Protestant civil society and the need for cultural heroes

In the midst of the (sometimes paranoid) gloom, Glenn Patterson focuses on the new tranche of government money aimed at specifically protestant communities across Northern Ireland, and argues that the government must do more than simply gift the money or even manage it effectively. It must seek to mussle the most self destructive tendencies of Loyalist paramilitaries. Not least in allowing the return of one of NI’s most talented playwrights:

Gary Mitchell should be an example to young working class Protestants of what they can achieve. While he remains in hiding he is a symbol of why so many of those young people still see no point in trying.

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