Letter: The third generation of unionists has become weak, complacent and spoilt

Taking a generation as roughly thirty years, we have had three generations since the foundation of the state of Northern Ireland Ireland.

The first generation, against fierce opposition and British treachery, they make a habit of that, built its foundations. Irish nationalists who felt betrayed, refused to recognise the state, and unionists, of all classes, were determined to make it work. This set the tone for the next hundred years, and a century of conflict.

The next generation built on the foundations their fathers had laid, and maintained it. They didn’t know it but their very success had created an air of complacency, and the cracks were starting to show. They papered over the cracks, but the weakness was there and it would come back to haunt them. In time it did; it created an Alliance mentality.

The third generation, weaker, complacent, and spoilt, was not made of the same stern stuff as their parents. They had been fattened, like Christmas turkeys, and were ready to be plucked.

The ‘Troubles’ exposed their weak underbelly, and softened them up. Some showing the same defiant spirit as their fathers, despite a few leaks, kept the ship afloat. We didn’t know it then, but this was the last generation that had serious links with our past. Their faith, their courage, and their loyalty, like a good wine, had been consumed, and we had drunk the last bottle.

I see nothing to suggest that this present generation has the capacity to lead us back from the brink. It is a generation that has lost its soul, and lost its way, and I fear there may be no way back.

We are losing, and need a rebuild, but we need leaders who have vision and see that; we need a new vision! We need leaders to look our community straight in the eye and tell it the truth; we have been betrayed, and only an act of God will change that; unfortunately the churches are no help.

Our fathers blew the bugle to muster and signal the birth of a nation, but we have grown fat and lazy, and in our weakness are sounding the last post.

If our fathers, who through sacrifice and sheer dint of industry built a nation, came back and saw the generation they created, they would wonder why they bothered. They would brace themselves for its collapse.

The generations that, in waves, carved out the state of Northern Ireland, didn’t always rise to the same heights, or strike with the same intensity. Those early waves shifted rocks, but have been reduced to a trickle.

The tide is going out!

Clive Maxwell, Bleary