{"id":2780,"date":"2014-10-03T16:48:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T15:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2780"},"modified":"2014-10-03T16:48:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T15:48:55","slug":"uncharted-waters-we-are-a-people-william-ennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=2780","title":{"rendered":"Uncharted Waters: We Are A People: William Ennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>William Ennis is a mature student and an East Belfast based Progressive Unionist Party activist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Uncharted waters:\u00a0 We are a people<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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As Barak Obama claimed victory to become US president many cameras caught one particular figure in the crowd.\u00a0 Rev Jessie Jackson was stood in an extremely emotional state, the kind where the tears flow in ceaseless streams and dignity is quite happily abandoned.\u00a0 He had been present when Martin Luther King had been murdered and now he was bearing witness to the first black presidency.\u00a0 In an interview thereafter he explained that he knew an African American president had always been a possibility, but that black votes alone would not be enough to do it, white Americans would need to be convinced they had nothing to fear from a black president.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

I bought my first copy of uncharted waters<\/em> in 2004.\u00a0 At that time I had opinions which I would spray in the direction of anyone who would care to listen, but they were blunt and merely held <\/em>rather than formed<\/em>.\u00a0 I had not been a great fan of Ervine.\u00a0 Throughout my teens I didn\u2019t care what the question was, Paisley was the answer.\u00a0 When I first bought the book, having noticed it had been written by an old school teacher of mine, I had no idea the battering it would deliver to my know-it-all<\/em> stubborn little world.\u00a0 The affect the book had on me is rivalled only by that of the long walk to freedom (Nelson Mandela), <\/em>and the principles of Loyalism (Billy Mitchell)<\/em>, and it remains a cherished possession and source of reference to this day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Book, by Henry Sinnerton, charts from Ervine\u2019s childhood through his adolescence and into adulthood.\u00a0 Through his initial resistance to paramilitarism, to when he did indeed join the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF).\u00a0 Through his experience of the Long Kesh prison camp culminating in his post prison devotion to the politics of building peace against all odds.<\/p>\n

But this biography told me of more than just its primary subject.\u00a0 David\u2019s wife Jeanette endured a lonely but brave battle to build a life during her husband\u2019s incarceration with a young child to care for.\u00a0 Her story in itself would be worthy of print.\u00a0 In the chapter Parallel sentences<\/em> the degree to which a prisoner\u2019s sentence was not served by the prisoner alone is explored frankly and in many places Jeanette\u2019s story would bring tears to a stone.\u00a0 This is something I, as a civilian Loyalist, had not truly<\/em> appreciated.<\/p>\n

The book propels itself on how fresh Ervine\u2019s Unionism really was as it challenged many of Loyalism\u2019s sacred assertions.\u00a0 In the chapter entitled life in Long Kesh<\/em> Sinnerton relay\u2019s Ervine\u2019s account of the debates stoked by Gusty Spence.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018How dare we think we know everything about everything?\u00a0 We are the people?\u00a0 No, we are a people.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Spence, by affording his men opportunities to consider different perspectives, was encouraging them to question their inherited political beliefs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinnerton\u2019s unveiling of this Long Kesh<\/em> process unpacks the political journey of men such as Ervine, Hutchinson and others.\u00a0 A process which, it becomes clear through the quoted chapter and the following chapter\u2019s the Spence regime<\/em>, and Spence University<\/em>, was to be one focused on self discovery.<\/p>\n

The penny drops time and time again as one reads of this phase of Ervine\u2019s life because passages become strangely familiar.\u00a0 Familiar in that Ervine\u2019s determination and open-minded understanding of a given situation was to present itself often in the later party-leader<\/em> phase of his life as he time and again held the peace-process together despite the temper tantrums and self interested politicking of other parties.\u00a0 So obvious was the making of the man in Spence University<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The book also makes clear through Ervine\u2019s analysis the challenges faced by progressive unionists with the political battle to be fought essentially on two fronts, against Republicanism\u2019s desire to break the Union, and against the interest of self preservation habitually displayed by the DUP and UUP which Ervine considered to be at odds with what was best for the working class.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpence used his input to expose the deficiencies of Ulster Unionism, which had opposed every piece of enlightened legislation, like the National Health Service and family allowances…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinnerton\u2019s book, which I had only bought because I recognised the name of its author, released me from the dull mindset of paislyite<\/em> reactionary Unionism.\u00a0 It made me feel a complete and utter fool for having voted against the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) six years earlier.\u00a0 It exposed me to a Unionism I could relate to. It caused me to return to the book shelves and have a closer look at other political leaders of whom I had been weary, such as Mandela.\u00a0 It caused me, for the first time, to attach value to education.\u00a0 It caused me, (in tandem with the long walk to freedom<\/em>) to go back to school and put right how little I had achieved the first time round.\u00a0 It caused me to reject \u2018but that\u2019s what themuns <\/em>say\u2019 as a viable argument.\u00a0 It caused me to start asking questions about education, housing, how well society treats the disabled, poor wages, access to good health-care, building bridges with the Catholic community, building bridges with Northern Ireland\u2019s newly arrived communities.<\/p>\n

It caused me to join the PUP.\u00a0 It caused me to read the principles of Loyalism.<\/p>\n

It caused me to be able to agree with an Irish Nationalist without<\/em> questioning my Unionism.\u00a0 It caused me to stop buying into the nonsense theory that one must choose between Ulster Loyalism and British Unionism.\u00a0 It caused me to realise that, as David Ervine once said…<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicanism isn\u2019t contagious\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

It caused me to join a lobby group within the PUP to campaign for LGBT rights.\u00a0 It caused me to march against racism, as well as for the preservation of Loyalist traditions.\u00a0 It causes me to commend Irish nationalists at Stormont for their current committed stance against welfare cuts.<\/p>\n

It caused me to think for myself.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

Jackson knew that to have the impact needed to exact the change which was required a black candidate would need to appeal to more than just black voters.<\/p>\n

Those who will follow in the political footsteps of Ervine\u2019s generation will arrive at a juncture.\u00a0 The PUP has a proud and undeniable loyalist strand to our party\u2019s history and culture.\u00a0 Non-Loyalist voters most probably find this off-putting.\u00a0 I firmly believe that non-Loyalists have nothing to fear from genuine Loyalism.\u00a0 However, merely saying so isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

We shouldn\u2019t become any less Loyalist; after all, it\u2019s who we are.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t accept the responsibility of abating the fears of those who are distrustful of our Loyalism.\u00a0 With the growth of the real politick; this is a challenge we must meet.<\/p>\n

As far as challenges go, we\u2019ve overcome worse.<\/p>\n

William Ennis<\/p>\n

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