Unionist apathy and a return of centuries old ‘siege mentality’ will do more to bring about a united Ireland than anything nationalism does, an historian says.
Aaron Edwards’ new book, A People Under Siege, explores the “profound challenges” that the unionist community has faced over the past century. But in its analysis of the beliefs and mindset of Northern Ireland’s unionist community since Brexit, the book lays bare how a “referendum that began on the question of sovereignty quickly degenerated into cries of betrayal over a redrawn border in the Irish Sea, and has led to unionists becoming more insular again, resurrecting ethnic and nationalist notions of what constitutes the Union”.
Speaking to Belfast Live Edwards says that while the “loudest voices” are enjoying some success in elections “unionist apathy is going to end the union quicker than any kind of irredentist campaigning from new Irelanders”.
Read more: Stormont health chiefs welcome Irish government funding 250 student nurses
Younger voters, he believes, “really have no time for that old angry politics” with its narrow appeal to “culturally loyalist and Ulster centric” people. The DUP, he says, are now seen as “unfair and unkind, hardheaded, uncompromising, on just about every issue” with more “liberal, progressive, pluralist, more inclusive unionists” feeling “quite depressed at the way things have played out”.
Edwards cites the Macedon DEA, which includes areas like Rathcoole and Carnmoney Hill, where turnout at the local government election last month was only 49%. Reflecting on this more broadly, he says the DUP “are not able to connect well with their voter base” and not “energising” on issues beyond the Protocol and cultural identity.
The DUP, he says “has become a campaigning party again, it’s going back to its roots”
He adds: “It prefers almost to be on the streets, than governing institutions, making differences to people’s lives. It’s gone back in a way, at least part of the party, to the old Ian Paisley ‘in the wilderness’ style of politics, the original rabble rouser and they now seem to be working in conjunction with rabble rousers. That just does not appeal beyond a small number of people.”
The book also explores the state of progressive politics within unionism, but Edwards says it has been “eviscerated by Brexit” which has seen an amplification of “very right wing and very hard line and very hard headed voices”.
The demise of progressive unionism, however, did not begin with Brexit, Edwards argues. He says the “debacle over the Progressive Unionist Party in the wake of the flag protests” when an “influx of new members after the flag protests who were culturally loyalist, were right wing, and were just disgruntled with the DUP” joined and that “those progressive elements then progressively left”.
He says the irony is not lost on him that two people mentioned in the book, Dr John Kyle and Julie-Anne Corr Johnston, left the PUP to join the original establishment unionist party the UUP.
The book “examines how a people who believe themselves to be once again under siege are viewed by others beyond their community”. In doing so, Edwards “confronts the narrow, sectional beliefs and prejudices of unionists and loyalists, as well as outlining their more positive and forward-thinking aspects”.
“By embracing these, Edwards explains how divisions could be healed and a position reached of mutual acceptance, tolerance and understanding that will benefit the entire population”, the book blurb explains.
In its analysis of key moments through the century there is some controversial analysis. The book “challenges the assumptions that the Stormont period was primarily about discrimination against Catholics, providing evidence that the Unionist government was largely motivated to stop their supporters from voting for other pro-Union parties like the Northern Ireland Labour Party and Independent Unionists”.
Reflective of Brexit tensions between unionism and the Irish Government, the book explains “how the Unionist Party controlled its supporters by keeping them in a constant cycle of fear, anxiety and insecurity about the irredentist designs of the Irish government”.
Based on Orange Order archives, the book “provides evidence about how the Orange Order exerted influence over politicians and the electorate but in a way that was designed to maximise the return of Unionist Party MPs to Stormont”.
Documentary evidence is also cited “on how the Belfast and London governments worked together to defeat the IRA’s border campaign in the 1950s and 1960s, including the dispatch to Belfast of a senior MI5 officer Bill Magan to coordinate counter-insurgency efforts”. The book also looks at how RUC Special Branch spied on Ian Paisley. Paisley’s behaviour is further explored with regard to his “sustained attack” on Terence O’Neill’s liberalising agenda even though it was backed by the Orange Order.
On the terror that engulfed Northern Ireland, the book details how the Provisional IRA targeted and killed unionist politicians Robert Bradford and Edgar Graham, “including Jim Molyneaux’s allegation that the IRA colluded with loyalists in the latter’s murder”. Attempted assassinations of Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson also feature.
Other facets of Northern Ireland’s history featured include Army collusion with the UDA; the Ulster Workers’ Council strike in 1974; secret talks between unionist parties, Alliance, the SDLP and Fr Alec Reid.
Aspects of the early peace process are also explored including secret MI5 and RUC assessments on Gusty Spence and NIO decision to grant him early release, despite the advice of Lord Chief Justice Lowry. Billy Wright’s break from the UVF and Mid Ulster UVF’s “secret shadow network of paramilitaries intent on undermining the peace process” is also looked at in detail.
A People Under Siege is published by the Merrion Press and is priced at €19.99/£16.99.
READ NEXT:
Craigyhill bonfire Guinness World Record attempt abandoned to help sick local girl
Adam Street bonfire site could be used for housing, report suggests
Northern Ireland Protocol not very important to majority of voters, research finds
Paramilitary attack victims tell report authors of lives blighted by violence
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
