Peace is of course a good thing. I remember to well the alternative. But if Peace has a downside it is the narrative that Norn Iron is all about the Giants Causeway, Titanic and “Royal” visits. That Norn Iron is all about Reconciliation.
Reconciliation only lasts as long as a photo-opportunity with both DUP and Sinn Fein…the New Order who dominate our Power-Sharing Executive have not realy left their Past in the Past. Curiously they are mutually supportive of each other..when it comes to the Crunch. In our fractured Society, their own supporters are more likely to vote for them if they constantly expose each other as the “bogey man”.
Take the DUP. In public Peter Robinson the First Minister. is every inch the New Ulsterman. For that matter…in public…Martin McGuinness is every inch the New Irishman.
And Power Sharing is of course good. Two communities sharing Power in proportion to their size. Locked in together…forever. Of course it is not the right of Nationalists to choose who speaks for the unionists. But sometimes there are values which cannot be acceptable.
The DUP is probably less than 5,000 strong. It has over forty five MPs and MLAs and the vast majority happen to be members of the Free Presbyterian Church………which is only 30,000 in number. Yet 200,000 vote DUP……..all from the Protestant communities of course……but not all “religious” or “saved”. Most are passive in religious terms. So the bizarre thing is that most DUP politicians believe that most of their own voters are going to Hell.
Of course thats a situation thats the same in (say) Texas. The average Christian “fundamentalist” will accept votes from sinners.
We put the God of Power-Sharing above Everything. Living in parallel universes we cannot criticise things which are downright wrong. Take Edwin Poots…DUP member and Minister for Health. He is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church. Mr Poots is a “new earth” creationist…….he believes that the Earth is just 6,000 years old. ……..which is fair enough. Except that it is stupid. Welcome to Norn Iron. Welcome to the er Giants Causeway……..it is 6,000 years old……….just like everything else in the World. Which when you think about it……is not very impressive at all.
I suppose Mr Poots is entitled to eccentric views. I am entitled to mine. But Pootsy is Minister for Health. And Pootsy imposes a ban on Norn Iron gay people donating blood. Homosexual Blood is seemingly……bad blood. There is of course no scientific evidence for this. But thats not the point for people like Poots. Donating blood is one of the most altruistic things a person can do. I have even done so myself……..best quality Rhesus Negative since you ask……I no longer donate blood for medical reasons but I have received blood in surgery. So has my wife, one son and a daughter-in-law. Our family has probably received more blood than it has donated. Thats how it goes. And I really dont care about the sexual orientation of the donors. Mr Poots does.
Now the very odd thing is that Mr Poots own Department…….Health…imports Blood. From among other places Britain and the Republic of Ireland where there are no bans on donations from gay donors. So Poots is not even “protecting” (as some would see it …people from Norn Iron). He is merely enforcing his own prejudices about gay people and taking away a right of gay people to serve a community in an altruistic spirit.
SDLP Youth have organised petitions to reverse the ban. But thats the problem with Power-Sharing. I do not believe for one minute that the majority of people of ANY faith are against gay people giving blood….yet this is a totemic issue. The majority of the 200,000 who vote for Poots party will see it as total nonsense but wont readily change their vote.
Mr Poots will be replaced next year as Health Minister by party colleague, Jim Wells. A change in policy is extremely unlikely. Last year, Wells rejected an invitation from Belfast’s (Gay) Pride Festival stating he did not want to be associated with the event ……..which is of course his right……..but he has no right to tell people that he finds their (gay) behaviour “repugnant”.
This is the real Norn Iron behind the carefully nurtured facade of Titanic, friendly people, Giants Causeway, MTV Awards.
Yet Jim Wells might claim that this is a religious view to which he is entitled. It is not Bigotry in itself. But I have always believed that those who deny the rights of (say) gay people ……will go further and deny the rights of (say) women, an ethnic minority or the disabled. Homophobes tend to be Sexist and Racist also.
But Jim Wells stands exposed today. He simply does not seem to know that Twitter is not a “private” medium. What you tweet and re-tweet gets noticed. Lack of character can be exposed in up to 140 Characters. Mr Wells re-tweeted a “joke”. It said the Irish had taken the gold, the lead from the roofs and the copper piping from the changing rooms.
Poor Jim. Good luck with the Damage Limitation on that one. The best Jim’s spokesman (I should say “spokesperson” but in the DUP its always a man) can come up with is that he did not intend to “re-tweet”. He intended to delete it.
A more likely scenario is that Wells is simply anti-Irish. Which might be considered a bad thing in itself……particuarly in a place where 44% of the population consider themselves “Irish”. And it might even be considered to be detrimental to making a career as a Minister for Health.
Do we have to get alonong with these people? Well unfortunately we do. Thats the downside of Peace. That Bigotry is sewn into our “constitution”. Now of course there are nationalist, catholic and republican bigots and indeed we are obliged by the New Order (and “Creative Ambiguity”) to repeat the mantra that “we are all victims and we are all guilty”……Which is of course nonsense. Peace is not about splitting the difference between opposing views. Some views…..on homophobia, gender, race…….cannot be appeased. They must be confronted. And defeated. Obviously be peaceful means.
Thus a philosophy…..that is Republican…….which aspires to Equality, Liberty and Fraternity is actually better. We should not be constrained in proclaiming it.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Hmmm,
Well of course the mask slips yet again from a Unionist Politician. This illustrates why Peter Robinsons outreach nonsense has no chance of any success. Not that it was aimed at Nationalists in the first place.
I think you are trying to reclaim the mantle of true Republicanism from the Shinners. A noble aim! I’m not convinced the SDLP can do this but I will observe with interest.
The surprising thing…or maybe its no surprise….is that the “outreach” line is swallowed by people who should know better.
Unionist attitudes to the ‘Irish’ are well understood in the North – the link below includes an exchange between an otherwise very reasonable chap who supports Norn iron football team and meself on the use of derogratory terms for the South. The exchange takes place on neutral territory (Sundeland FC independent blog) sparked by the debate over the boy McClean and the abuse he received.
His denials of racist terminolgy on OWC (OurWeeCountry) are about as convincing as Jimbo Wells’s.
http://salutsunderland.com/2012/06/james-mcclean-northern-ireland-and-the-republic-of-ireland-eligibility-and-divided-sympathies/
Some good reading there.
Very well written post, if you don’t mind me saying. People are so wrapped up in the sectarian (religious) interpretation when it comes to labelling everything relating to the conflict in the north-east, thanks to lazy journalists both domestic and foreign, that they forget the main driver of the “Troubles” – nationality. The culture amongst some in the British minority is not simply anti-Catholic (as the British media and government would have it) but anti-Irish.
There is a fundamental “colonial” attitude at the heart of Unionism in Ireland the discussion of which has become strictly verboten in polite circles (Slugger O’Toole, et al). I remember getting into an initially polite discussion with a “liberal Unionist” contributor to Jason Walsh’s now defunct Forth magazine who rapidly descended into quasi-racist abuse when he started loosing the debate. It didn’t take much scratching on my behalf for the “Planter” in him to come out.
I know Unionists tend to rocket into the stratosphere when one makes the comparison but the South African analogy does have some validity, in some circumstances.
The Poots controversy is one of them.
Theres certainly a South African colonial dimension. Although I prefer the Rhodesian comparison. Colonial Kenya, Malta, Cyprus, Malaya even. But in 2012 the “colonial dimension” doesnt work quite so well….Britain has evolved and younger unionists cant see South Africa as old “Union of South Africa terms” I am actually old enough to remember the assassination of Henrik Vorwoedt (sp).
The reall parallel is to modern (sic) unionists is the American Bible Belt or the West Bank of the Jordan.
Gun toting Americans in Texas see themselves as being gifted the land from GOD at the expense of native American and Mexican. Indeed only Divine Intervention can be used as evidence because any other explanation is not credible. Likewise the Zionists use the GOD thing. And so do unionists. We are all children of God but to American vigilantes in Texas, Zionists on the West Bank and unionists in Fermanagh……Mexicans, Palestinians and the Irish are children of a lesser GOD.
As Bangor Dub states above…..sometimes the mask slips.