“Nation building is a bloody hard business” the former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating once said. How do we scope out a plan and narrative for creating essentially something that has never really existed and that is an independent 32 County Irish State.
In front of anybody who is interested in this idea there is literally a blank sheet of paper and since the partition of the country leaders have engaged in making notes in the margins, a few thought bubbles and writing down the numerous terms that republicans give to that entity officially called “Northern Ireland.”
Whilst it is tempting to luxuriate in this cul de sac of nome culture and fighting old battles there is a real opportunity to be seized here if we just dare to plan for something different.
As we approach 2016, republicans will no doubt look back and think about the sacrifice made by those who fought in the 1916 rising nearly a century ago. But I wonder is this not also an opportune time to reflect on where we might want republicanism to go in the next century?
How do we renew and reinvigorate an idea that has been part of our national discourse for a century? How do we place traditional values of liberty, fraternity and equality in a modern setting?
Questions such as this have been on my mind for a while.
When we look back we can get hypnotised by notions of victory and defeat. We can forget that by placing so much emphasis on our past, we can forget where we are in the present and the opportunities that are right in front of us.
We have a real opportunity to not only construct a new Ireland but also an entirely different concept of Irish republicanism. We can construct a policy platform that pays tribute to the values of 1916, but deals with modern circumstances.
It should be the task of modern day republicanism to put an end to empty rhetoric which serves no useful purpose. In essence the task of republicans a century ago was achieving independence from Britain, but the task today for my generation is how we not only unify Ireland North & South, but also how we the end deep polarization in our society.
The values of liberty, fraternity and equality that defined republicanism in the past have to become about reconciliation, rebuilding and renewal in 2015.
How we unify and resist the temptations of playing one section of Irish people off against the other will be key for us going forward. Keeping our eyes firmly focused on policies that can rebuild communities across our country will keep our ideals relevant to a wider electorate and a national renewal is the ultimate reward for these efforts.
Republicans have to show that when we say one nation, one people, we really mean it. There cannot be any ducking the challenges or looking backwards. The task for all parties in 2016 is not repeating the values of the Rising but renewing them and making them relevant for a modern Ireland.
Making republicanism relevant again is the single greatest task facing this generation. There is a real future out there waiting us underpinned by those values of reconciliation, rebuilding and renewal if we are brave enough and smart enough to do the hard yards now. As Keating said nation building is hard work, so, if you really want this, my final question is what are we waiting for?
David McCann is Deputy Editor of Slugger O’Toole
Hear hear! Well said David! It’s time to grasp the nettle.
A very fine post – Valuing the past while offering the possibility of a better future. I’ve been better at looking back than looking forward, a foolish habit.
The first thing you could do David about “making republicanism relevant again” is to have a word in the ear of your boss at Slugger OTool .His anti SF obsession has become tiresome and his reaction to anyone questioning his obsession is to ban them.
What exactly does ‘Republicans have to show that when we say one nation, one people, we really mean it.’ And the phrase ‘one nation, one people’ has uncomfortable echoes of ‘ein volk, ein reich’. So what exactly does ‘one nation, one people mean’? I seriously would like to see this defined by David McCann.
Hi David,thank you for an interesting post. Can I say, first of all, that your offering is very strong on aspiration, but seems to fall down on any suggestions or means to achievement.
It would be interesting if you could point to some concrete proposals which might further the aims outlined in your post.
I would have thought that all the heavy lifting has been done, so far, by those of a republican persuasion. There seems to be little appetite in the unionist camp for any attempt at reaproachment. However population changes may cause that attitude to change in the future.
One nation, for those that want it.
Chasing unionist buy in is an absolute waste of time & should not be allowed to dilute the ideals & successes of the republic.
Surely the ideal of a republic must include Unionists as a dissenting voice.
We will never have a successful (ie peaceful) republic if you do not bring them along somehow.
In a republic, unionists will be guaranteed the same rights as any other Irish citizen.
They’re not interested. It’s time to stop running after them and get on with the task at hand. If at some point in the future they want in, then we can have a fruitful conversation. Until then you are just wasting your time & energies.
gendjinn
What does that mean “if they want in”? Its all in or none.
If you have a difficult toddler when you are going on a family holiday, you can’t just leave him at the airport.You have to find a way to get him on that plane, or nobody goes anywhere.
There you have it from gendjinn in one and that is the core problem of republicanism Unionism exists and will continue to exist long into the future t ignore us is to ignore the elephant in the room.
Neill,
how can one ignore unionists when we have thousands of marching feet and pounding drums to remind us of their existence ?
neil, had this conversation with unionists before. The changes unionists demand of the republic to gain a UI are not acceptable. They are inimical to the ideals and successes of the state.
And that’s only from the infinitesimally small number of unionists that will even consider the proposition.
Why should I, or anyone else, continue to piss away time & effort in such a fruitless and doomed task when getting on with re-unification is a far more rewarding task that will ultimately succeed.
“There is a real future out there waiting us underpinned by those values of reconciliation, rebuilding and renewal if we are brave enough and smart enough to do the hard yards now.” Or maybe there is not. Perhaps the hardest work is to envision and prepare for a future where the outcome you have tirelessly worked for does not come to fruition.
An Ireland of change and progress is where the ideals of Republicanism as espoused in the enlightenment is certainly achievable but certain potent obstacles stand in the way of such a vision. Also the definition of what this vision would mean for the empowerment of all our communities at a grassroots is arguably the most significant of potential developments that needs imagination and effort to attain. I agree with James that almost all the heavy lifting has been done by SF and progressive in the nationalist constituency, which presents a problem,-when do we draw the line with the Orange Order and Regressives within the Unionist camp and say their veto which fosters and perpetuates a Right-wing ethos with overt sectarianism cannot be allowed to endure. The regressive Billy Hutchinson glad of his Sectarian Murders, or Jim (community worker) Wilsons, the in panorama photo shoots with Nesbitt, Robinson, Chissick and UVF drug dealers in Camp Twaddel mode discussing their ‘graduated responses’, are not showing anything but a propensity to wind the clocks back….how far do we move to accommodate such a backwoodsmen mentality into our progressive vision? The PSNI might start by rounding up the UVF death dealers in the east of the city and perhaps arresting Hutchinson for inciting hatred with his retrospective celebration of his Murders to the impressionable UVF newbies filling the ranks and harassing the immigrants. Complicity in this KKK conglomeration could be extended to the righteous Orange Order for allowing the UVF to bear the purple standard at the Forlorn Hope of the twelfth parade in Belfast, A significant and respectable honour among scoundrels. Nesbitt could be questioned also about his endorsement through presence with silence at the Loyal Orders denunciation of Gays, a thing that certainly leads to violence further down the food chain. The tail wagging the dog, but what a wag.
I suggest proscriptions’ should be imposed on all OO representatives promoting hate and sectarianism,- but then again I’m a liberal. The PSNI should face down their drug dealing accomplices instead of wining and dining them before paying them off to not attempt pograms while too many international cameras are tuning in.
Hitler was brought in from the cold, then set fire to the place. This regressive corporation of thugs, Right-wing militants, Tories, drug dealers, homophobes, xenophobes have no leadership and are steered by the Nelson Mc Causelands and Thatcherite Sammy Wilson on this good ship Titanic, which is why friends of mine from a unionist/protestant background are quietly switching their allegiance to SF where possible(that is the ones who haven’t despaired of progress being possible), to stick their heads above the parapet us to have your coffee pissed in by DUP evangelicals(then Pipe Bombed) as in the case of the brave Billy Leonard on Coleraine council(an ex lol turncoat with the temerity to endorse the ethos of the United Irishmen…
Sometimes change when thwarted from above by despicable leadership, or stifled below by drug dealing gangs with a pax between the two poles, sometimes change must be effected over some peoples heads. Two hundred plus years since those noble ideals you cite, and we have regression to ever louder drum banging ignorance….proscribing the lols altogether might be a good place to start, but then as I say, I’m a liberal
A very comprehensive view Francis. Couldn’t’ agree more.
GRMA moser…..many unionists alas are unaware that the Emperor is still not wearing any clothes.
Complete and utter gibberish francis still i expect nothing better from you perhaps you could bring the murderers rapists and child abusers to justice from your party before you condemn others at least that would be a start not likely though from you Francis
Neill – stick to the issue and skip the abuse. I don’t mean to single you out – it applies to us all – including me. Ball not man, as Mick F might put it.
If I was a Christian Neill I would forgive such crude personal slights. I’m not religious in any shape or for, but I hope you know I forgive you anyway…don’t bother apologising, I may have rolled in the nettles once or twice before replying to you. Let cordiality reign in future discourse, thanks.
Only when stop coming out with complete and utter rubbish. From now on every time you come out with silliness I will step in to correct you by the way fix the problems in your own party before you have a pop at unionism it makes your case so much stronger!
Please -once again, neill – argument not abuse. I think I’m going to have to insist on that. Abusing each other gets us nowhere.
Francis
You may consider yourself liberal, but you certainly don’t sound like one. Many of the problems you state with Unionists and loyalists (or KKK conglomeration as you liberally call them) seem to be with the views they hold. Are you going to stop people from having right wing beliefs?
Are you going to stop the religious from holding their archaic views?
Are you going to make it illegal for people to think their side was justified or to celebrate their actions, in regard to what they did during the troubles? Where would you start on that one?
The drug dealing, hate speech etc I agree should be clamped down on, though exactly how that is done you omit to mention.
If you will not allow a Unionist veto to endure, how will you remove it?
Gio, thanks for your tempered criticism.
To be as brief and to the point in response, the KKK conglomeration I cite is unfortunately the Vanguard or Leadership of political unionism as extant with little in the way of deviation from ‘project intransigence’. One must call a spade a spade methinks,- to solve a problem, one must identify it firstly.
The OO, UU, DUP, UVF, and UPRG(UDA) All in sychronicity put forward as One the Graduated response agreed?
Hutchinson, and Wilkie Smyth are UVF with the latter drowning in Drugs agreed?
The UVF, Paracites on their own community that they are, are continuing to recruit, they have murdered and attempted to murder several people over the last couple of years, and rule East Belfast like a fifedom attacking the elected Alliance reps on the area for exercising their democratic right to prohibit 365 flag waving in the shared City hall of Belfast.(the DUP, and the good lord forbid that I make any connection here, were very unhappy as the Head of the DUP and first Minister was unseated, and the leaflets and fist banging drummed in tandem to the UVFs attempt to immotate a female PSNI in her car as she guarded an alliance office in the East, which was subsequently burnt down if I am not mistaken….in substance would you agree with this factual sequence?
Councillor Billy Leonard SF had his coffee urinated in by fellow DUP councillors on Coleraine Borough Council, was heckled, jeered and insulted in the most crudest of terms that would make the devil himself take pause at such unexpected venom from so called Christians….I know the independent councillor who went for peace to the hall with him to escape this withering tirade of invective….Facts…
Back to obstruction incorporated and their graduated response, despite seating arrangements, and certainly Billy could have put his hand on Mike Nesbitts knee,-but we know what Mike thinks of Gays in general never mind an intrusive pass by one,-the Point Remains. Share a podium with Afrikaners to curtail concessions, then you share complicity with the Nazis you form allegiances with….agreed?
When people align with Parasites and gangsters who allege themselves Respectable,-how Big is the Fig leaf and the Orwellian ‘Double Think’ needed by the UU or DUP to swallow that one themselves, never mind selling that blue kipper to rational people who despise such base raw regressive sectarian allignments,-for further evidence of this wait for the electoral pacts which have nothing to do with policies but a crude way to minimise the fenians impact…..is it not?
You asked what I thought should be done Gio, stating that I had omitted this. I just reread through what I wrote and thought I was quite clear what the PSNI should do to address these nagging areas.
In your defence of Archaically thinking people, and their Devine right to believe so,-certainly, absolutely, I disdain the notion of Thought Police as much as I suspect you do….but damned if I am going to allow them to impose their Dogma on me and Ram it down my throat….certainly you must also agree, good fences sometimes ect ect
As for the Freedom to be Right-Wing? How far Right are you talking here? You think KKK too harsh to describe such a gathering hmmm, well I’ll. Stick to answering the assumedly milder those very cogent form of Right-wing as espoused by the two Tory Unionist Parties here, the UU and DUP…….
The protestant and catholic working class suffer together under the excesses of the Milton Friedman school of economics, slash burn and privatise. Not too many acolytes of the working man or woman in the Vanguard there Gio, perhaps in the election to come more might realise in the unionist constituency are their adversaries also then we can get on with sorting the Whole country perhaps….anything above not agreed with, do please contest it individually please Gio, thanks.
Francis
It’s not that I disagree with any of the events you list as facts, though some I will have to take your word for.
It is your proposed solution that bothers me.
What do you mean by;
“a veto that fosters and perpetuates a Right-wing ethos with overt sectarianism cannot be allowed to endure”.
Not allowed how? Made illegal? Sectarian acts and hate speech already are. Are you proposing to make sectarian sentiments and thoughts illegal too?
Many parties and groupings have supped with the devil, including of course Sinn Fein.
Again I am unclear what you are proposing.Locking up criminal gangs is fine, but you seem to want to extend this to those who have had contact with them or who share broadly sympathetic views.That is a step too far in my view.
If there is evidence that Unionist politicians have committed crimes then they should be prosecuted. Again you seem to want them to be arrested for keeping unsavoury company. Maybe you can clarify that.
As for the Orange, I have said before I dislike the organisation and I think they are a harmful influence in our society. They are not the KKK though. Most obviously they parade up the main street unhooded in full public view. Not very secret!
GIO when you cite,-‘most obviously they paraded under. The main street “unhooded”, in full public view’…..that is the crux up the problem perhaps. The UVF druggies where given pole position at the front in this race as well, openly and unmasked. Think about this. The respectable Orange Order granted, or steered the UVF band to lead last years Twelfth Mardi Gra through The centre of Belfast, then attempted to force a section of this naked, open display of open sectarianism to force their way through Ardoyne/Meadowlands to Crown off their Sectarian march of Supremacist Triumph.
The KKK wore hoods,-Here they don’t have to because they are ingrained in the fabric of our Society where their message of division and supremacy is bestowed a fictional reverence it merit most certainly Not!!!
Read the Statutes of the Orange Order through Gio, then come back to me and tell me they are not Supremely Sectarian. And fascillitatingthe UVF druggies and recent Murderers at the pride of place Leading the March…..Complicity?…..Surely you must smell a Big large Rat?
You use the term ‘Unsavoury Company’, I agree, Mike Nesbitt should not have been there given his inverabrate endorsement of Homophobic Hate Crime, by neither contesting it then, nor condemning it after…looking uncomfortable outside Stormont during this incitement to Hate against Gay people, won’t cut it to the gay fella attacked a few weeks later (inspired by the unsavoury Mike no doubt) putting more pressure on our struggling hospitals which Sammy Kim un Wilson seems insistently determined to prove his alliegance to Westminster and the Tory Government by out flanking them(at least economically) to prove his allegiance and satiate further his Super Brit Ego, on other issues on the right, are you seriously telling me if Enoch Powell was dug up and brought back to life like Lazarus, these two Political Lizards would not be first in the queue to have Tea And Crumpets with this formidable ally of Unionism, and poster Boy of every NF, UDA, BNP, EDL, UKIP etc ect? If you say no, I will doubt your political faculties for reason here Gio.
I suggest that this Confederacy of alignments be broken up as this unsavoury vanguard is making the UVF look bad. They might have continued their progressive swerve perhaps with David Ervine, but Hutchie, Wilkie and Plum are not up for the job of steering the Working Class protestants away from the Right and into a coalition of progress with their real allies on the other side of the peace line among the nationalist working class.
Anyway, a coalition with Nazis and drug dealers, makes you a confederate and fully complicit in the obstructive edicts thence proposed. ‘Unsavoury Company’, there is No Tail Really Wagging the Dog….None of these Afrikaners are challenging the attitudes to the Caffers, and while this leadership on all fronts endures, and the PSNI do not face down the Orange Order and UVF and arrest their leadership for incitment to perpetual hatred and discord in Ireland, peace and harmony among all our communities will be vetoed by this lack of leadership. If it will not bend, it will break, and more and more people are realising that ending Partition now is the only possible way to force the confederacy to make accommodation with the rest of the people in Ireland….Meanwhile, the Loyalist bands who hastened from the field in buses so they could then quickly decant to walk a provocative militant victory march past Ardoyne……stay on the damn bus next time and leave those people alone. When the Confederacy is dead, then we may see the KKK Orange Order wear this hoods, which would be certainly fitting.
Francis
Ok.
That’s not clear at all but good luck with whatever it is you are actually proposing
Well said David an I actually agree with your sentiments, if not your sentimentality. There is, unfortunately, one small fly in your ointment bottle.
Political Unionism has never accepted the democratic right of the Irish (and British) people of this Island to decide their own political future.
Every single step in that direction has been opposed either politically or, more usually, by threat of arms.
I do agree that the way forward is via your three “r”s but the hard political fact remains that it is only by facing down the hubris and supremacist mentality of political unionism that actual progress is made.