You’re probably familiar with the notion of a hierarchy of victims. But did you know there’s hierarchy of assailants? It’s not organic – that’s to say, it isn’t a natural part of the assailant world. It gets pasted on.
This struck me between the eyes as I read a recent report in a paper south of the border which reported on the trial and imprisonment of Nathan Hastings. Under the heading of ‘Derry dissident who once had ambitions to go to university’, we’re told how Hastings had been an A Level student at St Columb’s College, Derry (my alma mater, as it happens) where he’d studied Religion, English Literature and Politics, and had plans to go to university. We’re told that Peter Sheridan, top man in Co-operation Ireland (don’t want to get diverted but I wonder how Peter feels about the excellent Dissolving Boundaries project involving young people north and south linking electronically. At the end of last month it was let go down the plug-hole without a gurgle of dissent from anyone.)…Where was I? Oh yes. Peter Sheridan, we’re told, knows the Hastings family in Derry from the time when he worked as a senior PSNI man there. Peter found the Hasting family to be “a well-regarded, mainly moderate nationalist family”. Nathan’s granda is an SDLP councillor in Derry.
You see the line? This young man comes from a good middle-class home with ‘moderate’ politics. The lad has been led astray by a group of thugs who don’t come from ‘well-regarded” families. Mr Sheridan urges young Nathan to “keep away from the influence of dissident people”.
While it’s perfectly reasonable to urge a young man to abandon futile violence in the name of Ireland, there is a strong sense that his respectable background is what makes him a decent young lad at heart. Mr Hastings may very well be a decent lad at heart, but the fact that his family is “well-regarded” or that his granda is an SDLP councillor has nothing to do with his virtue or vice, guilt or innocence. If he had come from a working-class estate, would his case have got such a full report? Would Peter Sheridan think it worth his while to urge a working-class lad convicted of the same crime to keep away from dissidents in prison? Would there be up-beat talk of how, although given a 5-year sentence, he’ll be out of prison inside a shorter period owing to his 17 months on remand, and be able to pick up on a normal life?
In a moment of madness (or one of their moments of madness) the Ulster Unionists had an election slogan: “Decent people vote for the Ulster Unionist Party”. Powerful word, that ‘decent’. Full of connotations. As is the case of young Nathan – the former PSNI big-wig speaks up for and advises him, as does his grandfather the SDLP councillor who “who harangued local dissidents during an early hearing in Derry of his grandson’s case”.
I’d stress again in case someone nodded off a paragraph or two ago: it’s natural that a grandfather would want to help his grandson if he’s in any kind of trouble, and it’s commendable that the head of Co-operation Ireland should take time out to speak of the convicted man’s highly-regarded family.
But whereas other dissenting republicans would be dismissed as violent and dangerous thugs, this particular one is depicted as a lamb fallen among wolves.
Can a working-class family be “respectable” and “well-regarded”? Might a son of such a family hope for the sympathetic words from the former PSNI man, should he be convicted of dissident republican activity?
It’s a common tendency in our media: to equate virtue and decency to members of their own class, while dismissing those in possession of fewer worldly goods as vicious and dangerous. What party your granda belongs to or what kind of family friends you have shouldn’t affect the facts of the case. But it does, Virginia. It really does.
‘I kenned your faither’ usually has the reverse connotation here when applied to somebody who is perceived to be over-aspirational.
Poor little Nathan Hastings led astray by the bad men! I have no idea of the point behind the above blog. This is a statement Hastings made four years ago,
“It’s not so much supporting the armed struggle, but realising it is inevitable that after 800 years of British occupation every generation rises up and fights back, no matter how many people have bowed their knee, no matter how many popes or clergy have begged , no matter how many protests; it just happens, it is inevitable.”
Hardly the statement of a boy without a mind of his own as he stands staring admirably at Gary Donnelly. With Peter Sheridan’s background, he presents a very naive view of things, I’m sure a quick period of research could produce any amount of families who would have a law abiding background and have managed to produce a ‘wrong one.’ Hastings became involved in terrorism with his eyes wide open, the blog even states he was an intelligent lad, so I don’t really get what Sheridan was trying to say.
Many in the SDLP regard SF members and supporters as “corner boys”.I remember canvassing an SDLP house one time and the woman occupant asked me my name.I duly gave it and she replied “oh,you should have been decent !” ( meaning what the hell are you doing tagging along with these “ner do wells”? !)
Hi Jude …I’ve tussled with this “class” thing several times but no one picks up on it .What does it even mean anymore? Better than that …who makes it all up and decides what these little compartments mean and who goes into them . A first class train ticket is one thing , right? Then there’s maybe a second class one . Each ticket might buy some kind of little privilege… or not…a little extra comfort or a better service with afew wee perks. What does that mean though , if anyone with a few readies in their pocket can buy a ticket . These days , a good plumber can make as much money and more than a mediocre salesman or maybe a school teacher. He may or may not be able to talk and discuss nuclear physics but he can earn the money that can buy himself lots of material goods. He can buy that first class ticket…What “class” is he in now?
What about the son or daughter of a doctor who have gleaned a university education but who can’t get a job …They’re not even in the job market , so they’re not even “working class”.
Do you see what i’m getting at? I think we’re living in a new world order where people are going to be judged by a whole new set of rules. There are no top -hatted “gents” living in big houses and cloth-capped miners getting their backs scrubbed in a tin bath anymore. There are people who will never ….ever ..begin to work ….ever. A “classless” life, then?
As for politics and joining violent groups .Well each of us is blown about by a series of influences , especially when we’re young …so we can’t be our brother’s keeper. If someone from any background, in this present climate, thinks that joining a violent group will somehow “free Ireland”..he mustn’t have been following this game over the past forty years….over the past hundred years , even.. Anyone can see how much life was lost , how communities were destroyed and how we’ve ended up with huge mental and physical walls seperating us. How is more violence going to change any of that and unite Ireland?
When i see a young ,smug lad of twenty one , leaving court , waving to his “friends” and “supporters” as he is sentenced to long years in prison for being caught up in some “revolutionary scheme”, I just think of him crying, alone as his five or ten summers roll by .While his five or ten Christmases roll by . The best years of his life …even though he may not know it …all drip dripping away , day by day …all sliding down a grubby drain …while outside …everyone else gets on with the important things of life …Listening to the birds singing in the springtime …breathing in that fresh, perfumed air ..sharing a drink with a girl on a summer’s afternoon …lying asleep in a comfortable bed..seeing some fabulous European city .. Ireland will roll along on the outside without any help from him…and nobody’ll really give a damn, if the truth be told.
So what “class” can a young, gormless ,barely adult fellow really inhabit . He may have finished his schooling and knows a few academic tricks but has never worked. ? How much real sense can he really have at an age where his stupid hormones are pulling him all over the place.A time of his life where he’s fair game for any kind of influence . “Class”..whatever it means , has little to do with it. We’ve seen the sons and daughters of the rich and famous getting themselves into all sorts of bother .. getting arrested for demonstrating about foxhunting or dying from taking the wrong drugs……and you might say their backgrounds are privileged. I don’t even know what “class” someone in the public eye might be . Are they also a new “class” too?..So what “class” is a young man coming out of prison after ten years?
Sinn Fein swallowed up all of the SDLP’ s voters in the past few elections . Does that mean that they are now a “middle -class “party, as opposed to a “working class “party .After all, the SDLP was seen as a middle- class party , and those voters are the very same people who have just made a new choice. this time..
Jude, It’s part of the class prejudice which was so much part of your and miy adolescence. Now that everyone had the chance of second and third level education, there had to be some way of distinguishing the good and worthy from the rest. So, a way ofcontinuing the prejudice was by labelling republicans who were by and large working class as scum. This , mind you, was coming from those who still encouraged and fostered the basest of sectarian Catholic attitudes towards Protestant. They haven’t been able to keep it up successfully, because republicanism straddles the previous class divide.
Interesting discussion which raises the bigger issue of leadership across the local political divide towards a shared vision of the future that can inspire our young rather than the continuous point scoring manifested by both our politicians and commentators.
“encouraged and fostered the basest of sectarian Catholic attitudes towards Protestant.”
Would that include calling Protestants “bigoted sectarian gerrymandering and Catholic hating” Pat? Because that is what they were (and to a large extent still are). Or we’re you thinking of something else”?
Ah Larry, what a terrible statement that really sums you up. It is a constant within the catholic nationalist republican community to point the finger elsewhere, as they have problems seeing past the motes in their own eyes
Hi Larry,
I got the impression that Larry was to referring to the great and the good of the Catholic Fraternity (the clergy class).
I think most people would disagree that all Protestants would fall inside the category which you describe above.
I would describe “class” as a state of mind ,not an income bracket.I have seen people from a private housing estate near my local polling station coming out in their droves to vote SF.They would virtually all stop and engage with the SF party workers,asking for sample ballots and wishing the local candidate all the best.By many indicators they could be described as “middle class” but would never describe themselves as such.They are overwhelmingly the sons and daughters of working people and never forget where they came from.
Jude you really should check out the facts before you put finger to keyboard.
You stated in regards to Nathan Hastings, that…”This young man comes from a good middle-class home with ‘moderate’ politics”…. And…. “If he had come from a working-class estate, would his case have got such a full report?”
All the reports gave his address as Stradowen Drive, Strathfoyle which is on the outskirts of Derry on the road to Limavady. Strathfoyle is as working class as the Creggan or the Bogside and in fact, because it is outside the city, it was often used to rehouse undesirables after PIRA had ordered them to leave these and other areas.
Mention Middle Class in Strathfoyle and they’d think you were talking about the local school.
Dixie – I’ll come out with my hands up and stand corrected. I should as you say have checked the man’s background. Tå bron orm. ..That said, I’d still say the general point needs examination – our tendency to judge those from the middle class, whether victim or assailant, in a different light from those who come from the working class. Education relates to this – thosen who pass the 11+/Entrance exam are disproportionately from the m/c; if they’re not, education sets them on a path to joining the m/c. And cases involving such people get disproportionate attention. But again, mea culpa and thanks for pointing out my error.
Jude,
Far be it from me to correct you, but Hastings does indeed hail from a working-class estate, and his family are certainly rooted in the working-class, if there is such a thing.
You’re quite correct Noel and I’ve already accepted my total, complete error. Mea maxima culpa. I would, however, maintain my general point. (See response to another comment)
Ah, I see Dixie Elliot has beaten me to it!