Talking about the Troubles

Yesterday I did a Skype interview with a young Hungarian woman who is studying for her Master’s in Budapest. She’s doing a study of political violence and wanted some background information about the situation in our NE Nest. I’ll list her questions and my response to each. I’d be interested in whether you think I’ve misled her/left out something crucial.

Question 1: According to you, what lies at the heart of the conflict in Northern Ireland and what are the main identities competing within the communities?

Answer 1: The main identities are the Irish nationalist/republican identity and the unionist/British identity. Nationalists/republicans argue for an end to partition – the division of the NE of Ireland from the rest of Ireland – and the Irish people governing themselves, without interference from England. The unionist identity argues for continuation of the link between the NE of Ireland with Britain – that Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK

Question 2: Is being Irish more important than being Protestant, Catholic or even British? How were these identities formed?

Answer 2: I believe, certainly in political terms, that being Irish is more important than one’s religious identity, even though for historical reasons, Catholics tend to be nationalists/republicans and Protestants tend to be unionist.

These identities were originally formed in the seventeenth century, when, to consolidate its position in Ireland, England brought over English and Scottish Protestants, who were given land throughout Ireland but particularly in Ulster (much of which eventually became Northern Ireland). These Scottish and English settlers were colonists, pro-England and anti-Irish, and that division remains to this day

Question 3: What are the main differences in the perspectives of the various actors involved and how did they influence the conflict? By these actors I mean the governments of Ireland, of the UK, of Northern Ireland, the IRA, the RUC, and other paramilitary organizations.

Answer 3: Nationalists/republicans seek Irish reunification, in a new and better Ireland, arguing that partition was bad for the south of Ireland as well as the north. Unionists are reluctant to accept their Irishness, and look to maintain the link with our more powerful and cosmopolitan neighbour, England.

The government of the South of Ireland say they believe in Irish reunification, but many in the NE believe this is lip-service.

The UK government – which established partition – says it supports the status quo, but that ultimately it is a matter for the people of NE Ireland/Northern Ireland, and that a referendum on Irish unity should be held when it appears a majority want constitutional change.

The IRA was a republican paramilitary group which believed violence only would persuade Britain to stop meddling in Irish matters.

The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland. It has now been abolished, being seen as too pro-unionist and violent in its suppression of the nationalist/republican drive for civil rights and ultimately re-unification.

Question 4: What was the official attitude of the Republic of Ireland towards Northern Irish citizens?

Answer 4: The official line of the southern Irish government is that they favour reunification; but their main concern is to keep the southern state intact, untouched by violence or northern influence. Sinn Féin are making that difficult for them, by being a major party in the north and a growing political power in the south.

Question 5: Could you tell us more about the promotion of Irish culture through less obvious channels, such as sports or culture?

Answer 5: Unionist culture shows most obviously in marhing bands to celebrate the victory in 1690 of King William III, the Protestant English (Dutch) King over King James II (the Catholic English King). There are some 4,000 marches annually, and traditionally these are seen by nationalists/republicans as triumphalist, mocking nationalists as the defeated ones.

Irish culture is maintained by Irish music, dancing, Gaelic/Irish sports and the Irish language.

Question 6: Was this attitude any different when it came to other Irish diasporas outside the Republic of Ireland?

Answer 6: The attitude to Ireland is seen most clearly in the Irish diaspora in the United States. There has been strong support for nationalists and republicans from Irish-Americans living there, many of whom have a race memory of An Gorta Mor – The Great Hunger or the Irish Famine. That support is less pronounced today.

Irish-Americans played a crucial role in the period of armed conflict, when they supplied money for the dependents of republican prisoners (and, in some cases, financial support for the IRA). The US also played a major role in encouraging the end of conflict and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Question 7: According to you, what were the most important factors that led to the radicalization of the society and to the legitimization of the use of political violence by the IRA?

Answer 7: Undoubtedly the reaction of the Northern Ireland government and of the RUC, police auxiliaries and extreme unionist elements played a major role in reaction to the nationalist drive for civil rights in the late 1960s. The civil rights marchers wanted an end to discrimination in housing and jobs, an end to constituency gerrymander. In short, they wanted the same rights as citizens in other parts of the UK. The peaceful marches of civil rights activists were met with violence, from  the RUC and from unionist extremists.

Eventually, the RUC was seen as being unable to cope and the British army was brought in. Before long, the British army was seen, not as a neutral peace-keeper, but as a support for unionism. Events such as the Ballymurphy Massacre, when the British Parachute Regiment shot dead eleven innocent Catholics, including a priest, and Bloody Sunday in Derry, when the same regiment shot dead fourteen people, confirmed the belief that the British Army was a support for unionism in Northern Ireland rather than a fair-minded referee.

Question 8: Could you please tell us some of your personal experiences that could reveal more about the patterns of radicalization?

Answer 8: I’d been living in Canada during most of the 1970s. I came back 1979. The hunger strikes – ten IRA men died in prison, rather than accept classification as common criminals –  changed my thinking. I began to see that this was essentially a colonial problem. As part of the middle classes, I was largely protected from the direct impact of the Troubles, which were largely fought out in working-class areas; but to pretend that republican paramilitaries were just a bunch of criminals seemed to me unsustainable.

Question 9: How would you evaluate the current peace settlement, and in your opinion what are the outlooks for a re-unified Ireland, with the possibility of a Scottish independence and with  Brexit in the background?

Answer 9: I believe that the peace settlement will hold. With a few exceptions, there is not an appetite for the terrible violence that was the Troubles.

I believe a united Ireland will come perhaps within 10 years, perhaps longer. The changing pattern of demographics will play a major part. Northern Ireland was set up in such a way that it was believed there would be a guaranteed majority of Protestants/unionists. What started as a two-thirds unionist majority has, over the decades, changed. The nationalist/republican population in NE Ireland is swelling, the unionist population shrinking. This was seen vividly in our recent election, with Sinn Féin, the republican party, coming within one seat of the DUP, the unionist party. A lead which had been ten seats shrank to one seat. I believe the call for a border poll will eventually be granted and won by those favouring a united Ireland. Importantly, arrangements will have to be made for a new kind of Ireland – one perhaps with a federal element, with the seat of government in Dublin but a devolved Assembly in Belfast.

Were Scotland to win independece, it would be seen as a signal that the UK was fragmenting. Most people in NE Ireland voted to stay in the EU, as did Scotland. If Scotland left the UK and re-joined the EU, there would be a strong drive for NE Ireland to do the same. The economic benefits of being in the EU, along with the changing demographis in NE Ireland, would offer a compelling case for ending the union with Britain. I think in those circumstances most unionists would accept a united Ireland where they were convinced their civil rights, their cultural identity, even their British passport would remain.