Dorothy Rowe

On May 8, 2007, Jane Wheatley, a journalist at the Times, phoned me with the request to talk to her about Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness. That very day Paisley and McGuinness, sworn enemies for thirty years, were to take their places at the Northern Ireland Assembly as First and Deputy Minister. Jane had been given the task of writnig an article about these two men. Another journalist at the Times had told Jane that I knew a good deal about Northern Ireland. So I talked to Jane and the next day, when her article was published, I found that she had reported me at some length. I feel it is appropriate to put Jane's article under 'I was thinking . . .'

From

May 9, 2007

Ulster: the tension behind the laughter

They are like two siblings redirecting an endless quarrel at

mummy

In the weeks leading up to yesterday's historic Northern Ireland Asssembly, observers have marvelled at thespectacle of a love-in between Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley, calling it "the most unlikely pairing ever" and "a scarcely believable coalition" as the two - enemies over 40 years - prepare to run the province together.

Old enmities were fore gone - though not forgiven or forgotten - as the barracking, bellowing Unionist and theformer IRA terrorist conducted a news conference together "joking, joshing and exuding large amounts oftwinkling geniality".

While most of us shake our heads in amazement, the psychologist Dorothy Rowe has a simple explanation:McGuinness and Paisley are behaving like two quarrelling siblings who have suddenly decided to gang up together against their parents - in this case the British Government embodied by Gordon Brown and the Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain.

"In adult relationships we're often still using ideas we developed in dealing with our siblings," she says. "And if you look at the terrible conflicts in the world, the ones that are the bitterest and hardest to reconcile are between tribes or nations that are siblings in a genetic sense. The Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland share the same DNA - they've intermingled for hundreds of years - just as the Israelis and Palestinians are genetically indistinguishable."

In the Dorothy Rowe paradigm - one she has expounded over the years in her books, Friends and Enemies and My Dearest Enemy, My Dangerous Friend - Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists have for decades reenacted the sibling scenario in which there is a good child and a bad child. "All of us are familiar with that one," she says. "In the case of Northern Ireland, the Catholic is the bad child, the Protestant the good child and Great Britain is the parent. Ian Paisley, of course, has always played the good child - 'Daddy really approves of me' - or Mummy when Margaret Thatcher was in power, while McGuinness has been corralled in the role of bad child, and we all know how difficult it is to escape these roles, however much we might like to."

But, says Rowe, most of us also remember the thrill of briefly setting aside our differences to gang up on our parents which, she claims, is exactly what the two combatants are doing now - "And what a pity they didn't think about this a long time ago." It's an old scenario, she says. " 'If Daddy won't do what we want him to do, then we won't do what he wants.' That gives them a lot of power." Thus Paisley and McGuinness join forces to put pressure on the British Government to come up with more money for the new Assembly, threatening to boycott yesterday's celebrations if they didn't. "Have your little pantomime on Tuesday," mocked Paisley. "But we'll not be there." Ian Paisley, the scowling, lip-jutting naysayer, has consistently spurned compromise. "I'll not be changing - I'll go to my grave with the convictions I have" is typical of his rhetoric. Asked if he could reasonably ignore Sinn Fein, he said: "I am entitled to ignore murderers." So why change now?

"Paisley is 80," says Rowe. "Those people who make it through their seventies have learnt to become calmer.You see very clearly the things that matter and are worth working for, but you can't be bothered with all the angst that goes with it. I would guess that Paisley has got to this stage. He's smiling now. You never saw that in the past."

And McGuinness? What brought the violent street fighter, scourge of the British Army in Belfast, to a seat at thetop table? "People change," says Rowe. "Israeli terrorists became government ministers; Mandela wasconsidered a terrorist, now he's a saint." McGuinness is an extrovert, says Rowe. "He's a people person, unlike Gerry Adams. They both knew that if anyone could charm Paisley - the introvert Presbyterian who is always so sure he is right - then it had to be McGuinness."

Steven King, of the Policy Exchange think-tank and a former adviser to David Trimble, agrees. "McGuinness ismuch easier to deal with than Adams. He's more of a real person. It must be very disturbing for the grassroots

DUP to see pictures of him and Paisley laughing together."

Has Paisley been seduced by McGuinness? "Paisley, for all his rhetoric, has always been able to connect with the human side," says King. "He is respected for that. And, anyway, he feels he has the upper hand because he is the First Minister and McGuinness is his deputy - even though in reality they are joined at the hip. Nothing can come out of that office unless both men put their names to it." King believes that it is in McGuinness's interest to show Sinn Fein's "most reasonable face" while the party is fighting an election in the Irish Republic. "They want to be seen as a party that is mature and responsible enough to be in power. It remains to be seen how McGuinness plays it once the election is over."

To return to Rowe's image of warring siblings, it should be noted that when children want to make up, they agree pax. But sometimes one person has their fingers crossed.

Jane Wheatley