Ruth Dudley-Edwards writing in The Daily Telegraph recently, commented – My past as an interpreter of Northern Irish loyalism caught up with me again this morning. What the Today Programme, the World Service and Sky News wanted to know was why loyalists were making so much fuss about the Union flag, which used to fly permanently over City Hall but henceforward will be there only on certain designated days.
Republicans had tried to get it banned altogether and the Alliance Party, the non-tribal centrist party, tabled the compromise motion that was adopted. Rather than protesting against the republican instigators, loyalists have been threatening and intimidating Alliance politicians and torching their buildings.
There are no excuses for their behaviour, but there are some reasons. The peace process involved a great deal of fudge, and has, perforce, dodged the key issue of sovereignty. Loyalists want to stay in the UK: republicans want a United Ireland. The bankrupt Republic of Ireland has no interest whatsoever getting any more involved with its difficult neighbour. But the loyalist leadership have failed to explain to their rank-and-file that they have won and republicans have lost, while the republicans, having lost, insist they’ve won.
The IRA, having sworn not to lay down arms until there was a United Ireland, have decommissioned their arsenal and their front-men serve the Queen. But the republican leadership continues to wage a sovereignty war through the medium of culture. Speaking Irish in Stormont, demanding another border poll, objecting to loyalist parades or restricting the flying of the union flag all press buttons that awaken tribal terrors among the most vulnerable on the other side – those that are jobless and ill-educated and feel unloved by Westminster. Loyalists fear with some justification that the plan is to hollow out their sense of identity by taking away from them the symbols they hold so dear. ‘Our only crime is loyalty,’ is a frequent, heartfelt, cry.
A blow-up was always on the cards, and it certainly shouldn’t have taken politicians or police by surprise. From a loyalist perspective, the Alliance party have revealed themselves to be traitors. Words like ‘reason’ and ‘compromise’ do not work well when people are fearful and angry.
Will Northern Ireland go back to the bad old days? No, because the majority are determined that it shouldn’t. But while the culture wars persist, there will always be an uneasy peace.