Post Nationalism is a sign of political maturity…

In the history of ideas, Nationalism has burst through as nearly universal in its application, understanding and complexity. The Northern Ireland political scene has long been described as two competing nationalisms, our polity birthed as it was in the cradle of nationalist fervour unleashed on the battlefields of the Great War and continuing into the 1920s with Ireland’s (eventual) split from the British Empire.

What we colloquially call “unionism” is a form of British nationalism intent on protecting the interests of British citizens here, maintaining a socio-legal link with the island of Great Britain and a promotion of the long heritage of interplay between these islands known to them as the “British Isles.”

Irish nationalism had an ideological head start so to speak; it began as an idea that the people of Ireland were Irish and their heritage of self-governance before Anglo-Norman invasion and before the upset of the Ulster Plantation was to be drawn from so that this island could take a seat amongst global nations. It is rooted in separatist reform, change and revolution whereas Unionism is rooted in tradition, good governance and the status quo.

Yet both ideas are a means to an end, formed as they are for a given people in a given situation. Take the Irish Free State, founded by Cumann na nGaedheal, a broad-church nationalist coalition which soon petered out to be replaced by a loose 2 party system of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. Due to their civil war legacies, these two parties started out as nationalist movements not bogged down by socio-economic debates of ‘left and right.’

But as time went on the Free State grew into the Irish Republic, a modern European democracy with all the trappings of an ancient state. Fianna Fail became the party of builders, slum clearance programmes and supporting the rural working and lower middle classes. Fine Gael became the party of bookkeepers, defending state institutions and appealing to an urban middle class.

Sinn Fein boast of being the only all island nationalist movement, but even they slipped into the reality that their nationalism was only a methodological idea when they barely spoke of it at the last Dáil Éireann race – in comparison to the very real possibility of a border poll in this decade. Instead, election posters on the insurance industry, pensions and the housing crisis were unveiled to much fanfare and very nearly propelled the party into government.

With the rise of ‘socialist’ Sinn Fein offering real policy solutions to southern voters and the Alliance party offering a liberal internationalist vision to northern voters it looks very much like Irish democracy is maturing beyond old nationalisms. We see the ideological lines sharpening along this left/right socio-economic spectrum as Fine Gael look set to be the main centre right contender against a centre left Sinn Fein in any future Irish coalition (its unclear where FF stand in this future contest).

The existential crisis within unionism wrought by the realisation of what Brexit means in practice, has led Ben Lowry to charge Liberal Unionism as being part of the problem and not any kind of solution for unionism, instead advocating “firm” unionism. Yet it’s hard to decipher who liberal unionists are, he charged the DUP as moving into a liberal direction but until Sammy Wilson quotes John Stuart Mill or Bertrand Russel on the green benches I won’t hold my breath.

Liberalism might kill ‘unionism’ but it certainly will not kill the ‘union link.’ This is where the political maturity of NI will take us. It will be a constitutional discussion of dispassion (as far as the old nationalistic passions are concerned) and a discussion on socio-economic life in Northern Ireland towns, villages and cities.

To understand the shifting political sands, we should view parties here within this ‘post-nationalist’ lens and finally accept that unionism and nationalism are not ideologies or philosophies, they are merely methodologies to govern us into (or out of) the socio-economic situations individuals and families find themselves living in.

“People in Howth – Dublin, Ireland – Black and white street photography” by Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com) is licensed under CC BY

Jay Burbank

Jay is a Derry native now living in south Antrim and working in Belfast. His writing spans Law, Economics and International relations.

*He writes in a strictly personal capacity*