The results of the European Parliament election in Northern Ireland showed how transfers help shape the final result. There may only have been three ‘winners’, but their success depended on the support of voters who gave their first preferences to other candidates. Fionnbharr Rodgers recently spoke to independent candidate, Jane Morrice, to learn more about her priorities – and how they can continue to help shape the agenda beyond the election.

Formerly a journalist, Jane Morrice first came to political prominence as a member of the Women’s Coalition. “Reluctant to blow (her) own trumpet”, she describes the WC as “one of many ingredients which brought about the Good Friday Agreement” through the role they played in the Forum elected in 1996.

She later went on to serve as deputy Speaker of the Northern Irish Assembly, and then in 2006 was nominated to represent Northern Ireland on the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels.

Her decision to stand for the European Parliament, the very latest of a long list of elections that we have been faced with and that was never meant to be, reflects Morrice’s passions and all priorities that she has pursued throughout her political career.

Morrice described the election as a “halfway house between an election and a second referendum,” but still voiced her support for a People’s Vote on the final deal on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU as a means of “confirming people’s opinion.” As things stand, the way forward appears to be a binary choice, on which many were muddled to begin with, and many parties still contain a wide spectrum of opinion.

Owing to the “chaos that has ensued” since the 2016 referendum, Morrice was optimistic that there would be “two Remain seats” in Northern Ireland, now occupied by Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson and Alliance’s Naomi Long – thanks, in part, to the role of her first preference transfers. Given her experience in both European and Northern Irish politics, it is fair to say that all three of Northern Ireland’s MEPs would be wise to seek counsel from Morrice’s insights.

But Morrice has been part of the Brexit debate long before standing for election. She launched a petition to grant Northern Ireland honourary EU associate status on Change.org . She also pioneered the White Dove Way project which follows the path of St. Columbanus who set sail from Bangor, Co. Down and journeyed to Italy and across the Alps. The initiative would lay out a ‘Path of Peace’ from Northern Ireland, through Flanders Fields in the west and the Balkans in the east, finishing in Nicosia in Cyprus. The objective is not only to promote peace across the continent, but also to promote Northern Ireland as a “place where we have overcome,” but a place where we still “need to go further.”

She is firm in her belief that Northern Ireland’s place should be in the EU, calling the organisation “instrumental” in the peace process, through obvious factors such as peace programme funding as well as the little recognised importance of its providing a place where “there was no question that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland were both equal members.”

In Brussels and Strasbourg, everyone “from civil servants to Prime Ministers were all rubbing shoulders, getting to know each other,” and the personal relationships that formed as a result were vital in creating a working relationship which was successful in the days of Ahern and Blair. The sight of John Hume and Ian Paisley sitting side-by-side was also an important symbol. As an MLA, Morrice said that she brought politics students to the Stormont canteen so that they could see first-hand how MLAs, who normally scream at each other, actually sit together cordially.

Where the Good Friday Agreement was concerned, Morrice argues that its success lay in bringing an end to violence and creating peace, but she has “always said there’s still a lot to do,” defining the need for reconciliation as the “second stage of implementation of the Agreement.” This is the part which, for her, has not been worked hard enough at, and which “Brexit has exacerbated.”

Morrice is chiefly concerned with how Brexit is now causing to serve tension among people who hold different views. More than ever there is a need for greater understanding, cross-border initiative, and greater exchange. Key to bringing about reconciliation, she says, is integrated education, which is referenced in the Agreement in part thanks to her role in one of the drafting teams.

Speaking of the current impasse, she said that it will be very difficult for the parties to go back to Stormont as no wants to “take ownership of Brexit,” an issue that will dominate the political agenda for the foreseeable future.

The concurrent theme of Morrice’s comments is that there is always more to be done, which was also the ethos of the Women’s Coalition: “not just to focus on results, and main achievements, but the need to build on the success and promote efforts in remaining areas.” There’s a role for everyone to play.