More importantly, why does Northern Ireland exist?
Who or what does it represent?
To get straight to the point. During his address at the Ulster Covenant Centenary service at St Anne’s Cathedral (September 292012), the Dean of Belfast, the Very Reverend John Mann, stated, “We have a chance to celebrate and remember a crucial moment in the history of this place that showed the determination of a generation of the Protestant people of this island to shape their own destiny.”
In short, Northern Ireland is as much a state of mind.
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It represents Ulster Protestant self-determination.
In other words, the determination of the Ulster Protestant people to resist a united Ireland.
A Protestant state for a Protestant people.
However, as soon as the state was established unionists became the majority of the people of Northern Ireland.
They claim the right to self-determination for themselves while denying the same right to the Irish people branded as the so-called “minority”.
And so it basically continues.
According to Alex, all sides need to answer hard questions and admit difficult truths.
Put it this way, instead of hiding behind the so-called “principle of consent”, the Ulster Protestant people should formally accept the principle of equal self-determination.
Malachy Scott, North Queen Street, Belfast BT15