Letter: We have failed to promote our own history and culture, paving the way for the Gaels to take ownership

In their ignorance, the middle class Alliance types like to parade their Irish credentials - it’s romantic and trendy - to distance themselves from the ‘natives’. They think a Lambeg drum is used by people in Lisburn to store oil.

We all have to assume some measure of responsibility for this vacuous mindset that breaks out into a rash of snobbery. We have failed to promote our own history and culture, paving the way for the Gaels to take ownership.

It may already be too late, because most people don’t care, but those who do have to assume the mantle of leadership, and introduce a programme of education to penetrate dark minds. This won’t be easy because our people feel they have nothing to learn.

At the moment some might regard our input as superficial, but it’s based on reliable sources, and may encourage others in our community to undertake further research, and provide more depth; if nothing else it may provoke interest, and stimulate debate.

In an age where public opinion is easily manipulated and we need a serious and well-informed exchange, I am sowing seed on stony ground; and the thorns will spring up and choke it.

I haven’t much to show for my labour, and wonder why I bother. I just hope - hope is all I’ve got - that others will weigh in with support; it’s a forlorn hope not based on evidence. Our community is lazy, apathetic and sick onto death, and at the moment there is no cure.

Our politicians, with a few notable exceptions, have failed, and the churches have no leaders. The Bible points to men in the past who “understood the times, and knew what to do”. We no longer have men like that.

Some churches are sound in theology but have no vision, others compensate by happily clapping their way to Heaven; in the past, some wore masks to hide the truth.

If you really think about it - some do - we haven’t much going for us, in church or state, so we just keep plodding along, clinging to hope; hope that something will turn up. At a time churches and politicians are failing, our culture is all we have to fall back on, and we have neglected that. We continue to neglect it at our peril and lost a generation.

There are three groups left in the unionist community: the apathetic, who cling to their home comforts; the compromisers, mainly the ‘Protestant’ middle-class - in their case Protestant is a misnomer; and the smallest group, the despairing.

Those who care are squeezed into a corner and must wonder why they bother - they are often the target of abuse. A minority will always have to swim against the tide hoping it will turn, and, if it does, the blind, and the ignorant, who scorned them, will shake them off, and take their place on the lifeboat.

People want to be on the winning side, so they pitch up and fly that flag. They have quite a collection and choose accordingly. It’s just a short term fix, they’re not in for the long haul, whatever it takes to survive will guide their choice, and add their own colour to the mix. Whoever dug the coal, and got their hands dirty, will be swept to the back and left out in the cold. The squeaky clean will push their way to the front, spread out at the fire, and warm themselves in the glow, then take credit for another man’s labour; they thrive on that!

Clive Maxwell, Bleary