it 'unacceptable level' Threshold of toleranc Date: Monday 16. June 2014 Page: 4,5 Circulation: Size: 1477 (NIC-825) Page 1 of 6

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1 (NIC-825) Page 1 of 6 Threshold of toleranc it 'unacceptable level'

2 (NIC-825) Page 2 of 6 As a week of events celebrating reconciliation gets under way Community Relations Council chairman Peter Osborne tells political reporter John Manley that the need for peace-building resources - as well as political consensus - is greater than ever ADDY, why is that man pointing a gun at us? asked Peter Osborne's young son as they recently drove through east Belfast. The 49-year-old father-of-one was startled and turned to look down the barrel of a gun brandished by a masked UVF man. It was only a mural on a gable wall along one of the city's main routes but for the Community Relations Council (CRC) chairman such sights must be doubly dispiriting. Beyond his immediate parental concern, images glorifying gunmen serve as a reminder that there is still some way to go before society in the north is anywhere near normal. Mr Osborne believes such displays show that the collective "threshold of tolerance" has been lowered to an unacceptable level. "How can we tolerate murals of masked men pointing guns at people?" more ambitious and potentially has a much more instructive outcome in relation to young people treating each other as equals without so he asks. much as a second thought," he says. "It's unlawful, intimidating, criminal To illustrate the possibilities for damage and trespass." a shared future in Northern Ireland He is equally dismayed by the acceptance he points to Martin Luther King's 'I in some areas of flags on lampposts, pointing out that the vast majority of people - both Catholic and Protestant - do not agree with such displays. According to Mr Osborne the lack Have a Dream' speech and how less them 50 years later the US elected its first black president. "When we talk about a shared future it's not a question, it's a statement of fact," he says. of progress in addressing the proliferation "The question is how eire we going of flags, particularly in loyalist areas, is due to political failure. He believes the 2005 flags protocol, which was formulated with input from government agencies and the political parties, forms the basis of a resolution. to achieving the goal of a shared future, However, implementing and enforcing according to Mr Osborne, is a the agreed standards requires lack of resources for peace-building. a political consensus that He notes how the amount CRC does not yet exist. spends every year on promoting Nevertheless, he describes agreement good relations is 2 million on flags as one of the "low - or per cent of regional hanging fruits" for those involved in completing the Haass process. 4 Where there The CRC chairman insists that he is a doesn't want to make public spaces lack of political "neutral and sterile" but that it is unacceptable for flags to be used to consensus the intimidate and mark out territory. Despite recent statements from the PSNI about the erection of flags, Mr Osborne believes responsibility for addressing the problem lies with Stormont. "The police are invidious position yet again and they are in that position because of the lack of political consensus," he says. "What we find in situations where there is a lack of political consensus is that the police then become the human shock absorbers." The flags issue is one of the many symptoms of division that Mr Osborne has spent much of his adult life working to overcome. Although spurning the label 'veteran of community relations', he has been in volved in peace-building work for more them two decades. He assumed the role as chair of CRC in January after nine years with the Parades Commission, the last three of which he was chairman. Raised on the loyalist Ballybeen estate in east Belfast, he first encountered "people from the other community" aged 18 when he went to university. Mr Osborne believes his own experience was far from conducive to building respect between traditions, which is why he is such a strong advocate of integrated education. He welcomes recent moves towards promoting shared education but would prefer a greater focus on full integration in the classroom. "I think [integrated education] is to share it and I believe we will share it best if we can integrate and have the kind of interaction that will develop understanding, relationships and trust." Arguably the greatest impediment police become human shock absorbers - Peter Osborne public expenditure. He describes the figure as "minuscule" in comparison to other spending, yet cites the findings of the recent Life and Times survey as an indication that the need for resourcing reconciliation has never been greater.

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4 (NIC-825) Page 4 of 6 The research published last week showed, among other things, how young Protestants were becoming more entrenched in their views about the flying of the Union flag. "While we can concentrate on health, eduction and job creation and these eire important - we won't get to a place where we have really sustainable, quality jobs unless we sort out community relations and tensions that affect people," he says. "We need to reprioritise in some ways the support and resourcing of this work which at the minute is being done by many on a hand-tomouth basis." He welcomes the ambition of last year's Together - Building A United Community (T-BUC) strategy from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but argues the resourcing is coming from." that if targets are not matched with Despite his criticisms over funding, funding then the outcome will be Mr Osborne is keen to give politicians failure. credit where it is due. He This is best illustrated in the T-BUC believes there has been significant 4 It can be counterproductive to raise expectations that pledge to remove peacelines across political progress over the past decade-and-a-half Belfast by but feels the peace the barriers will The CRC chairman believes it's an process has ebbed in recent years be taken down admirable aspiration but he has no and requires some positive developments idea where the funding will come to enable it to flow again. without actually from to undertake the necessary "There's a big onus on politicians "complex, difficult and challenging to get something out of these talks being clear where work". and I believe there are opportunities the resourcing is "It's a target - it's an ambitious for them to get that," he says. target - but to be a strategy it needs "It may not be whole agreement, coming from to indicate how in terms of processes it may not be everything we want at and resources it will make this stage but let's seize what we can - Peter Osborne those things happen and I don't see and move forward more positively that properly addressed within the than we have in these last couple of political institutions are in place, a T-BUC strategy or what I'm hearing years." need exists to "deepen and embed" from government at the minute," he Borrowing a phrase from Winston the reconciliation process within says. Churchill, he says we are at the "end civil society to take the peace process "In some ways it can be counter-productive of the beginning" of the peace process forward to the next stage. to raise expectations and that the north is in a much "There are no quick fixes - this will that the barriers will be taken down better place than it was. take decades," he says. without actually being clear where However, he argues that while the "We could be dealing with these is-

5 (NIC-825) Page 5 of 6 ROLE: Community Relations Council chairman Peter Osborne PICTURE: Bill Smyth ISSUE: Clockwise from left: a tourist bus passes the bestknown peace wall in Belfast at Cupar Way, listed on travel websites as one of the 'must see' places for visitors to the city; an unusual peace wall, thought to be the only one of its kind in Europe, runs through the middle of Alexander Park in north Belfast; a tourist poses for a picture at the peace wall at Cupar Way; a large peace wall along the Springmartin Road in west Belfast PICTURES: Cliff Dld

6 (NIC-825) Page 6 of 6 sues for another 20, 30, 50 years as we embed and get to a properly reconciled society." On his previous role as chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Osborne appears largely satisfied and believes the issue of parading was advanced during what he describes cis a "difficult period". He says that as in every aspect of life there are things he may have done differently but says "by and large we got things right and took the issue forward all across Northern Ireland". Where disputes over parades are outstanding, he argues for the need for dialogue and local agreement, but says both sides need a genuine motivation to reach agreement along with trust and leadership. "Where those components are missing you won't get resolution," he says. Cliff *- Events > P6