The Written Word
for
July 4, 1999
To most of us the troubles in Northern Ireland remain such a mystery that we usually seek a simple solution and, having found it, cling to it for dear life.
"The Brits should clear out, they’re not wanted."
"Ireland is one island and therefore one nation."
"If there is a united Ireland, it will mean government from Rome."
"The Protestant marches are just a little harmless tradition."
And it goes on.
The truth is evasive because it’s so complicated. When, in 1922, the Irish Treaty ended hundreds of years of British rule in the South, there was immediately a civil war in the South between those who thought that the retention of British rule in the Northern six counties was as a result of treason in those who had approved it and those who saw it at worst as a temporary thing. It was a bloody civil war at that, Michael Collins, one of the great republican heroes, being one of its victims.
The one "fact" is that the Protestant fact of the North and the Catholic fact of the south (and almost ½ the North now) are like oil and water. In the North, for the most part the political parties don’t break down so much on a left/right basis as on religion, for which read ethnicity. The Protestants, though in fact ethnically Celtic for the most part, descend from the mainly Scottish transplants of the 16th and 17th centuries. These "transplants" were sent to Ireland, given stolen lands and placed in the power ascendancy precisely so Britain could keep control of this troublesome island which, occupied by a Catholic power like Spain or France, could lead to the subjugation of Britain itself. The ascendancy meant something – the best land, the best jobs, the connections to London financial moguls and an established church. In fact, it means something to this day. The mayor of Derry (known to the Protestants as Londonderry) told me a couple of years ago that until the nineties the Guildhall (city hall) had no Catholic employees, not even a charwoman.
This has, of course, changed dramatically in the past few years. Derry (that non triumphalist name is now the more fashionable) alternates each year between a Catholic and Protestant Lord Mayor.
The Reverend Ian Paisley, the most outrageous of unionists (those who demand continuation of the union with Britain) is essentially right. He spouts a lot of arrant and highly provocative nonsense about popery of course, but when he sees the peace accord as a stepping stone to the reunification of Ireland he is correct. For whatever the peace agreement might say, it is not merely a reconciliation (conciliation would be a better word) of the two main groups in Northern Ireland it is a harbinger of much greater involvement of Eire in Northern affairs. It is impossible to escape the logical conclusion that this will lead to unification some time early in the next century.
This is why there is this, to foreign eyes, ridiculous "marching" season which causes so much distress. This is why Northern Protestants get into ridiculous garb and march, bands a-playing and provocative banners a-flying through Catholic districts. This is a fear reaction. This is the Protestant population – at least it’s aggressive wing – showing its fear of absorption.
It seems ridiculous that anyone would actually fear of "rule from Rome" but no less a figure than Conor Cruise O’Brien, the famous Irish statesman and thinker, says that until a very few years ago this was a real fear. Divorce was only very recently permitted and abortion is still against the law. While there has been no active discrimination against non Catholics in the South, the Catholic church still exercises enormous influence, though waning.
The answer, as do all answers, will come with time. And it will come in the maternity wards as Catholics change the numbers to their favour in the North. And it will likely also come in the form of a sort of federalism yet to be worked out.
Of one thing we can be certain – on the surface there may be simple reasons for the "troubles", but in fact they are complex as are, therefore, the solutions.