Recent polls have shown that sixty percent of voters in both the North, and the Republic believe it is important for governments to be for the reunification of Ireland.There are two points that most readily spring to mind: firstly, the question of ‘how important is achieving a United Ireland?’ is rather strange wording. One could answer such by recognising the end of partition as a historically important event; likewise, one could just as easily look at it from a personal vantage and, though they would like to see the country made whole, they’d prioritise their granny’s need for a hip replacement. Secondly, there is the age-old problem of the conflation of ‘Protestant’ and ‘unionist,’ as well as ‘Catholic’ and ‘nationalist.’
Our thinking around green and orange has all too often been black and white. Both former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald have each stated an interest in, post a hypothetical reunification, seeing Orange parades through Dublin streets.
To borrow a line from Seamus Heaney, ‘Christ, it’s near time some small leak was sprung’ in an understanding of the unionist community.
There are estimated to be fewer than 30,000 members of the Orange Order today, while at the last census in 2021, over 600,000 people reported their identity as ‘British only,’ to say nothing of those who were ‘British and Irish,’ ‘Northern Irish’ or some variation thereof. To afford Varadkar and McDonald the best of generosity we can perhaps argue their statements on the Orange Order were indicative: offering an olive branch, to start a conversation. Yet this seems rather cynical, as the numbers would suggest that 95% of those we umbrella into the term ‘PUL community’ have little-to-no interest in Orangism. Such a gesture would be rather akin to Jim Allister voicing his support for people saying the Rosary on the Glider: quaint at best.
Required reading ought to be The Ghost Limb by Claire Mitchell, a Belfast writer from a Protestant background, though not particularly religious, less so political, and culturally Irish. The central theme of the book is her interest in the 1798 rebellion, which was very much a movement of Protestant Ireland responding to the Enlightenment in Europe. Through the book she interviews various people around the North who may be P but not so much U or L.
‘If I had to be pigeonholed, I’m Protestant,’ said Matthew, a PhD student at Queen’s. ‘Never went to church growing up, but I went to an integrated primary school. Basically as close to nothing as you can be.’
As it seems Orangism is a minority interest, and religiosity is generally in decline, it seems pertinent for serious people to start thinking about what ties ‘This Place’ to Britain. Perhaps it is the ‘golden link of the Crown’ as championed by Daniel O’Connell. Yet even this seems reductive or, at the very least, off the mark. It is worth considering that the old battle cry was never ‘For Queen and Country’ but ‘For God and Ulster.’ The question that must be asked is how many people positively and profoundly believe in the concept of a single nation across the two islands?
As I am wont to do, I shall invoke Louis MacNeice:
‘I was a rector’s son, born to the Anglican order,
Banned forever from the candles of the Irish poor.’
‘My father made the walls resound
He wore his collar the wrong way round.’
The poet’s father was John MacNeice, Bishop of Down and Connor (later Cashel), Rector of St. Nicholas’ Church in Carrickfergus. He is often labelled a Home Ruler or a Nationalist due to his being one of the few Protestant clergymen not to have signed the Ulster Covenant and his refusal to allow a Union Flag to fly over the grave of Edward Carson at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. Yet, not being a unionist does not automatically make one a nationalist, albeit more persuadable. Firstly, he was from Co. Galway and thus a man of Connacht rather than Ulster; and secondly, primarily, his being a Christian and recognising there is only one Covenant, and it is somewhat grander than the boundaries of the northernmost province of our wee island. His objection to the flag over Carson’s grave, was purely a matter of protocol, as there was no protocol for flags to be flown over the tombs of military leaders in Churches, and thus JF MacNeice did not see why Carson should be afforded the unique privilege.
Of course, it should not be needed to be pointed out that conversations of ‘who are the Unionists?’ cannot be left up to the SDLP’s New Ireland Commission or the pages of The Irish Times. The mic needs to be wrestled out of the hands of extremists such as Jim Allister or Jamie Bryson. There is a desperate dearth of leaders within Unionism, who can actually represent their communities for the best of what they are, what they need, as opposed to simply pointing to the fleg over their heads.
‘Northern Ireland is in its terminal phrase,’ wrote Neil Hegarty, which he said was evidenced by the levels of socio-economic deprivation in his native Derry, a city ‘locked in a senseless connection with Belfast.’ The best case for a United Ireland will be an economic case, targeted at the people, at present, happy to ‘stay as we are,’ and founded on the principle of making the north of Ireland work. That means greater North-South cooperation, with projects like the Narrow Water Bridge, that will provide mutual benefit to underdeveloped areas on both sides of the border; creating a real, tangible shared economy in those areas that will confine the border itself to the map, while life on the island runs as free and unencumbered as the rivers. Northern Ireland has been a calamity for the north of Ireland, and the question is: can unity make it work?
Fionnbharr Rodgers has written articles, poems, and a short story for History Ireland, Northern Slant, Slugger O’Toole; A New Ulster, Blackbird, Blackbox Manifold; and Stoneboat Literary Journal.
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