Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

On 12 February the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister arrived in Belfast. They were full of hope. The British Prime Minister said the agreement would be up and running very soon. The Taoiseach said he was hopeful the two parties could come to an agreement this week. However, people should not count their chickens before they hatch.

The breakdown of these talks is a reflection of, and a product of, sectarian polarisation. The two election campaigns of 2017 were best described by commentators as the mother of all sectarian headcounts, with Sinn Féin and the DUP consolidating their positions as the largest political forces in their respective communities. Both parties have continued to beat the sectarian drum. The most naked reflections of this sectarianism can been seen in the comments of the DUP's Gregory Campbell in defending the erection of Parachute Regiment flags outside Derry in the run-up to the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday massacre, and in the sectarian buffoonery of Sinn Féin's Barry McElduff, whose video on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre caused widespread anger across both communities.

Arlene Foster is partly the victim of her own success. For most, the DUP adopted an increasingly hardline approach on an Irish language Act. In doing so, they stirred up sectarian tensions and fears with unfounded claims, including the claim that the Irish language would become compulsory in all schools. After the DUP had said "Yes", its previous mantra was its undoing as it came under pressure from grassroots Unionism. Sinn Féin also hardened its position in recent months, making little effort to counter provocative proposals from some Irish language activists, including in the press, that street signs in predominantly Protestant areas such as the Shankill and east Belfast should be in Irish and that quotas for Irish language speakers should be introduced for jobs in the public sector.

Socialists support legal protection for the Irish language, Ulster Scots and other minority languages. State funding should be provided to facilitate those who wish to learn and use these languages, as well as funding for the development of the cultural aspects of these traditions, such as literature, music and dance. At the same time, we are opposed to the turning of these issues into sectarian footballs, including the degrading of any language or culture, which happens with both Irish and Ulster Scots.

The leaked version of the document released by journalist Eamonn Mallie is very revealing. It reflects significant compromise by both parties, including by Sinn Féin in dropping its demand that Arlene Foster could not be the First Minister while the RHI inquiry continued. Importantly, on marriage equality, the document states that the parties recognised they both hold different mandated positions on the issue. In other words, Sinn Féin accepted the DUP has a mandate to block marriage equality.

The rights of the LGBT+ community were to be sacrificed on Sinn Féin's altar of pragmatism.

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