Chai Brady
Fr Martin Magill Tensions in relation to the so-called Northern Ireland protocol must be handled with “wise leadership” from politicians with a view to making it work, a Belfast priest has warned.
Fr Martin Magill PP told The Irish Catholic that although the vast majority of his West Belfast parishioners and himself would have been against Brexit there’s a need to “get on with it”.
He said: “I think this is where cool heads come in, we need wise leadership from our political leaders at this stage to try and work through this. We are where we are with this, there’s no point in living in the past.
“What I’m certainly picking up is that obviously there are concerns for those who are directly impacted by it, the likes of those involved in bringing things in to Northern Ireland. What I’m also seeing is that there seems to be a real desire to work through the issues and make the Northern Ireland protocol actually work. I suppose that’s the most important thing at this stage,” he said.
His comments come as members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are threatening to bring down the region’s power-sharing executive if the protocol is not abandoned.
Assembly member Jonathan Buckley said that collapsing the Stormont administration was “on the table” as an option describing the protocol as an “unmitigated disaster”.
Fr Magill warned that “small things can very easily get out of control.”
He said the DUP were obviously in favour of Brexit, but when it comes to the “common good” people need to look “beyond our own particular interests or what we would see as our section of the community”.
“Politicians really have such a responsibility that they don’t add to division. By all means of course argue things politically. [But] they’ve got to be concerned about the impact of words, in particular the impact politicians’ words can have on their supporters and members of their wider party,” he said.
“I don’t like the idea of splitting Northern Ireland into this community or that community or the other community. I would much prefer to see it as one community with different sections which are one family but different members of the family.”
However, he said there is a real concern regarding potential job losses and there is a “worry” among parishioners as to what the future may hold.
Fr Magill is one of the founders of the 4 Corners Festival which promotes peace and cross community engagement in Belfast.