Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground

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If we have Scotland for the Scottish, England for the English, Wales for the Welsh, that leaves the last remnants of the Brits in Northern Ireland,” she said. (The Welsh First Minister recently also predicted the break-up of the United Kingdom.) “Northern Ireland for the British. What does it mean? What does it mean when that happens for people who hold on to this notion of identity that they can’t explain, but it’s something that they hold on to, like somebody’s trying to steal it from them? The DUP is not having those conversations.” This book could hardly be timelier. In 2021, Ulster Unionism / Loyalism finds itself at a crossroads. Having tied themselves to a Tory-driven Brexit during the last half-decade (just as the UK Conservative Party seemed to be jettisoning what remained of their own unionism), they find themselves betrayed by Boris Johnson, with the union of Britain and Northern Ireland apparently weakened by the Protocol agreement. Ulster Unionists are facing a demographic tipping point, with the likely loss of their long-standing majority status within Northern Ireland. And working-class Loyalists, claiming to have received no benefit from the long decades of relative peace, are now making ominous noises about ‘fighting to defend the union’.

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The book features almost 100 interviews with politicians, former paramilitaries, victims and survivors, business people, religious leaders, community workers, young people, writers, and others. Read More Related Articles I also spoke with Margaret Veitch and Joan Anderson in Enniskillen. They are angry and despairing. Their parents, Billy and Nessie Mullan, were murdered in the IRA’s Remembrance Day bombing in their home town in 1987. No one had been convicted for the sectarian atrocity and the sisters felt the victims and their families had been forgotten. She said: "I was very surprised because I suppose it's often believed that people in the Republic of Ireland don't have an interest in the North. I know from working in the south that it's often an uphill struggle to get southern media interested in northern stories, but it's good to see that book-buyers are having more of an interest in the north." A motion calling for the banning of conversion therapy, brought to Stormont in April by the Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie was passed. The DUP opposed it. First Minister Arlene Foster's abstention was cited as one of the reasons her party went on to oust her as leader. Belfast lord mayor Kate Nicholl says she had to limit social media due to receiving sexist messages

You have requested "on-the-fly" machine translation of selected content from our databases. This functionality is provided solely for your convenience and is in no way intended to replace human translation. Show full disclaimer This book is a very impressive collection of verbatim interviews with a broad spectrum of people who fall under the umbrella of Northern Protestants. My creativity emerged from the cognitive dissonance of growing up queer in a milieu that found me unpalatable and odd,” she said. She has returned to north Down with her English wife and child to make films and live by the sea. “Digital natives have access to ideas that go far beyond those imparted by the traditional cultural sources that informed their parents’ imaginations,” she observed. “There is a fluidity to their sense of persona and identity.” She likes the sense that Northern Ireland “has unclenched somewhat”. Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground, is the follow up to 2001's Northern Protestants - An Unsettled People, which is believed to have sold over 10,000 copies.Interviewees include politicians, community workers, religious leaders, former paramilitaries, victims and survivors, young people and business people from every corner of Northern Ireland. Some of it is familiar and depressing - the threats of violence if the protocol, this months loyalist bogeyman, is not removed. The ultra conversative fire and brimstone views of some of the religious leaders interviewed. And the sheer hopelessness of some of the young people. The pain of people who lost loved ones during the troubles is still understandably raw in many cases, compounded by the governments recent pronouncements on how they are treating the legacy of the troubles. The RHI scandal gets a few mentions too.

The DUP now seems very out of step, and I think the UUP had been on social issues as well, until very recently. Amnesty International did a poll recently where they shared that 67% of DUP voters felt that abortion should not be regarded as a crime. So their politics are out of step with the views of their voters.She also has 47 international caps for Northern Ireland and has been known since childhood as “the wee footballer.” She talked to me about how important sport is in building confidence and physical and mental resilience among girls. Living in Northern Ireland and growing up from mid teens in the midst of an identity crisis, where death and destruction were commonplace and the "other" were always suspect. It was almost impossible to gain any traction on what was really happening. Politics were always reactionary. There was little time to pause and reflect on how others were feeling. When I go to Britain, the 'mainland', I don't fit in. They think I'm a 'paddy'... I don't see myself in the Republic... there's no place for me there." Despite all, she says she belongs here. Google me," he said. "There's reams about me in the media" accusing him of all kinds of crime. "There's no evidence for any of it", he says. One of the reasons I write about Northern Protestants, in general, is because I think there's such a diversity in that community and it's not always recognised. People only tend to think of political unionism - and even then, quite a narrow view of that - whereas there's a more varied community than people think or that they see when they look at politicians."