We should discuss the sort of society eloquently articulated by Wallace Thompson

I am writing in response to the Sam McBride article ‘DUP veteran reeling from betrayal’ (March 24, see link below).

Mr Wallace Thompson ruminates on a quote of Carson’s self-perceived foolishness and critical reflection on the ‘...value of the Union’.

Ultimately it will be up to historians and commentators to interpret and decide whether this is a prose of melancholic rhetoric, or a prophetic statement.

I recently visited the grounds of Stormont with my children and, given the year that’s in it, thought I would first walk them to Carson’s statue before the obligatory visit to Mo Mowlam’s play park.

I had no real objective in mind other than the assumption that a child’s natural curiosity would take over.

As someone who has married across the political divide, my children’s interaction with the monument somewhat mirrored this. The boy traced his fingers over the description and read it out aloud (I’m tempted to say that various long dead great-great-grandfathers of his would have no doubt been proud at this impromptu recital). The girl stood a few strides back with her hands on the hips, observing but not fully engaged.

This was a childlike physical enactment of Mr Thompson’s observation that we need ‘to seek to genuinely understand each other’s perspectives, concerns and expectations’.

Going forward: do we want to trace our fingers over and say aloud the engravings of the other; or are we content to stand two steps back with our hands on our hips? Sinn Fein are keen to speak of open conversations yet are content only when these conversations subscribe to the narrative they dictate.

The DUP believe that to engage in said conversations is tantamount to defeat and resort to reworded centuries old slogans. It is disheartening, though no surprise, when ‘moderate’ positions as articulated in the recent Claire Byrne discussion, are so derided by those who would claim to be open to discourse.

Rather than replay the betrayal, the well-rehearsed fight back rhetoric and then trying to undo what has irrecoverably been done; we should move straight to conversing together to establish creative solutions for the benefit of future generations in our society which Mr Thompson so eloquently articulates.

Andrew McMurray, Alliance councillor Slieve Croob DEA

DUP founding member says he’s questioning the Union

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