Sex, money and power threaten peace in Northern Ireland

Jan 11, 2010, 19:46 GMT

   London - Sex, power, money, corruption and religion - the scandal that is threatening the collapse of the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland seems to have it all.

   At the centre of the melodrama currently being played out in the troublesome British province is Iris Robinson, 60, the attractive wife of devolved government leader Peter Robinson, 61.

Until her bombshell admission of an extra-marital affair and financial entanglement with a baby-faced 19-year-old lover last week, Iris Robinson had been the female contingent of Northern Ireland's premier power couple.

   The flamboyant redhead was widely seen as the 'power behind the throne' in the rise to the top of her husband of 40 years - who took over the reins of power from Protestant veteran leader Ian Paisley in July, 2008.

In a surprise move Monday, Robinson announced that he would use a legal provision allowing him to step down from his post for six weeks, during which he would fight to clear his name and look after his wife, who was receiving 'acute psychiatric treatment.'

Like her husband, a trained lawyer and astute political strategist, Iris Robinson had a thriving career in her own right in the mainstream Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

   She was elected councillor for the DUP for the first time in 1989, proceeded to become Northern Ireland's first female borough mayor and won a seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly (devolved parliament) and the House of Commons in London in 1998.

   Ten years later, in a move some commentators have blamed on marital strains, Iris Robinson started a passionate sexual relationship with Kirk McCambley, the son of close friend who had died.

   In the course of the affair, which Robinson said she started out of pity for McCambley's bereavement, she proceeded to raise a loan of 50,000 pounds (80,000 dollars) from wealthy property developers to help set up a cafe for her lover.

   Robinson tried to take her own life when she admitted her affair to him in March, 2009, her husband has said.

   She had stirred controversy before in deeply conservative and religious Northern Ireland when, in 2008, she described homosexuality as an 'abomination' and suggested that, 'with help', gay people could be 'turned around.'

   Ironically, as a result of the exposure of the now-ended affair, her cherub-faced lover has assumed the status of a gay icon, attracting much attention from magazines and websites, reports said.

   In addition to her failure to report the financial dealings to the parliamentary authorities, suspicion has focused on whether, and how much, Peter Robinson knew about his wife's financial dealings.

   Among those calling for Robinson to resign as First Minister was David Trimble, his one-time predecessor and joint winner of the 1998 Peace Nobel Prize for his role in negotiating the Northern Ireland Peace Agreement signed earlier that year.

   Robinson had lost 'all authority within the party and the system,' Trimble said.

   Political analysts have pointed out, however, that much more than a spicy extra-marital affair lies behind the demise of Northern Ireland' leading husband and wife team.

   'The brutal fact is that we were heading for a dangerous political crisis in Northern Ireland even before the Robinson revelations,' Paul Bew, professor of Irish politics at Queen's University, Belfast, wrote in the Times Monday.

   Opposition and suspicion towards the power-sharing arrangement between the Protestant DUP and the Republican-Catholic Sinn Fein Party, led by Gerry Adams, remains deep-seated in a province whose history of violence is rooted in religious rivalry.

   The lingering doubts and mutual lack of trust in the process of reconciliation has recently been best exemplified by the ongoing difficulties over the transfer of police and judicial powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly from the Westminster parliament in London.

   Robinson, faced with steep opposition from within his party against the power transfer - the final step in the full implementation of the peace accord - has refused to agree to the transfer during months of wrangling over the vexed issue.

   A substantial part of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland still viewed as a 'nightmare scenario' the prospect that Sinn Fein could gain influence on security policy while Republican splinter groups continued their terrorist campaign on the streets, wrote Bew.

   But Adams, whose deputy Martin McGuinness is co-leader of the regional government, has warned the province's politicians not to risk the collapse of the power-sharing deal in the wake of the Robinson affair.

   'This is not about the Robinsons' private family matters. It is about implementing outstanding political agreements that are essential to good government and public confidence,' Adams said.