Issue No.16 Spring 2004

The Causes of the Conflict
By Billy Mitchell

Frequently during the debate on decommissioning spokespersons for mainstream republicanism reiterated the mantra “there can be no decommissioning until the causes of the conflict are removed”. For republicans “the causes of the conflict” are rooted in so-called British imperialism. Get “the Brits” out and the core cause of the conflict will be removed and the unionist community will suddenly realise that they were Irish all along. Problem solved. Conflict over. Republicans, by and large, are nationalists at heart. They subscribe to the doctrine that for every nation there must be a state. Thus, if Ireland is a nation, there must be an all-Ireland state and that can only be achieved when the British are expelled from Ireland.

For unionists “the causes of the conflict” stem from the nationalist doctrine that all who live on the island of Ireland constitute an Irish Gaelic Nation that must have its own political state and model of citizenship. Unionists make a distinction between “national identity”, “citizenship” and “nationalism”. For unionists, citizenship within the context of the United Kingdom is about political identity rather than about national identity. Those citizens of the United Kingdom who regard themselves as Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish in terms of national identity are still able to enjoy full citizenship within the United Kingdom. Citizenship within the United Kingdom has nothing to do with nationalism, culture or religion. It is about political identity and loyalty to the concept of the Union.

The peoples who form the unionist community come from a number of diverse cultures and traditions – Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh and some of Huguenot descent. Thus they wish to maintain citizenship within a state that acknowledges and validates their historic family origins and the traditions and culture that flow from those historic roots. Since the political rupture of this island when 26 counties seceded from the Union the six counties that form Northern Ireland remain part of the Union and continue to enjoy British citizenship. Even those people of (southern) Irish descent living in Great Britain who look to the Republic of Ireland as home and who are regarded by the Irish Government as part of the Irish Diaspora are still able to enjoy full citizenship within the United Kingdom. It is estimated that some seven million people of (southern) Irish extraction living in Great Britain enjoy full British citizenship. That is considerably more, almost double, the number of Irish people living in the Irish Republic.

The 1916 Proclamation was quite specific that “The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman”. The framers of the 1916 Proclamation thus claimed that the unionist community must give allegiance to the Irish Republic– an allegiance that they were not prepared to give. Ever since, Irish Republicanism has consistently demanded that the unionist community gives up its citizenship of the United Kingdom and pledges allegiance to the Irish Republic. This demand is based on the flawed belief that
(1) there is only one people living on the island of Ireland who owe their allegiance to an independent Irish state and (2) that the Irish state has a right to exercise political control over the whole island.

The assumption by nationalists that Ireland was always one single undivided nation until the intervention of the British is without historical foundation. It is a well cultivated myth that no credible historian or politician takes seriously. Indeed it was not until the seventeenth century that Ireland was united for the first time under a central administration – by the English.

The assumption that because Ireland is an island the people of the island constitute an Irish Nation that has a right to political control of that island has no legal standing in either natural law or international law. If such a law did exist it would have political implications for a great many nations. Bernard Crick has pointed out that “while the nationalist theory of the state is a common one, it is not a universal rule”. Crick goes on to identify a number of modern multi-national states.

According to the argument put forward by republicans neither Wales nor Scotland are justified in seeking independence. Both are part of the one geographical island-unit and, since the English are the majority on that island, it is really up to the English what happens to Scotland and Wales. Two political nation-states – Haiti and the Dominican Republic – exist side by side on the one island. There are approximately twenty “land locked” countries with no outlet to the open sea that function as sovereign states. Who set the boundaries for these countries? Why should all, or some, of these states not be incorporated into a larger neighbouring state? There are also a number of sovereign states known in international law as “total enclaves” which are situated within other sovereign states: - Lesotho within South Africa, San Marino within Italy, Vatican City within Italy, Singapore within Malaysia, Monaco within France and Gambia within Senegal. Why have they a right to opt out of the states within which they are located? Who set the boundaries? Why can the same criteria not be applied to Northern Ireland?

The unionist community insist that they have a right to a homeland on the island of Ireland. Our people have been here for over three hundred years – longer than Europeans have been in America – and we regard this as our home. Geographically, we live on the island of Ireland and in that sense are Irish. But politically we choose to be citizens of the United Kingdom and to maintain the historic social, economic and cultural links between all the peoples of these islands.

In determining the rights of people to possess the land the question to be asked is not, “Which state lays claim to the land”? but “Which state do the inhabitants wish to belong to”? Michael Walzer, sometime Professor of Government at Harvard University, argues, “it is the coming together of a people that establishes the integrity of a territory”. The integrity of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom lies in the will of the people of Northern Ireland.

Before there can be geographical unity there must be a unity of purpose and a unity of ideology between all the people of this island. That unity of purpose and unity of ideology is missing. Bombing the Brits out of Ireland or the unionist community into a united Ireland will not remove the causes of the conflict.

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