‘There is Nothing Politically Right that is Morally Wrong’? Beyond Realism and Idealism in the Northern Ireland Peace Process

Abstract

Deception has played an important role in advancing the Northern Ireland peace process. This article discusses the morality of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's deception to secure a ‘Yes’ vote during the referendum campaign on the Good Friday Agreement 1998. The British Prime Minister misled Northern Irish public opinion by stating that the IRA would have to decommission before either republican prisoners were released or Sinn Féin entered government. This article explores the morality of Blair's deception from a variety of perspectives combining nationalist and unionist positions with realist and idealist approaches to deception. The idealist argues that morality does and should play an important role in politics. The realist approach, by contrast, argues that morality is not, and should not be, influential on politics. A ‘democratic realist’ argument is advanced in this article, which takes from idealism: the inevitability of morality in politics, a commitment to deepen democracy and concern about the corrosive impact of deception. From realism it takes: its ability to unmask power and hypocrisy, its critique of anti-political fundamentalist idealism and moralism, and an acceptance of the inevitability of deception.