Owen Polley: All the old stereotypes about unionism no longer ring true
You are now landing in Belfast. Please set your clocks back 50 years (or even, in the telling of some wags, 300 years). Do you remember this old, unfunny joke or versions of it?
The punchline was probably sometimes intended to be self-deprecating. More often, I suspect, it was uttered by people who despised Northern Ireland and wanted to portray it as a relic, which should be consigned to history. In other words, the joke was directed, for the most part, at unionists.
To that end, it traded on the stereotype that pro-Union communities were made up of fundamentalist religious fanatics, wedded to an outdated form of Britishness. The implication was that they were motivated not so much by genuine allegiance to the UK as old-fashioned intolerance for their Catholic neighbours. Like most cliches, you could understand where it came from, thanks to figures like Ian Paisley, but it was wildly inaccurate.
The late UUP-leader and Nobel laureate, David Trimble, was abused for describing Irish nationalism as a monoculture, but he was closer to the mark. Despite the stereotypes, there is still more diversity of opinion and culture in unionism than Irish nationalism. That’s not an insult, it’s just a statement of the obvious.
The Catholic Church, admittedly, plays a much less central role in nationalism than it used to, for instance when De Valera boasted that southern Ireland was a ‘Catholic state’.
At the same time, it seems that Irish separatist culture, history and political assumptions still infuse institutions like Catholic schools and the GAA in a way that simply does not have a unionist equivalent.
For example, have you noticed how GAA clothing has become, in recent times, a kind of national uniform for those considering themselves primarily Irish? It was noticeable before, but it is practically inescapable now.
Ask yourself whether such cultural conformity would be possible among people who think of themselves as British. It would be wrong, though, not to admit that this could be judged a weakness for unionism, rather than a sign of vigour.
The things that used to form touchpoints of unionist identity, like the Orange Order, the Ulster Unionist Party and Protestant churches, have declined over the decades. Perhaps it was due to being shaped by dissenting religious traditions rather than a single Catholic church, but unionism has always seemed more disputatious and divided than nationalism.
This reflected the fact that the Irish identity, or at least the Irish nationalist identity, was usually more narrowly defined than Britishness. You could say that it was coherent, or you could claim that it was stifling and conformist, but there was more of a consensus among separatists about what Irishness meant, while Britishness was subjected to constant debate, reinvention and attacks from within.
That has made it increasingly difficult to persuade pro-Union people to vote for unionist parties. They are motivated by other things, aside from identity or the constitution, when they go to the polls. They are also already part of the UK and, aside from their place in the Union, they have different views about how our nation should be governed.
The unionist parties haven’t always given that due consideration, by engaging properly with national issues, and looking beyond the narrow interests of Northern Ireland.
At times, even professed unionists have, as a result, seemed confused about the difference between internal British politics and the constitutional question. You will hear a few of them, still, say they are willing to consider an all-Ireland state, because they’re temporarily disillusioned with a government at Westminster or appalled by a policy decision. They are, in truth, thoroughly immersed in British politics and its arguments, but this petulance can be confused by nationalists for genuine enthusiasm for a border poll.
In addition, the communities that used to be regarded as ‘unionist’ often seem more secular than nationalist areas. They’re prone to a type of empty progressivism, exemplified by the modern Alliance Party, which claims to be above constitutional politics.
The irony is that, as the rest of the UK and the rest of the world reacts against some of the excesses of ‘woke’ politics, they have become established strongly in Northern Ireland.
Contrary to the stereotype, it is not traditional unionists who are now behind the times on issues like gender, immigration and race, but nationalists and self-styled ‘centrists’ who still see them as a way to project a modern image.
The belief that gender is a matter purely of personal choice and identity, rather than something determined mostly by biology, is a perfect example. This ideology led, not just to changing social attitudes and an invasion of women-only spaces, but damaging medical interventions like puberty blockers and ‘gender affirmative care’, often administered to troubled or confused young people.
While the Cass Report and other developments saw the extremes of this dogma challenged successfully in Great Britain, Northern Ireland is still largely in its grip. This is thanks mainly to Alliance and nationalists, but the health minister and UUP leader, Mike Nesbitt, is also implementing and defending controversial ‘trans’ NHS services for Northern Ireland.
The good news is that attitudes here will start to change eventually too. As usual, though, received wisdom about who is holding us back, and who is trying to push us forward, is almost a complete inversion of reality.