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Eamonn McCann: How fight against water charges could erode sectarian rivalries
Thursday, 10 September 2009
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A friend of mine recently attended a seminar at which a community relations expert explained that Catholics /nationalists should acquaint themselves with the history of the Orange Order, the better to learn to respect the culture which the Order embodied.
"I'm a Protestant," she spoke up, "and I have no time for the Orange Order." When the frisson had faded, she was advised to "do some single identity work."
You are a Prod. Get with the programme.
At a conference on 'Building Peace' in the Europa last year, a man who served time for sectarian murder and a former paramilitary leader from 'the other side' stood together at the microphone explaining that, few years ago, they wouldn't have been speaking together but trying to kill one another.
Cue amiable laughter and applause. Each added that he hadn't budged an inch from the ideas which his armed actions had been designed to advance. Better than killing one another, right enough. But a recipe for a stable society at ease with itself?
The defining mantra of such events is 'celebrating difference' - as if the way the Catholic and Protestant communities have related to one another is the problem.
Which lets British governments off the hook, validates political parties based on communal identity and stiffens the sense of separateness.
Moreover, if the problem stems solely or mainly from Protestants and Catholics not getting along, the solution must lie in 'the two communities' finding a modus vivendi.
If you fail or refuse to fit into this pattern of political allegiance, you can have no direct role in this enterprise.
You might arbitrate, perhaps, even act as referee, but you aren't eligible to play in the game.
The rules of the game, as codified in the Good Friday Agreement, require each side to turn out in its own colours and to respect the colours of the opposing team.
So, Assembly members who disrupt the pattern by defining themselves as 'other' are given short shrift. Their existence is mentioned in paragraph six of the Strand One section of the Agreement: "At their first meeting, members of the Assembly will register a designation of identity - nationalist, unionist or other - for the purposes of measuring cross- community support in Assembly votes." And that's it.
'Others' then disappear from the text. Which is logical enough. What function could they possibly fill in measuring 'cross-community support'? The permanency of politics based on the religious division is taken for granted.
Balance then requires that the bulk of the blame for what we have gone through isn't ascribed to one community or the other - or to armed groups claiming to represent one community or other.
History is depicted as a battlefield from which no clear winner can emerge. Whataboutery is the first official language of this discourse.
Inevitably, the ideas which most clearly reflect separate identities are endorsed as the naturally dominant and effectively unchallengeable ideas in politics. And in the absence of any material underpinning of this separation, 'culture' comes to the fore. It no longer raises eyebrows to hear Orange Order marches presented as a core element of 'the culture of the Protestant community'. So to denounce a plan to parade 41 Orange bands through Rasharkin is to disrespect the culture of the Protestant people.
If a balancing example is required, consider the spokesman for a nationalist party associated with a paramilitary group who defended the controversial erection of a monument to a comrade 'killed in action' as "part of the culture of the indigenous population."
Celebrate such differences? Well, maybe, if we must. But ought we not also celebrate sameness? It's likely there will be another attempt before the end of the year to force us to pay water-charges. Only a mass non-payment campaign has a potential to see the threat off - a campaign which would, of practical necessity, mobilise people on a basis which has nothing to do with the community they come from.
The fight cannot be won on the Shankill if it isn't also won on the Falls. The shared sense of achievement which would be generated by a victory for a campaign structured along these lines would do more to demolish sectarian barriers than a thousand gatherings at which every person present would have to be acutely aware of which community they 'belonged' to.
It has ever been thus. The only occasions in our history when sizeable numbers of Catholics and Protestants have left religious identity behind and joined hands have been occasions when the point was to advance class interests.
This is not to say that sectarian rivalries would melt away automatically in the heat of common struggle. For as far ahead as it's possible to see, what history has bequeathed us will remain part of what we are. But it needn't be all or even most of what we are.
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Patrick Murphy, while in many areas I agree with your commentary, you are clearly mistaken about the position of the Catholic Church in the modern day Republic. It has zero real power, and that's the way it should be. Religion, any religion, has no place in the public sphere.
The things you mention in regard to the Irish health service date from the 1950's when Ireland was a hugely different place. Ireland does have a form of the NHS - everyone is entitled to free health-care in hospitals if needed - the problem lies in rationing which means that those with private insurance can get quicker access to medical services. A problem in any country with a dual health system I believe. It has nothing to do with the RC Church.
The number of Protestants (and those of any and no religion) in the Republic is rising exponentially thanks to conversions from Catholicism, immigration and natural growth. This is great. Ireland does & should have a diverse range of religious and ethnic views.
Posted by Serge | 18.09.09, 15:46 GMT
Mik has hit the nail on the head. We must start by widening integrated education throughout the island of Ireland. The reason why I am passionately in favour of a United Ireland is that there would be a significant percentage of Protestants who would shake the place up and dethrone the Catholic Church from its arrogant position in Irish society. The Protestants would offer a great deal to this New Ireland. At the moment 97% of the schools and hospitals in the Republic are owned by the Catholic Church. There is no proper National Health Service beacause it was orginally defeated by the combined efforts of the Catholic Church and the self interested conservatism of the Irish Medical Association, which brought the downfall of the late great Dr. Noel Browne. By the way I am Catholic from South Armagh, who lives between Mexico, Spain and London.
Posted by Patrick Murphy | 15.09.09, 20:34 GMT
I am afraid that I have to agree with mik, however much I want the Catholics and Protestants to join together. The sadness of Northern Ireland is the deep rooted sectarianism of both sides.
Unfortunately most Loyalist organisations are deeply fascist and racist as well as being brutally sectarian. The TUV offers nothing to the people of Northern Ireland. I want a United Ireland, but I want to see the Catholic Church taken down a peg or two. I am originally from South Armagh and want to see a pluaralistis Ireland where there is a clear separation of Church and State, and respect for difference and a welcoming attitude towards other races. I would ask the Nationalist population to utterly reject the dissidents and real IRA scum.
Posted by Patrick Murphy | 15.09.09, 20:26 GMT
This is wishful thinking,Northern Ireland is as divided politically as it is "culturally" or religiously on a parallell with Spain before the Spanish Civil War.The Loyalist organisations in case you didn't notice have a very right wing fascist mindset as opposed to most Nationalist and Republicans who are left wing.The possibility of a cross community working class party although highly desirable is unfortunately light years away in the Northern Ireland context.
Posted by mik | 11.09.09, 18:26 GMT
The most practical line in the above article is the first one on the 4th paragraph from the bottom, especially the words "celebrate sameness". And both 'tratitions' have a great deal of 'sameness'. Both have shared the same territory, Ireland, for 4 centuries and both are Christian, Not only have the
members of both communities combimed on occasion to promote class interests, they also fought on the same side in two world wars - as they had in the 1790s in an army of United Irishmen, which was organized and led by Protestant patriots.
Posted by Seán Mac Curtáin | 11.09.09, 16:00 GMT
The last time both communities - or the working classes at least - really dropped the sectarianism and worked together was during the Outdoor Relief Strike in 1932. Of course the Unionist government was alarmed by such a development and saw a threat to its own power - after all people who are supposed to hate each other suddenly coming together for a common cause would be a big problem for any government intent on a divide and rule policy, therefore measures were swiftly taken to make sure that the Protestant workers were placated and divided from their Catholic brethren and so make sure it never happened again. And of course, it didn't.
Let's hope this time, the coming together - if there is one - is permanent.
Posted by Serge | 10.09.09, 22:31 GMT
Spot on Eamonn! Keep telling it like it is. Paul.
Posted by Paul | 10.09.09, 19:36 GMT
I couldnt agree more with this article. The ordinary people of this place have been held back long enough by secterian rivalry which has hindered the progress of working class interests. It happened when Larkin attempted to unite the people for the common good, the same happened with Alexander Bowman. Any time when it looks like people have been on the brink of an understanding the people who stand to loose out of an understanding raise their heads and cry 'them & us'. The words of Basil Brooke and his cry of Catholic unloyalty is an example of how words sowed the seeds of doubt into people so that unity would be destroyed. His words and the words of other bosses throughout the years have been uttered for one reason and one reason only, that is to keep the lower classes divided and to keep the ruling class in their seat of power.
Posted by In The Name Of The Fada | 10.09.09, 16:36 GMT