The Other View

None of us like to admit we can be or are bigoted, but a recent report has clearly shown that in the north of Ireland sectarian attitudes are acquired from a early age. John Nixon examines current communal perceptions...

There is the joke about the Jew who visited Belfast for the first time and was asked if he was a protestant Jew or a catholic Jew. Northern people on hearing this can smile at the irony of the question while at the same time understanding the reasons which prompted it.

The late Cardinal Ó Fiaich made the observation that sectarianism was more endemic among Protestants than Catholics.

Today many people from either side of the religious divide would argue plausibly that sectarianism (of whatever sort) has few bounds and is to some extent or another ingrained on our personal conscience. If the Cardinal's opinion is accepted at face value then it is understandable when the PUP's Billy Hutchinson comes clean and shouts from the rooftops yes, I am a bigot, yes, I am sectarian. It's in us all. When Orange leaders at Drumcree refer to the PSNI as "a protestant police force for a protestant people" or when Craigavon proclaimed "a protestant parliament for a protestant people" these people really believed that this is how it was and how it always would and should be. All, of course, has changed…utterly.

Such a mindset is the corollary of cultural conditioning, which therefore requires enormous efforts to transcend it. Religious or doctrinal differences in the north are fought out chapter and verse in the various arenas and ultimately are esoteric and confined to a caste of people whose dogmatism is their own private vehicle to salvation. Religious bigotry (more so in the south than the north) does contain a theological ingredient.

Among republicans and socialists there is a smug belief that ideologically they rise above raw sectarian hatreds. It's more a fallacy bordering on fantasy.

From a nationalist perspective political Protestantism is as much about ethnic cleansing as it is about soul cleansing. It is about maintaining a 'them and us' dichotomy. People have built highly successful political careers and family dynasties via peddling pseudo religious doctrines and fostering 'ethnic' hatreds and sectarianism. It is done in many aspects of everyday life; it is done via overt and covert bigoted organisations. Within Unionism in general and among those who peddle political Protestantism in particular there is fear, confusion and sometimes incredible naiveté and this goes right across the whole social (class) and political stratum. Fear knows no boundaries.

When sectarianism raises its Gorgon head amongst republicans there is invariably a hark back to the state suppression of Presbyterians and the role of Protestant leaders in historic events from 1798 to the Gaelic Revival or emphasis on the need for a secularised state, a basic tenet of republican philosophy. All well and good but there's a dimension of reality clearly missing.

The young generations of politically aware republicans/socialists who know nothing of cultural cringes interpret things out of their own experiences. Perceptions indeed are everything but they reveal a lot more than current trends of thinking

To these generations the 'Huns' are culturally bankrupt, they are right wing reactionaries supporting right wing dictatorships (Israel or until recently South Africa), everything Catholics have fought for Protestants have benefited (civil rights, one man one vote, equality legislation), they have no sense of identity, bigotry is bred into them, they cannot accept equality, Britain doesn’t want them, the industries that fed them are decimated, they could not and would not diversify, demographic change frightens them, they hate change and equality, they prefer the old regime that oppressed them and so on ad infinitum.

The other view is that the 'Fenians' want to drive 'us' back into the sea and ultimately whatever is wrong today with Ulster is the result of unjustified republican violence and ethnic cleansing, the Fenians want a Gaelic catholic Ireland, and (more commonly) the 'Taigs' are getting too smart and doing too well at our expense and so on ad infinitum.

In total what such perceptions add up to, on whatever side, is the old maxims that 'We are right' and 'God is on our side'. Of course it's about much more than this. Many Unionists fear any change that threatens and diminishes their perceived hegemony.

They see their stakehold in future society threatened by anything that creates a level playing field for all. Already the institutions that proclaimed Unionist past dominance are being shook to new foundations. All of which makes for greater political, economic and social instability, which of course is exploited by those who have a vested interest in cultivating sectarian hatred and violence. It's no surprise then to anyone that sectarian divisions are increasing. Sectarianism lies at the heart of the conflict past, present and future. International perceptions of a bitter, divided sectarian community has kept away badly needed inward investment, hampered tourism development and cultivated apathy among those who mean well towards us.

Yet the reality is that only a small clique of mindless thugs and morons are actually involved in orchestrating sectarian violence. These people care little about the future well-being of their communities. They want to catapult us all into a downward spiral of deprivation and depravity . But we can't always keep laying the blame for all our troubles on the threshold of history.

The trade unions have unambiguously opposed sectarianism and the use of violence calling for unity among workers to oppose threats from bigots. The have remained a solid bulwark against inequality. But unions need to be involved in other forms of direct action to confront bigotry. As Mick Reilly of the AT&GWU commented:

"The trade union movement has within itself the basis of an ideology that might bring people together. But we need to go out and engage our people in discussion about this. One of the things we have not done is to seriously engage the membership and discuss these issues because we have been afraid of the difficulties that may arise from these kind of discussions."

There is no quick fix to ending sectarianism. It is part of human nature. However, I believe we can say honestly to the world that despite all our troubles that inexorably we are moving forward to a better if not, as yet, an agreed future.

 Contents

 Home Page