Armchair Experts & Keyboard Critics
I’m going to start today with a simple statement:
For the last 40 years, the politicians and government of Northern Ireland have been more concerned with party political in-fighting and trying to calm the terrorist situation than they have about the welfare of Northern Irish citizens.
The person I am quoting is myself. For each of my 29 years, I have watched as Unionist condemns Nationalist condemns Unionist…….ad nauseum. I have witnessed former terrorists and criminals rise to political prominence here, and negotiate the freedom of their fellow murderers. Politicians who have exploited our divided society and built careers around it, who have a vested interest in keeping the people of Northern Ireland at each other’s throats!
Playing Our Part: Breaking The Cycle
On the Internet, there are a number of high-calibre political commentators on Northern Irish politics. Some approach from the Unionist side, others of a Nationalist persuasion. Others, like The Levee Breaks, try to embrace our entire society.
However, we all fall foul of one crucial hurdle: We repeatedly analyse the news and apply our own perspective to it, whether that be Unionist or Nationalist. We rarely bring anything new to the table. We have yet to use our combined intellectual power to come up with something better!
- Let’s stop critiquing the politicians, and amplifying their decades-old arguments.
- Let’s build a framework for Northern Ireland that goes beyond the limited vision our politicians offer, both on the Internet and in real life.
- Let’s rebuild our run-down neighbourhoods and provide opportunities and better education for their residents.
- Let’s tidy up Northern Ireland, and start to attract investment as a great place to do business.
- Let’s find politicians who will represent the whole society and hold the trust and respect of everybody.
- Let’s tackle parades. We need to build tolerance and respect for those who parade. By the same token, the unruly elements must be dealt with.
Activism: Alternative Action
We’ve learned over the last few decades that Northern Irish people are tough. We’ve lived through some terrible times, but we’re still here. We have a unique Northern Irish character that cannot be denied.
Here’s a simple fact: Unionism and Nationalism are incompatible. Accept this and move on. The solution we should be looking for is a stable, independent Northern Ireland that works for everybody. Or, we could have the same arguments over and over again for the next 40 years, letting our children grow up with bigotry and oppression as we did ourselves. You choose.
My Vision For The Future
Let’s stop pushing party politics, either applauding or booing the news depending on whether it’s the DUP or Sinn Fein talking. While these two giants of cultural division are at the forefront of Northern Irish politics, all of us will continue to be second class citizens.
If we start working together, we can heal a number of deep wounds. Let’s concentrate on real issues and improve Northern Ireland for ourselves and future generations. We cannot rely on Unionism or Nationalism to do that for us, because their interest stops at their own communities.
Now is the time to abandon these politicians and demand proper representation. Sinn Fein and the DUP should fade into obscurity. We should start voting for people according to their policies, not according to what flag flies on their billboards.
We can only do so much to ’solve’ Northern Ireland in our lifetimes. Hopefully, if we raise our children in the right way, they’ll grow up without the scars of bigotry and future generations will see the fruits of our initiative.
Nice post Mr Levee. I agree with a lot of what you say.
We repeatedly analyse the news and apply our own perspective to it, whether that be Unionist or Nationalist.
I think the news is part of the problem. When you analyse the news coverage on NI, you’re analysing something that already divides the world of NI according to unionist or nationalist as a matter of course.
Going deeper, most political commentators are hired by newspapers because they hew to a given line and are due to come up with the same goods every week.
Even at an individual level, everything you say gets filtered according to your status as a nationalist or a unionist, or your past status as a nationalist or a unionist.
I agree with Hugh. Mr Levee and I were discussing this the other night and I also commented on the pervasiveness of the mass media and the effect it has on political opinion. Many people do not question what they read in the papers or hear on the news with the result that the media often shape our reality. The media have a pre-conceived notion of what they want to report and how they want it to look so they try to fit news into a pre-arranged box. If events do not fit neatly into the box they will be ignored or downplayed. Northern Ireland is much more complicated than people think or the media portray, not everyone fits neatly into traditional Nationalist/Unionist models.
I would like to see a day when Northern Ireland is not automatically associated with the ?troubles?, where the people here have the opportunity to actually vote for the government that makes decisions which affect their everyday lives. Currently many people are not represented at all at Westminster because they have a Sinn Fein MP and even if their MP is present at Westminster no-one cares about Northern Ireland in British politics as evidenced by the lack of attendance at parliamentary debates on Northern Irish issues. Normal bread and butter politics, the economy, education the NHS are more important to me, and I?m sure to most other people, than whether we get a United Ireland or stay part of the UK. I do not want to vote according to my religion I want to vote on issues that matter to me, I do not want every issue to boil down to the past or partisan party politics. There are issues that span the whole of Northern Irish society, not just one community; we would have more success if we approached such problems with consistency and cohesion. Northern Ireland politics has a long way to go, lets hope we get there in the end.
In no way am I being condesending or patronising, however inspirational articles are rare. Well written well researched well said, Mr Levee. Your suggestions Nos 1 - 6, are indisputable and should become the cornerstone, the founding articles for the new way forward in politics throughout the North and throughout Ireland.
Some of us who have worked on the peace process through the good times and bad, and still are doing it, have known some of the big players had underhand motives while condemning acts of violence they were at times being selective, which fueled sectarian tensions within their communities.
Think about this. Question yourself - I will do likewise. (1) Why is Unionism and Nationalism incompatable? (2)Should we just accept this?
Parnell: I’m touched by your comments - this is a matter which means a lot to me. Nice to see that other people feel the same way.
With regard to Unionism v Nationalism, both groups are seeking unity, but with two entirely different countries! How can this be resolved?
We certainly shouldn’t accept this. We should be seeking out a solution that suits everybody in the province. I believe that solution lies in an independent Northern Ireland with strong trade and cultural links with Ireland and mainland United Kingdom.
“Here?s a simple fact: Unionism and Nationalism are incompatible. Accept this and move on.”
That’s not a ’simple fact’ and I don’t accept that at all. Paramilitarism and democracy are incompatible. If you think unionism and nationalism are incompatible then you may as well urge everyone to take up arms and wipe out the ‘other side’.
“The solution we should be looking for is a stable, independent Northern Ireland that works for everybody.”
A partitionist/unionist argument which nationalists should not and will not accept.
“We?ve learned over the last few decades that Northern Irish people are tough. We?ve lived through some terrible times, but we?re still here. We have a unique Northern Irish character that cannot be denied.”
Another unionist argument. You stated above that “We repeatedly analyse the news and apply our own perspective to it, whether that be Unionist or Nationalist. We rarely bring anything new to the table. We have yet to use our combined intellectual power to come up with something better!” yet it is quite clear that your arguments are decidedly unionist in character and tone.
I would argue that IRISH people are tough as can be evidenced by watching the ALL-IRELAND sporting events pitting IRISHMAN against IRISHMAN.
“Let?s concentrate on real issues and improve Northern Ireland for ourselves and future generations.”
No, let’s instead consign the failed entity of ‘Northern Ireland’ which was founded on sectarianism and giving unionists a majority state, to the past and let’s have a united Irish state which works to provide a society in which unionism and nationalism are compatible as well as respected.
“Hopefully, if we raise our children in the right way, they?ll grow up without the scars of bigotry and future generations will see the fruits of our initiative.”
I think if we raise our children in the right way free of bigotry then they will see no need for a border which is designed to segregate Irish from Irish.
Unity with the 2 countries isn’t what makes the ideologies incompatible. There’s always scope within Unionism for a united Ireland inside the UK. Likewise there’s always the chance of a United Republic of Great Britain and Ireland as well. The incompatible bit is Irish unity and independence.
Not exactly philosophical, but ah well.
I find it odd (though not surprising given some of the other twisted logic that has previously eminated frmo the same source) to hear that an Independent NI is a “unionist” idea, given that independence from the UK would be the very antithesis of Unionism.
Perhaps what you’re suggesting is that those with a unionist disposition are more suited to compromise and flexibility, but I doubt it.
Sorry Beano, who exactly are you addressing with that comment?
The fact that UI disregards an independent NI as “A partitionist/unionist argument which nationalists should not and will not accept.”
It may be partitionist but it hardly strengthens the Union with GB for NI to break away and go it alone.
If (and I don’t think I accept this) it is an idea proposed solely by those of a unionist background, I was speculating as to why that might be, perhaps that ‘unionists’ are more open to compromise over their end goals in the name of accommodation.
But I personally don’t think that either of the statements in the above paragraph is true.
I had been meaning to deal with UI’s comments over the weekend, particularly:
Why does it always have to come to this? What have we learned through 30-40 years of violence?
My answer is to find an alternative ideology in response to the failure of Unionism and Nationalism to represent ALL of the people who live here.
Specifically, UI, try to think outside of the box for once. Not everything in life is black and white.
Northern Society is so deeply divided that quite a lot of people believe they can tell Catholics from Protestants just by looking at them. In fact, they can. But think about this: our grandchildren could find it even easier to tell them apart, because the rate of inter-marriage has gone through the floor in the last generation. This is all by way of emphasizing the practical enormity of the underlying problem, the future of nationalism and how it regards unionism. The historic, hard-core nationalist view is that unionism is a conspiracy by a pro-British minority to use force to defeat democracy and frustrate freedom in Ireland.
Nationalists reckon the logic and morality of their own position is so strong that only dupes or knaves could deny the Irish people?s right to self-determination Nationalists tend to believe it is only Protestants that are sectarian, which is obviously nonsense, but it is true that unionists are much more likely to express their identity in religious terms, while nationalist culture finds expression almost exclusively in political terms. From a unionist perspective, nationalism may seem to stretch from the Falls Road to Cork. In reality, there is no pan-nationalism as a coherent political entity or force consciously opposed to unionism. There is a growing body of evidence that the people of the Republic have little understanding of northern nationalism, and what they understand they don?t like very much. Because northern nationalism is different and that is what the people in the south neither understand nor like.
When the current round of troubles began in 1969, sectarian solidarity completely hijacked the republican movement and tradition, and has held it hostage ever since. Sectarian solidarity has completely redefined and rewritten the history of republicanism, has expunged its anti-sectarian origins, the unity of Orange and Green in peace as symbolised by the tricolour, and redefined republicanism purely in terms of Semtex, Armalite and AK47. Sectarian solidarity is a powerful force it has mobilised the margins brilliantly. However, its success contains certain contradictions, it cannot continue to grow on the basis of sectarian solidarity, because it has optimised mobilisation of the marginal voter base. Secondly ? and this is the really vital one. In thirty years of murder and mayhem, the Provos not only alienated even the most open-minded unionists, they alienated an awful lot of people south of the border too.
By every indicator of unity Nationalism is in a worse place than it was in 1969. Three and a half thousand deaths later, great harm has been done to the united Ireland project. The Brits didn?t do it, the Prods didn?t do it, Dublin didn?t do it. Nobody else did it but the Provos. The message from the people of the Republic is fairly clear: sort yourselves out up there before you even talk to us about unity. 50% plus one won?t do it any more. Nationalism ? all nationalism ? has got to take this aboard.
The conventional wisdom is that the Provos went for a ceasefire in 1994 because they realised they couldn?t win the war. I think they realised something far deeper than that. They realised they were killing soldiers who didn?t want to be here, who were acting on behalf of a British government which didn?t want to be here either. The Provos had spent a quarter of a century and expended a lot of their own blood shooting at a shadow. Then they had to confront something very uncomfortable: the real, permanent British presence in Ireland is not the army or the police, it is made up of a million people who call themselves unionists.
United Irelander has proved my repeatedly declared point that even if you base your opinion on fact you will be accused by those who disagree with you of belonging to ‘the other side’.
Just because Mr Levee is not Nationalist does not mean that he is automatically Unionist, in my opinion this is a cop out, more proof that if you do not agree with someone in Northern Ireland or worse, you do not have the ability to argue with them, you must disparage them in some way by accusing them of having an ulterior motive.
I absolutely agree that Northern Ireland was founded as a sectarian state by Unionists and for Unionists, but wake up and smell the coffee United Irelander. Nobody wants Northern Ireland, and I do not mean as a partitioned state, I mean the actual physical land and people. I can think of no other example of a territorial struggle where neither state involved appears too bothered whether they get the territory or not.
You use language straight from the Republican handbook, many Republicans do nothing but repeat verbatim what they have heard all their lives without questioning the logic of their arguments. You declare
“let?s instead consign the failed entity of ?Northern Ireland? ? to the past and let?s have a united Irish state which works to provide a society in which unionism and nationalism are compatible as well as respected.”
I disagree, instead let us throw out Republican and Unionist rhetoric and remember the people in this ?partitioned? province. Northern Ireland should never have come into existence, you are right, but it did. That is reality, that is life, things happen which we are not always happy with. The secret is to work with what we have.
You say
“I think if we raise our children in the right way free of bigotry then they will see no need for a border which is designed to segregate Irish from Irish.”
You appear to define a person solely by their views on one issue, you seem to have seperate compartments for those who want a United Ireland and those who do not, and everything boils down to partition. Consequently, I think there is little hope of you raising your children free of bigotry.