“There is indeed a major threat to unionism, but it comes from within itself”…

Davy Adams is a man who has had quite a journey. From being a loyalist paramilitary in Belfast to working for the Dublin-based charity Goal, where he worked in many countries across Africa and the Middle East. His newspaper columns are always worth reading for their reflective nature on our various issues, he really should write an autobiography. Anyway, his latest column for the Beltel reflected on the recent race riots. Some extracts:

In Belfast and elsewhere in NI, supposed Christians are attacking mosques. This comes, partly, from decades of constantly characterising all Muslims as extremists, which is as ridiculous and insulting as claiming that a majority of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland supported the respective paramilitary groups that emerged from amongst them.

I actually preferred working in Muslim countries. The vast majority of the people were welcoming, kind, and generous. Nor is there any great mystery to this: in my experience, at least 80% of Muslims actually live their faith. I’d be surprised if this is true of even 10% of self-identifying Christians. Indeed, the words, actions, and attitudes of many Christians have me wondering at times if there was another Jesus Christ that I haven’t heard of.

In Belfast and other places in NI, supposed Christians are attacking hospital and care staff and their homes simply because of their skin colour. I could go on forever: from the “foreign” surgeon and his multi-ethnic team who saved me from cancer and nursed me back to health — and the other multi-ethnic team of nurses and doctors who saved me from a second (unrelated) cancer — to the innumerable refugees from multiple ethnicities and faiths that I encountered in various parts of the world who would, quite literally, insist on sharing their last drop of coffee or morsel of bread with a visitor. In Belfast and other parts of NI, those dining on a Turkish kebab might conceivably return later that same night and petrol bomb the restaurant from which they bought it.

What was obvious recently, and has been confirmed by the latest LucidTalk poll, is that so much of this Islamophobia and more accurately, racism which sees any brown or black-skinned person made a target, emanates from the unionist community. Not every unionist is racist, but many overt racists are unionist. Nor is this confined to the unionist working classes.

Across the whole spectrum, racism exists to varying degrees: from top to bottom; from dog-whistling politicians to their electors; from an occasional minister of religion to their congregations. As someone from a unionist background, this saddens and embarrasses me almost as much as it angers me. However, it does not surprise me.

I’m almost 72 years old, and I can’t remember a time when unionism did not have an “enemy” to obsess over. New arrivals here are the latest in a long line of supposed threats to a culture that I have never once heard defined, no matter that immigrants amount to a mere 6% of our population, and only half of those are people of colour; or that many of them contribute massively to our society.

There is indeed a major threat to unionism, but it comes from within itself. I long ago gave up on my community ever realising this.

Brian O'Neill

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.