Ben Lowry: There is no need for increased shopping hours on the '˜quiet' day, Sunday

The controversy surrounding Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech on immigration still rages, 50 years after it was delivered.
Central Belfast was once shut and grey and empty on Sundays but now has afternoon shopping. Is there any real need to increase such shop hours now other than to maximise profits for retail outlets?Central Belfast was once shut and grey and empty on Sundays but now has afternoon shopping. Is there any real need to increase such shop hours now other than to maximise profits for retail outlets?
Central Belfast was once shut and grey and empty on Sundays but now has afternoon shopping. Is there any real need to increase such shop hours now other than to maximise profits for retail outlets?

The anniversary of his address reminded me of the time that I went to hear Mr Powell speak.

It was in 1986. I was 14 and was beginning to get interested in politics, as was a school friend of mine.

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His uncle took us to an Ulster Unionist association political meeting, which the then South Down MP Mr Powell addressed, in a country hall somewhere near Dundonald.

Enoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday tradingEnoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday trading
Enoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday trading

My recollection was that it was summer, and a bright evening but it must in fact have been a sunny evening in early April because there was a motion at the beginning of the meeting on Sunday opening (which, by checking online, I can see was being debated in Westminster that very month).

Before his talk, Mr Powell briefly explained his opposition to Sunday trading and then the matter was put to the room for a voice vote.

Everyone in favour of the motion ( against Sunday opening) was invited to say ‘aye’, which a chorus of voices in the room did.

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Everyone against the motion (ie in favour of Sunday opening) was invited the say ‘no’.

Enoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday tradingEnoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday trading
Enoch Powell canvassing in South Down in 1983. In 1986, Ben Lowry as a teenager heard Powell speak at a unionist meeting, at the beginning of which he affirmed his opposition to Sunday trading

There was silence.

I remember it well because I wanted to say ‘no’, in which case I would have been the only person in the room to do so. I was far too timid in my early teens to speak out alone.

At that age, when it was fun to go to a record shop and buy a ‘single’ or just hang out in shopping areas, the prospect of Sunday opening was a welcome one. It would banish the dull, depressing Ulster sabbath, in which everything, including many leisure centres, was shut.

Most of us do somersaults away from some of the views that we held when we were youths, and for me Sunday opening is one such.

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That summer, in 1986, on my first visit to Spain, with family, I remember us being on a beach on a Sunday in which there was a beer stall where rock music was playing.

People were standing around in bikinis and swimming trunks.

Such a Sunday seemed like a paradise, and a world away from grey, church-bound Northern Ireland. Now it is the prospect of free-flowing alcohol and blaring rock music on a Sunday that makes me shudder.

A quiet N. Ireland sabbath, by contrast, in which you notice things such as the weather, seems a glorious, albeit threatened, thing.

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This is not to recommend a return to 1950s Sundays or the locking up of swings, but rather to question the wisdom of further relaxing things such as Sunday drinking or shopping hours.

The matter is now under debate in Belfast, where councillors are to decide on whether to make the city a tourist resort, which would increase Sunday shopping hours in the spring and summer months.

But is this necessary? I think not. The aforementioned 1986 Sunday opening bill, pushed by Margaret Thatcher but opposed by Enoch Powell and the Ulster Unionists at the meeting I attended (and by traditionalist Tory MPs), was defeated.

However, in the 1990s Sunday opening did come in. Now shops can open in Northern Ireland for five hours, typically 1pm to 6pm.

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There is no compelling need to change this except to increase store profits. It is absurd to say that visitors are somehow trapped if they are denied access to major retail outlets for one morning a week.

In many western countries, even increasingly irreligious ones such as France, there are strict prohibitions on Sunday opening. A range of voices, from trade unionists to churches, oppose liberalisation.

We all need a day of rest, atheist or believer, and it is good for family life and the bonding of society if it is the same day of the week.

My own view is that Sunday should be a day of quiet — that we should be allowed do what we want, from sport to church to lounging on a sofa, if it does not intrude on other people’s need for rest and stillness.

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If you want to go to a nightclub on Sunday night, fine, so long as the club’s entertainment licence requires strict sound-proofing.

But even if we cannot all agree that Sunday should be fully a day of quiet, then at least we should agree that Sunday morning is such — a sole section of the week in which very little happens formally apart from faith gatherings (including atheist Sunday brunches).

In general, this is how Sunday mornings are. That is why cyclists take to the relatively traffic-free roads on Sunday morning.

Let’s keep it that way, and keep the shops shut until the afternoon.

Ben Lowry (@BenLowry2) is News Letter deputy editor

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