Academic: My concern at SDLP leader’s response to the Northern Ireland census findings

After the census revealed that there are now more Catholics in Northern Ireland than Protestants, the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood issued a statement that seemed to convey his delight at the findings (scroll down to see Mr Eastwood’s statement).

For him, the figures showing a greater proportion of Catholics living in NI for the first time “amounted to a seminal moment in the island’s recent history” and a “moment of real change”. Religious affiliation, then, still appears to be the procreative germ of Irish political structures. For Mr Eastwood, the results show that “we have together shattered the bonds of an oppressive state which engrained discrimination against a Catholic minority in its every outworking for far too long”.

Depressingly, this is nationalist ‘oldspeak’, the anachronistic language of resistance against an alleged historical reality 50 years old. Would Seamus Mallon have spoken like this? Who are the “we” in Mr Eastwood’s congratulations? He hauls that history into the present when he alleges that those who have experienced discrimination in Northern Ireland can “breathe a sigh of relief” after census results revealed more people identify as Catholic than Protestant. As though Catholics have been holding their breath, waiting for an anti-Catholic unionism to reincarnate itself and resume its domination: hence the “sigh of relief”!

For a moment, we can reluctantly reply in Mr Eastwood’s own terms and put the religious results in a broader context.

Over the past century, the Republic of Ireland has not been just a cold house for Protestants, but a virtual igloo. Through a covenant between the Catholic Church and the state, a Protestant population of 10% in 1922 fell to 3% by 1990 with a slight rise to 4% in our day.

I cannot recall relentless charges of systemic discrimination, which Mr Eastwood makes against Stormont, being made against Irish governments. Which is what it was: WB Yeats when an Irish senator said so.

By contrast, Northern Ireland for the Catholic population, despite Protestant anti-Catholicism, has been a virtual greenhouse (pun intended) — roughly 34% in 1922 swelling to almost 46% today by census declaration (and likely higher). Protestants down to 43.5%.

If NI in the past half-century since Stormont fell has been a cold house for Catholics, it has had a funny way of showing it.

It has always been distasteful to see the future of Northern Ireland, indeed Ireland, reduced to a sectarian headcount. I believe that Mr Eastwood responded to the census in ways that could signal to the Catholic population: Thankfully our time has come. It bodes ill.

Jack Foster, Victoria, Canada, Professor emeritus, University of British Columbia

• Below we reproduce Mr Eastwood’s statement on the census, so readers can make their own assessment of it

SDLP STATEMENT:

_______________________

Eastwood: Census figures demonstrate total transformation of our society

Commenting on the publication of the latest round of 2021 census data today, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood MP said that the North has been totally transformed 100 years on from partition.

Mr Eastwood said that figures demonstrating a greater proportion of Catholics living in Northern Ireland for the first time amounted to a seminal moment in the island’s recent history that should not be downplayed or diminished out of fear or insincere politicking.

The SDLP Leader urged people to undertake a serious and sincere reflection on the scale of change we have experienced and to take part in a conversation about the powerful potential for a social democratic new Ireland.

Colum Eastwood MP said: “This is a seminal moment in the history of modern Ireland. The census figures published today reveal that, by any measure, the constitution of the North has been transformed utterly 100 years on from partition. That is a moment of true change because it reflects a sustained period of lasting change.

“As we have built a more inclusive and diverse society, we have together shattered the bonds of an oppressive state which engrained discrimination against a Catholic minority in its every outworking for far too long. We are never going back to state sponsored discrimination against any religious minority. I hope that all those who lived through decades of discrimination and who experienced the sharp end of that oppressive state are able to breathe a sigh of relief today.

“The significance of this transformation should not be downplayed or diminished out of fear or insincere politicking. I acknowledge that today’s figures may generate feelings of insecurity for some. But it is my honest hope that we can all now take a moment of serious and sincere reflection about the scale of change we have experienced and commit to a conversation about the powerful potential for change in the future.

“My view is that we have an opportunity to build a social democratic new Ireland. A new society where we can create opportunity for everyone and share prosperity with every community. We no longer have to be one of the poorest regions in one of the most unequal societies in Europe, we can set a different course, a return to the European Union, a return to ambition and aspiration for all of our people. But that new path won’t be achieved by counting Catholics and Protestants or setting one community against another. We can only get there by replacing old battles of identity with a new contest for ideas.

“It is the challenge of this generation to forge a new future. Today’s results show the scale of change that is possible. We have to grasp the opportunity together.”

SDLP STATEMENT ENDS