Longkesh Inside Out

Redefining A Culture

Posted by Jason Burke on Jun 19, 2013 in Politics N. Ireland | 0 comments

Thia article first appeared on www.jasonburkehistory.com

Republicans (specifically Sinn Fein) have continually posed a question to the Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist community; “What is your culture?”. The PUL response over the years has been far from convincing. Within the nationalist community a perception exists that unionism/Protestantism is void of any substantial cultural heritage, and this belief has led some individuals to ask a similar question of themselves; “What is our culture?”. This has occurred to such an extent that northern unionists have almost brainwashed themselves into believing that they possess no tangible culture, and it continues to this day as PUL’s will readily tell anyone who will listen that they are in some way lacking a cultural identity.  The PUL community can be assured that an identity is within their grasp, if only they could be brave enough to embrace it.

Today it appears that PUL culture can be narrowed down to Ulster-Scots, Orangeism, Loyalist marching bands, and historical achievement/sacrifice.  These four strands are at times inextricably linked which can hamper any potential exploration of diversity and in turn cements the pigeon holes in which we are placed.  It is important to note that not every unionist has an Ulster-Scots background, nor is he/she a member of the Orange Order, or has sufficient free time to play in one of the 700+ marching bands in the province.  Does this mean that these people do not have a cultural identity? Surely not.

Politicisation of the languages (amongst other things) by Republicans, and also by mainstream unionists, has created an entrenchment of cultures in Northern Ireland, whereby unionists are almost being force-fed Ulster-Scots as ‘their’ culture and being scaremongered into believing that everything Irish and Gaelic is to be resented and feared.  These same unionists need to be aware of their own history when it comes to the Irish language, as it was in fact Ulster Protestants who were the principal custodians of this language until the movement was infiltrated and hijacked by revolutionary republicans, namely the Irish Republican Brotherhood.  It could be said of the 18^th and 19^th centuries that the Irish language belonged to the educated Protestant people as it was they who comforted it during it’s hour of need. Ironically, Catholics in those days were forced by some churches to say their confessions and mass in English as Gaelic Irish was not acceptable.  Today the East Belfast Mission are providing Irish language lessons on the Newtownards Road.  Linda Ervine (wife of former PUP leader Brian Ervine) is the Irish Language Development Officer at EBM and deserves immense credit for her foresight and bravery in ensuring that this programme continues.

In terms of music the PUL community will forever be associated with it’s marching bands fraternity, where without doubt the talent is above and beyond what any outsider can ever imagine.  The myth that these bands simply ’kick the Pope’ and exist to intimidate Catholics could not be further from the truth.  I recently conversed with a Catholic school teacher who plays a flute in Loyalist band, this individual was happy to endorse my argument that the marching bands do not exist simply to offend others, and if anything quite the opposite is true.  Many scores of music have crossed the political divide and are used by Loyalist bands,  recently I have heard bands play Rakes of Kildare, Dear Old Donegall. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Lough Erin’s Shore, and The Gael amongst many others.  It leads me to assume that a process has already begun whereby Irish traditional music can be more widely accepted into Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist culture, whether knowingly or unknowingly this is a progressive step which will only add further ingredients to the PUL culture.   There is no shame in admiring music that belongs to a shared island, that music is as much yours as mine.

It is often mentioned that Northern Ireland is working towards a shared future, but it must also be remembered that we come from a shared past and unfortunately some have taken a greater share than they are entitled to.  Republicans will continue to apprehend particular elements of the past which are not ’rightfully’ theirs, Saint Patrick is an important example, the 1798 rebellion is another, but that should not scare off anyone wishing to engage in associated events.  Saint Patrick’s day tends to be met with some hostility from unionist quarters due to the flag waving antics of those who participate, but the only way this can be changed is by taking part and actively re-claiming a share of the Patron Saint who was nether Protestant, Catholic, or even Irish. Imagine a St. Patrick’s day parade where the magnificent Dunloy Accordion Band could lead the procession through Belfast… Why not?

With regards to the 1798 rebellion Belfast Protestants honoring Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown in 1934 were attacked by nationalist Tipperary IRA men who seized their banners.  One of these proclaimed “Wolfe Tone Commemoration 1934 – Shankill Road Belfast Branch – Break the link with Capitalism”. The resulting melee was described as “A Day of Shame”.  Two men carrying the banner, William Tumilson and Jim Stranney, later died in the Spanish Civil War.  Fifty years later in 1984, socialists, including some from the Shankill Road, returned to re-enact the parade. Protestants/Unionists/Loyalists should seek to re-engage with those episodes of the past which have eluded them more recently.

Imagine loyalists combining the language movement (Irish and/or Ulster-Scots), with music (traditional Irish and/or marching bands), Orangeism, Protestant faith, shared history (including British History), and the various strands of Ulster-Scots/Irish culture, the result is a new redefined culture with an undoubted substance for the PUL community to buy into. Ulster Protestants are in a remarkably fortunate position, for they are able to identify themselves as both British and Irish.  Some folk from around the world would give anything in order to be able to label themselves one or the other but Ulster Protestants have turned their noses up at the chance to embrace both identities thus far.

It leads me to believe that the PUL community has a wealth of cultural attributes in it’s midst while accusations that this community is void of culture is nothing short of psychological belittlement.  It is my belief that the unionist people can successfully set about a process of redefinition and reclamation which will lead to a healthy, confident future for PUL culture.

(John Coulter, Irish Daily Star)

Stop wasting cash on the integrated education myth and pump the money into the well-run existing Catholic and State schools.

If I was a Yank, I’d be an avid Tea Party campaigner, but even I had to commend the well-composed Waterfront speech by President Barack Obama – until he went off the deep end on integrated schooling!

If integrated education was the solution to the Irish conflict, surely someone over the past 800 years of sectarian strife in Ireland would have thought of it by now?

But Obama has gone home, and life in Fermanagh has returned to normal – except all the swivel-eyed loons and trendy lefties under the sun will now be screaming about ‘integrated schooling’.

We already have had an outstanding integrated education system operating successfully in our Northern universities and colleges of further education – affectionately still known locally as the ‘Techs’ – for over a century.

So why do we need to waste millions of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash building new ‘integrated’ schools as if by the wave of this magic wand, all the bitterness and hatred will mysteriously disappear?

Waken up and smell the coffee! The reason many integrated schools are successful in the North is not because they bring Protestants and Catholics together – it’s because they have very good teachers.

As an education journalist, I travelled the length and breadth of the North and found dozens and dozens of examples of terrific quality teaching and facilities in Catholic and State schools.

But it’s time to face a reality check on the way forward. The key to ‘integrating’ our Protestant and Catholic young people in the classroom has been achieved by the ‘Techs’ and our magnificent universities. That’s the model to follow.

The red tape body, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, should be disbanded immediately.

Shoving Catholics and Protestants together in a single classroom is not the solution. The answers lie in who does the teaching, and what is taught, not where they are taught.

Faith is still important to many families in the North. There is the real danger that oddball secularists and militant atheists will hijack the ‘integrated’ education bandwagon to eradicate Christian teaching in our schools.

The Catholic Bishops need to put down their foot down hard and fight to retain the Maintained sector.

In State schools, Christian morning assembly and prayers form an inspirational start to the day.

Many ‘Techs’ and the universities have thriving Christian Unions. Stormont has plans to create a single education authority for the North.

That’s fine, provided it does not mean that our existing Catholic and State schools will be left short of good teachers and physical resources.

What is needed is an integrated curriculum so that students can learn about their history and culture from their teachers.

Sectarianism can only be contained; the bitter medicine is that it will never be fully eradicated.

Is the legacy of Obama’s G8 visit that we will have to listen to a bunch of self-appointed ‘do-gooders’ preaching to us on the merits of ‘integrated’ education?

These people need to remember the maxim – if it ain’t broken, why fix it?

Leave the Catholic and State schools alone and let the teachers get on with what they do best – teaching, not healing the rifts of eight centuries! That’s the politicians’ job.

June 25, 2013________________

This article appeared in the June 24, 2013 edition of the Irish Daily Star.

Draw a Line Now

Is it not strange that those who did not attend Sinn Fein’s conference entitled Belfast: A City of Equals in an Island of Equals at the Europa Hotel, have been able to label the event in so many ways? Those non-republicans who participated have been described as those having taken part in a ‘love in’ and of having being duped by Sinn Fein’s hypnotic abilities. As if Gerry Adam’s sat at the back slowly swinging his grandfather’s pocket watch and gently stating ‘look into my eyes!’ If anything the majority of those who spoke shared a common concern that Sinn Fein needed to adopt better listening skills and appreciate that there is more than their truth, history and victims. The event if anything provided for what were necessary but robust conversations. The brilliance of those conversations was not that they happened or that they were forceful but that they were mannerly. The possibility being provided to tell Sinn Fein how others see their approach and ideas as wrong or requiring much greater reflection.

One respondent reminded Sinn Fein that the Union Flag drapes the coffins of loved ones returning for war in Iraq and Afghanistan and wondered if they really understood the significance of that when voting for its removal from City Hall. Others embraced the idea of Unionist alienation not in itself a flaw in the Unionist character but in the action and discourse of republicanism. I presented quotes from people who questioned Sinn Fein’s motives, language and behaviour. If this was a ‘love in’ I would not have liked to have seen the fight.

One of the more forceful comments was made by Matt Baggott who explained that “At the moment we are spending huge resources because we are required by law to relentlessly go back into the 70s, 80s and 90s whether that is through inquests or inquiries.” One could sense the frustration of trying to roll out civilian policing but being made to constantly go back to Pol Pot’s Year Zero. His contribution in itself gets to the nub of the question about the past. When oh when does it stop?
We have a dangerous system at present regarding the past which is based upon the flawed architecture of rearward actions. To put it simply republicans and nationalists have been able to put the state in the dock as it were due to legal obligations placed upon the state. HET may prosecute the odd former paramilitary, but that is not the same infrastructure to examine non-state ‘corporate’ responsibilities. This imbalance is infuriating to some Unionists who see delving into the past as one sided and wonder why Sinn Fein wants state personnel up before the courts and not others. I assume the DUP and UUP want the same outcome but the other way round. Either position is untenable, and merely repeats what conflict does which is to create the moral good and the moral bad. Corporate responsibility is nonsense if it only runs through demanding that the other opens its murky books. It is an act in reiterating societal divisions without any safety net when the ‘other’ side bites back.
The whole process is not only problematic because it is read as uneven but in that it simply indulges selective views of the past.  As Matt Baggott has indicated we are spending scarce resources in confirming what people already believed. What this mess actually does is make sharing the ‘narrow ground’ difficult as we daily underline the nature of the Groundhog Day in which we are compelled to live. A place in which we will never make history and hope rhyme as the former is over invested in while the latter in under-invested upon. I understand that we must consider the feelings of victims but what Professor John Brewer’s work at Queen’s University has shown is that victims are the people who most want to move into a future and not be dragged down by criminalising the past.
If we are going to move on we have to either have a proper truth process or draw a line under the past. At present approach will not make scales fall from eyes as the conflict was experienced in different ways. If anything it keeps them in place. At present in what was does dealing with the past present a future. We seriously need a political leadership that either draws a line or goes for a mechanism of truth recovery. If our political elite were to acknowledge that our present process is merely opening old wounds and drawing inspiration away from forward movement then we would be going somewhere. The old cliché that the past drags the future down is replete with accuracy.  The muddle we now have is just painful and I think re-traumatising.  I would personally opt for line drawing and do more for victims and their personal needs. Courts and inquires do not determine the complete truth nor reconcile victims. So why use them? Could we not go for conversation and exchange between those who survived? Cheaper than investigation with the added benefit of being more likely to affect reconciliation. Maybe start with the observation that all tears are the same. The people are capable of that whereas inquires and courts are not.
On a final point, we were reminded on Friday of David Ervine’s contention that ‘republicanism is not contagious’. I was the same person when I walked into the Europa on Friday and the same one who walked out. The only difference was I had my say.

Pete Shirlow

WHAT SHARED FUTURE?

“This society believed that it was looking towards a new future, and we consistently find ourselves being dragged backwards” words from the late David Ervine.

On the 13th October 1994 Loyalists from the CLMC ( Combined Loyalist Military Command ) issued a statement from Fernhill House West Belfast declaring  all operational hostilities as from 12 midnight on Thursday 13th October 1994 would cease . I had the privilege to be at that press conference as a realitive of mine was a senior PUP/UVF member and the words conveyed to the general public and the Republican movement through Gusty Spence were genuine and sincere. I can remember a certain sentence that will forever be held dear to my heart, it is a sentence that symbolizes the true spirit in which Loyalism went into the peace process, putting victims first . That sentence? “In all sincerity, we offer to the loved ones of all innocent victims over the past twenty years, abject and true remorse.” Putting victims first seems to be an agenda SF have let pass by, unless it’s a victim of state violence or Loyalist gunmen. They’ve went from ceasefire to government very quickly and should know fine well that in doing so in such a short time that they would cause anger , resentment and unimagined grievance to their thousands of victims and their families. They’ve swept the issue of their murderous past under the carpet very quickly and have now tried to portray themselves as the victims! We’ve had to endure the rise of SF, we’ve taken it very well and respected it, we want to live in a democratic society and because SF have a mandate we’ve no other choice but to respect the voting choice of Nationalists, however, that doesn’t mean we should roll over and let them off the hook unchallenged, nor does it mean we should not be challenging them daily regarding their statements and policies as to why we’re on a fast-track to a United Ireland! Sinn Fein talk about shared futures, but with who? Not with Unionists by their  actions, those actions may I suggest are not recent either, is it a coincidence that SF have used a tactic from the past by creating a flash point out of nothing regarding St Patricks Church in Donegall Street ? By doing so they have opened a new angle from which to attack loyal orders, Ardoyne has now been taken over by dissidents and the annual 12th day stand off has been hijacked by groups like RNU, 32CSM and dissident terrorists. We’ve seen concession after concession handed out to SF, unchallenged by a weak DUP who are led by a man with his own agenda and ego. SF have been coming at us from all angles with their cultural war these last 2 or 3 years, is this a ploy given they know they’ve no chance of securing a United Ireland which they sold and promised to deliver inside of 20 years from their original ceasefire and to keep battle hardened republicans onside ? Take the Union Jack issue regarding City Hall , does anyone think that happened overnight or planned by SF strategists a very long time ago ? We’ve also had the “Belfast-A city of equals” slogan adopted by SF, further proof that SF are playing a game of “we’re the oppressed” to anyone who’ll listen. In the closing paragraph of the CLMC ceasefire statement they set out their vision for the future “Let us firmly resolve to respect our differing views of freedom, culture and aspiration and never again permit our political circumstances to degenerate into bloody warfare. We are on the threshold of a new and exciting beginning with our battles in future being political battles, fought on the side of honest, decency and democracy against the negativity of mistrust, misunderstanding and malevolence, so that, together, we can bring forth a wholesome society in which our children, and their children, will know the meaning of true peace.” It states quite clearly that we must resolve our differing views on freedom, culture and aspiration, yet SF are trying endlessly to strip away our culture, they’re aspiration for a United Ireland grows stronger through the media, even though it will never happen, furthermore the statement says about political battles being fought on the side of honesty, decency etc, how can we have a shared future with those we have to share with when they are filled with mistrust, they oppose anything from a Unionist perspective and the DUP play there part in facilitating the endless concessions that seem to go their way !!! If they keep up this attack on the Unionist/loyalist people how long will it be before enough is enough ?

The Mad Monk

I agree with a lot of points Connal Parr has made , especially regarding the aspect that SF know a united Ireland is as far away as us uniting with China !!  I suspect by the end of the 1980′s SF/IRA knew that they couldn’t budge the British , militarily speaking , furthermore the jailing of many IRA men didn’t help their cause either : many from the next generation refused to follow thousands to go to jail from W/C Catholic areas and the volume of attacks carried out by the IRA became less frequent .  They tried to cover it up by saying words like spectacular etc: , the truth was though , they lacked the manpower they previously used to have by the bucket load !! Furthermore , Loyalism and especially the UVF played a major part in creating uneasy tensions for the IRA within their own communities by attacking that community in retaliation for attacks on our Crown forces and our way of life in general .  Yes they did change tactics , but only after their surrender/ceasefire was declared and dissent started to rise throughout the ranks of the PIRA.  Hardliners wasted no time in showing their disdain towards the Adams inspired ceasefire (Canary Wharf and Manchester vouch for that) .
Once they saw an opportunity to engage in violence they used that , as seen with the shootings of Dougan and another Loyalist in Dunmurry and the DAAD operations . It is evident that Adams and his supporters won the battle for hearts and minds and peace swept through the Republican movement eventually , culminating with a well fought victory over the SDLP at the election polls with McGuinness put in place for Deputy First minister of a country he viewed as the enemy not that very long before.  Changing to the cultural strategy it is without doubt something SF have been working on since around the ceasefires , the policies and agendas they took interest in didn’t happen overnight : parading for example were residents groups to oppose parading are headed up by hardline IRA men or redundant IRA men –whatever way you want to look at it . This alone set the trend for the years ahead , lets challenge Unionism/Loyalism at the very heart , and so they did !
I can list many things they’ve attacked from the RUC , Army , right down to the flying of the Union Jack over our capital city , all of which was done to massage their inferiority complex as they talk about being equals etc: but will try and strip away anything with a Crown or indeed anything that represents unionism.  They talk about  the symbols inside the City Hall being all Unionist and what’s the problem with the removal of Union Jack ?–Yet the Union Jack symbolizes the national identity to anyone visiting our great city . Tourists must wonder where they are when they see no flag flying , are they in the UK or not ?  The answer is— absolutely !!  SF think and try and bluff voters with false promises —Belfast is green etc: , yet they forget 75% of East Belfast is in Castlereagh Borough Council and that when it comes to Westminster , Unionism outvotes Nationalism by around 10% of the electorate in Belfast alone.  These facts are all hidden from any Sinn Fein election pamphlet .  I expect to see many more challenges to the Crown , to Unionism/Loyalism and our right to remain part of the UK in the next decade , but it will all be fruitless given SF know very well that they’ve misled their voters and the IRA men they promised a united Ireland to almost 20 years ago .  The 20th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire is approaching yet there is still no sign of a united Ireland , not by a long shot ( excuse the pun ) .  We must challenge their strategists and create the same environment for SF as they have for us —the cultural war is upon us  and it is time we stepped up to the mantle and took the bull by the horns before the DUP cave in entirely to SF and give away concession after concession . As for the IRA trying to paint their cause as just and only their cause , we’ve far too many atrocities carried out against our community to let that happen . It is time for loyalism and Unionism to wake up and fight back .  I suggest starting the fight with the Maze shrine —that would be an almighty spanner to throw into their works —lets cut their culture off at the head before it has even developed !!!

The Mad Monk