Like many in the Catholic community I feel a deep sense of relief that my least favourite day of the year has passed. This year much like every other year before it in the failed existence of ‘Northern Ireland’ -and for many years preceding the creation of this sectarian statelet- large swathes of the Protestant population have noisily asserted their perceived supremacy. While efforts are continuously made to cloak the bigotry on display with euphemisms such as ‘tradition’ and ‘culture,’ anyone with a degree of impartiality can see the 12th of July for what it is I.e., a festival of hatred. While there is a temptation to react irrationally to what is essentially an attack on one half of the population, I instead learn from my community’s incredible restraint and try to gain an understanding of the impulses underpinning this public exhibition of intolerance.
I came across a fascinating book that might possibly explain these impulses I.e‘Our Inner Ape’ by Dutch primatologist Frans De Waal. Here he anthropomorphizes ape behaviour as a means of gaining greater insight into that of humans. Frans is a self-described natural optimist who intensely dislikes violence and is enthused by conflict resolution. In this book he shows how both apes and humans have a natural tendency towards group identification.
Us-versus-them comes remarkably easy to us as evidenced by a psychological experiment he cites where people were randomly assigned different coloured badges, pens and notepads and simply labeled the ‘’Blues’ and the ‘’Greens.’ All they were asked to do was evaluate each other’s presentations and they liked the presentations by people with their own colour designation the best. A similar experiment was tried only instead with the labels of ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards.’ In this experiment the ‘’guards’ became increasingly arrogant, abusive and cruel while the ‘’prisoners’ started to revolt which led to it being called off after only six days. When you combine group labels with one group having a sense of superiority and a massive power imbalance, as played out by the Orange Order each Twelfth of July then you have a recipe for disaster. It is of immense credit to nationalist leaders and their community that on the whole they are largely able to maintain our fragile peace despite these endless and unnecessary provocations.
Irish republicans who support an English football club (which I do myself) may recognise that their identity as one of those club’s fans is somewhat arbitrary. Similarly, people born on the island of Ireland identifying as British also feels a bit mystifying. However, it would appear we have this in-built natural proclivity towards group identity no matter how seemingly random the label. When this proclivity is exercised towards something like supporting a sports team it is often harmless but when a society such as ‘Northern Ireland’ is artificially manufactured to provide one group’s dominance over another then it is inevitable there will be conflict.
So, when people here identify as British, or any other label then there appears to be a scientific rationale for this. The problem arises when this group identity is embedded with intolerant, non-inclusive ideals, and an unearned sense of superiority. Far from the inclusive language increasingly being used by nationalist groups that talks about a ‘New Ireland’ and one that seeks to unite the whole people of Ireland, the Orange Order instead sows division. While Martin McGuinness became a man of peace and Republicans accepted that United Ireland could only be achieved by peaceful and democratic means, here we are in 2022 with bonfires featuring posters of democratically elected nationalist leaders, the inclusive Irish flag and, ‘Kill all Taigs’.
Fortunately, the North does feel a lot more tolerant these days and long may it continue. Precisely zero credit for this tolerance can be attributed to the Orange Order and their countless parades. Until we democratically dismantle the statelet that exacerbates these deep divisions, we need to focus on ways of mitigating them in the meantime. Triumphalist marches and abhorrent sectarian bonfire displays cannot be conducive to healing these differences which we need to be honest about. Unionism must adapt and instead of paying lip service like Doug Beattie did with his glib ‘Union of people’ slogan they should take measurable action – relaxing the anti-Catholic restrictions on Orange Order membership would be a start.
We can look towards the great Protestants of the Society of United Irishmen to learn how to reconcile our differences once and for all in pursuit of a common cause. Only then will we have a properly united society without these needless divisions that are exacerbated every Twelfth.
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