unionists are lost and trying to find a new home. Alliance, that sour fruit of the Protestant middle-class, has been grafted on to the nationalist bough, ripened, and is ready to be plucked.

You just wonder will the New Year winter bring in the final stage of our collapse.

Unionist politics has failed, but we still cling for dear life to the wreckage. Nationalism is circling to claim salvage.

I’m still convinced that if our community and our culture are going to survive we will have to cut out the dead wood, and build from the grassroots. There are signs of that at times, but it’s not sustained.

My wish for the New Year is that our community will throw off its poor rags and rig itself out in a new garment. Drawing on what is best from the past we must lay solid foundations.

I hope, and hope is all we’ve got, that new leaders will emerge. Leaders with vision who will stop filling our heads with nonsense.

We no longer run Northern Ireland, we are just another minority, and we need to rise to the challenge if we are to survive. The good times are over and we need to plan ahead.

There is much pruning to be done if we are to reap a rich harvest. The battle for the soul of our community is in-house. And it will be painful!

I believe there are leaders out there, but we have to find them.

I just wonder how low we have to sink before they emerge.

In the short term we will have to join our unionist politicians in intensive care. Wherever this road takes us, wherever it ends, things will never be the same. The world is spinning recklessly out of control and we are not immune from it. How we cope will take our pulse in a search for signs of life.

If we are going to survive we’ll have to do it ourselves and draw water from a deep well.

We need a new vision, and fresh thinking.

That lamp of truth that once shone so bright is now growing dim, and we need to pour in fresh oil.

The light that once guided us is flickering, and burning out.

Clive Maxwell, Bleary, Co Down