As others see us

In addition to a chapter on Nationalist confidence, the book contains some comments of how that community views its Unionist neighbours. The following is just a selection.

“Unionism is failing to engage, with its head in the sand mentality.”

“They have this inbuilt fear.”

“The Orange Lodge is still pretty powerful because they are telling people – the Unionist people – what way to go on the [Northern Ireland] Protocol. They are a power within a power, you know.”

These comments from three Nationalists from either side of the Border are indicative of the image that some have of those in positions of responsibility representing Unionism.

Seamus, a Republican, says Unionism remains insular and won’t open up discussion: “I would say it's a probably fear, probably from being criticised and called Lundy.

“Any Unionist leader that ever tried to make any sort of concessions or small reforms towards treating Nationalism with respect or equality were soon removed.”

Gerard, originally from County Derry, is Catholic and Nationalist with a small ‘n’ and is critical of the message that Sinn Féin sends out to Protestants.

He is also critical of Unionist leadership and also speaks of the need for better North-South contacts.

“There is a complete lack of leadership among Unionists at grassroots level. You look at west Belfast or up in Derry, you look down around Fermanagh as well.

“There are community groups working together all the time on all sorts of projects, and finding ways of working together.

“There’s cross-Border stuff going on as well, and they’re way, way ahead of their politicians,” says Gerard.

“On the Republican side, Sinn Féin go out and do these memorials to IRA people. Is that supposed to make any single Protestant feel any more likely to want to join a united Ireland, particularly now when they are becoming the biggest party down there?

“They can’t just keep on pandering to the people who put them in that position. The Bobby Storey funeral was the biggest own goal in the last five or ten years.

“They did it because they believed they had to be seen by their electorate,” says Gerard.

He also believes “Nationalists like him” who have holiday homes in Donegal should consider the impact they have on communities there.

“People don’t realise that the housing crisis in the South, particularly around Dublin, is everywhere and the problems it has caused the likes of Donegal or Sligo or down the west coast.

“People have holiday homes and that has killed off a lot of these villages, because people are only there for a couple of months of the year,” says Gerard.

“So do Northern Nationalists like me who want a wee house in Donegal need to hear more about the impact that has on the local community?

“How can we help – rather than bring down our own stuff, can we buy stuff in the shops there and support local business?

“It’s about understanding those basic things about how it affects your life and on the macro end of it, how you can understand each other’s politics better.

“What are Unionists afraid of in relation to a united Ireland? What do Nationalists need to do to make them feel comfortable about considering it as an option?” asks Gerard.

Michael, who has a role in the Catholic church in the North, says: “I feel that because of the lack of political leadership and in particular, respect for one another, at ground level there is no encouragement or interest in knowing about the other’s narrative.”

Marius, from just south of the Border, believes that Unionists are still resistant to change because they see equality as an attack on them.

The County Monaghan man believes that “North of the Border, I don’t think that Unionism moved with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement at all, in terms of stepping back from a kind of supremacist ‘our state’ kind of thinking; I think that still predominates”.

He refers to what he reads on social media and hears from a whole raft of people in the PUL (Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist) community, and says: “It’s frightening how absolutely nothing has changed. It’s as if they believe there is a potential for going back to the 1960s.”

Martin, also from County Monaghan, suggests that the “anti-Irish” stance of the DUP doesn’t represent the deep feelings of the community.

“It’s important to people from every tradition to have the right to express their own culture. Ordinary working people don’t really care whether somebody speaks Irish or not.

“But I think that is being exploited by the DUP almost in a racist manner.

“That pumps people with the so-called flag demonstrations and this anti-Irish thing that they try to portray, mocking the Irish language in Parliament and so on.

“But I didn’t get the feeling that it’s really deep in the community,” says Martin.

He believes ruling-class Unionists have exploited their own working class.

“When we as Republicans were looking for civil rights, we were all aware that there were working class Protestants who were equally as poor as some of the people on the Republican or Nationalist side.

“There were an awful lot of things which would have united us, but the way the Six Counties was formed was to make sure that there was division,” he says.

He also suggests that the lack of working-class unity was an advantage to English Conservatives in particular.

“I think for Unionists it has been proven time and time again that the Tories will let them down.

“I don’t believe they have any interest whatsoever in Ireland, and I actually think they would actually like to be rid of it.

“The sad thing about England is that the Tory party was taken over by the extreme right during the Brexit campaign, and that has distorted politics in England where you’ve got working class people falling in behind the extreme British right and English right, especially the English Nationalists,” says Martin.

Mary, from County Fermanagh, says: “It has always bothered me – this Catholic/Protestant narrative.

“I’m not aware of people disliking someone for their religion, but that was never the case here in Ireland.

“The fact of the matter is the people that identified most with the British were originally planted here in this country; they took ownership of any wealth that was available to them, and the native people were reduced to the role of second-class citizen,” says Mary.

“The fact that it happened along religious lines doesn’t mean that Catholics hated Protestants.

“I don’t believe that that was ever the case. I think that when you disenfranchise a whole section of a population, there is bound to be a rebellion against that,” she says.