Taking a Lesson on Unity From Northern Ireland

Why Sinn Fein is the frontrunner to win a plurality in the territory’s assembly.

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After more than a century, the possibility of Irish reunification seems quite real these days. While the timeframe and the actual probability remain very much unclear, there’s no question that Northern Ireland is tentatively exploring joining the Republic of Ireland.

If you’re younger than 40, this may sound unremarkable. Indeed, more remarkable to you might be that the 1.9 million residents of the island’s six northeastern counties were divided from the 5 million ethnically similar residents of the other 26 counties in the first place. A land of roughly the same size and population as Indiana—and one even more ethnically homogenous than Mike Pence’s home state—seems to modern eyes an unlikely place to have ever been partitioned. With religion generally in decline across the West for years now, younger Americans would understandably wonder how divisions between sects of Christians could really merit such a schism.

America, where political violence has been on the rise and public discourse is dominated by a seething anger, would seem a far likelier candidate for such a rift. Issues of race, ethnicity, and culture dominate even prosaic conversations like stopgap budget bills. Leading members of rival sects trade hateful insults. Intellectuals excuse violent acts by their cohorts as really being the fault of the other side. Factions increasingly disagree on even basic information. Without a homologized ethnicity like Ireland’s, America would seem to be much more suited to being split in at least two.

For those of us old enough to remember any of the bombings, mayhem, and brutality in the decades before 1998’s peace accords, though, the division of Ireland seems tragically logical. From the time the border went up in 1921 to nearly the turn of this century, what was euphemized as “The Troubles” was proof that even amid modernity and progress, the human capacity for savage cruelty could not be banished.

But looking ahead to Northern Ireland’s elections in May, Sinn Fein is the frontrunner to win a plurality in the territory’s assembly. The significance of having what began as the political arm of the terrorist Irish Republican Army lead the government in Belfast should be lost on no one. But what would follow? Would such an outcome foreshadow a return to the violence that killed thousands and locked Northern Ireland in misery for decades? Or could it point toward a peaceful unification?

Traveling in the U.S. last week to seek American support for maintaining the institutions and the process that came out of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said the coming decade would see a united Ireland. Her answer when asked by audiences and interviewers how that will happen in a place so haunted by hatred and division was a variation on the same theme: “We demonstrate that politics works.”

One of the things driving the changes in Northern Ireland has been Britain’s departure from the European Union—itself a reflection of what happens when politics don’t work. Under the terms of the 1998 accords, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was opened, allowing unrestricted travel and trade. But that was when Britain and Ireland were both EU countries. After Brexit, open borders aren’t really an option, but figuring out how to meet requirements for the flow of people and goods without significant disruptions still bedevils leaders on all sides.

The fear of the mostly Protestant Unionists who favor remaining part of the United Kingdom is that they will be caught between Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement. Britain can’t shut the border with Ireland under the terms of the truce, but it also can’t have an open border with an EU country under Brexit. It would be simpler to apply Brexit restrictions on trade and travel between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. But the Unionists are a key bloc in Britain’s Conservative majority government and would take such a move as a serious offense. Meanwhile, the fear among many in the sizable Catholic minority—probably about 40 percent of Northern Ireland—is that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government will put Brexit ahead of the peace accords and harden the border with Ireland. In a place where bullets trumped ballots for generations, this is far more than just a discussion about delicious sausages.

What McDonald and Sinn Fein are asking here is a lot given the well-deserved mutual mistrust between the factions. She needs the Unionists to stay in the system that came out of the 1998 accords. The assembly dissolved itself in 2017 and remained dark for three years, an outcome not entirely bad for fans of the status quo. Many Unionists may prefer no home rule to a system that may lead to unification. She needs members of her own side to believe that the Presbyterian royalists across the aisle are not just partners in peace, but allies for building a new future. That means assuring them of the kinds of protections as a minority in a unified Ireland that Catholics were once denied as part of the U.K. To do those things, Sinn Fein President McDonald and her party will have to show that, indeed, “politics works.”

It’s the same here, where we’re moving in the opposite direction as Ireland. Our broken political process has hardly been without advantages for either side. We have, thanks in large part to our dumb primary system, reverse-engineered a kind of parliamentary system here. The two parties refuse to work together on the most important questions, preferring to wait until frustrated voters throw the bums out. Then, the windfall party grabs as much as it can for its faction before things invariably bog down and the cycle repeats. Most voters may be frustrated, disgusted, and increasingly apathetic, but the core constituency of the sect is satisfied – they either get what they want or nothing happens at all.

Americans serious about not falling behind Northern Ireland for political stability and unity would do well to follow McDonald’s advice and show that politics works. It doesn’t mean voting against your interests or betraying your ideals. It means that there is a new urgency for finding the places where we can, when we can to prove to ourselves that politics, not partition, is the answer.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Knowing a bit about The Troubles, but having not kept a close eye on Irish politics the last few years, I read the subtitle of this article and thought, “Holy crap…”

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    The Stray Goose

    "the core constituency of the sect is satisfied" - Well then it's time for a new 'core constituency'. It's time for The Classical Liberal Party. A party that will attract the CL's in the GOP who are opposed to the authoritarian right lead by Trump, and the CL's on the left who are appalled by the Democratic Party falling into the influence of the illiberal left.

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    Dustin Anglin

    With Sinn Fein on the rise in Northern Ireland and the SNP with near complete dominance of Scotland, I still think the greatest outcome of Brexit will be the dissolution of the United Kingdom. I know Wales is fairly safe Conservative territory, but if the others start to go, I can’t imagine Wales is too far behind.

    My ancestor John Anglin emigrated from County Cork to the then colony of Georgia in 1750, but I admit, I don’t really harbor any sense of loyalty, or really even ancestral fondness, to any country but the one I was born to. Still, the idea that Ireland might *truly* be on the cusp of reunification warms some deep part of my long-assimilated heart. I bear no ill will toward the British, in fact I’m a low key Anglophile, but I would be more than glad to see Ireland as a single, unified republic.

    Also if you haven’t watched Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, it’s not life changing, but it’s very enjoyable.

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    Scarlette Tarte

    I certainly remember the violence. My family is from Ireland (and France) and my ancestor fled, fleeing a murder of a British landlord's rent agent. My family fought the British for more than 800 years. My ancestor settled in New Orleans, and his descendents would go on to help build the ship channel.

    Our ties to the mother country remained strong. New Orleans had a large community of Irish people, even their own neighborhood, called the Irish Channel. Money was often funneled back to Ireland to help in the struggle against the British. We even banked at an Irish founded bank, called Hibernia bank, which also supported Ireland in the fight against Britain.

    Many Irish pubs dotted the neighborhoods in New Orleans, and I remember as a girl seeing the boxes on the counter to collect "for the widows and orphans" of the IRA. We were raised on songs of rebellion, we marched in the Saint Patrick's day parade, we went to Ireland to visit relatives...and I remember well the murals of the IRA heroes, painted all over Belfast, and the support of the hunger strikers.

    We received the Irish Times newspaper, we understood what Sinn Fein meant, long before the Good Friday accords. It means "We, ourselves". We had a bumper sticker that said 26+6=one.

    We have long supported reunification. We figured it would happen as the Catholic Irish outbred the protestant British faction, but if it happens because the British were stupid and voted to exit the EU, so much the better. No, there is no love lost for the British. The partition was supposed to be two quasi autonomous "home rule" regions that both remained British entities, but the Irish in the south were having none of that, and began an immediate guerrilla war to have independence, and in 1949, won that independence. The NINE counties of the north, which culturally are different was reduced to six counties that the British held onto. But the Irish Irish people have never given up the idea of reunification and Sinn Fein has never given up on it either. There is a popular song, often still sung in Ireland called "Four Green Fields" and it is a call to memory that Ireland was, and should be, a united Island nation.

    Northern Ireland missed out on the economic boom times of the rest of the Republic, and is still poorer than the rest of Ireland.

    It is time. In fact, it is way past time. A British pope gave Ireland, without the approval of its people, to an English king. Ireland stubbornly remained true to its religion and its culture, even as England was swept into protestantism. It was not their land to give. The people were hated by the British, and allowed to starve by the British, whose policy it was not to help. They made the Irish stop speaking their own language, and today, despite massive efforts to revive it, it is still only spoken in pockets of western Ireland and is damn near died out.

    Britain has apologized for allowing the starvation. It is time for them to prove they are sorry by letting go of the six counties, and then issuing an apology for EVER invading the island to begin with.

    SINN FEIN.

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    Frank Lee

    Both ideological sides are imperfect. But one is proven better and sustainable; while the other has proven a road to ruin. Just check the trajectory of California vs Florida for example. However, but sides are required to check the corruption of the side in power. We are losing that check on power as the most imperfect of ideological sides has infiltrated almost all remaining institutions of power and influence.

    There is a ray of hope that may shine in the next elections.

    However, political stability in the US is likely impossible while the corporate media and big tech are owned and operated by the billionaire boys club for their own financial benefit. Break up the billionaire boys club and there is a chance.

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  6. DJ

    Man, this makes me nostalgic for the late nineties…

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  7. Justin

    Being a resident of Northern Ireland for several years, I can certainly say that the political climate is better now than it was twenty-plus years ago, especially as the religious fervour has subsided over time. But sectarian fault lines still exist, and they have the potential to break out to the surface if radical elements had their way. I would say most people want things to be normal, but small, vocal, extremist groups want to polarize people and choose sides. But I think Chris' point is that the political process works, which it is, and I hope it stays that way.
    And I would add that people in the U.S. who are itching for some type of civil conflict in the U.S just need to look at the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland to see how such an attitude can harm a country.
    In NI, the Troubles not only stopped progress, it reversed it. You can looks at road maps for proposed motorways (you can think of them like Interstate highways) in the 1960s that were supposed to connect all of the major urban areas. As it turns out, governments have a tendency not to invest in public infrastructure while an irregular/civil war-type conflict is going on. Many motorways did not get built, especially in the more rural areas that could have benefited the most from upgraded transport links. Even today, cities are still connected by single carriageways (kind of like state roads with one lane in each direction). Major roadworks are in progress to update the road infrastructure but 50+ years after the need had been identified.
    In terms of reversing progress, the amount of emigration from Northern Ireland was immense. It seems people don't like living in a war zone. Those that had the opportunity to leave left for England, Canada, Australia, or other places abroad. The loss of educated and talented people is still felt in highly deprived areas of the country. According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, the population of Northern Ireland went down each year after 1971 until it started experiencing population growth again in 1981. Throughout and entire decade, the country had negative or zero population growth.
    Another point on reversing progress was the break down of civil institutions like policing. When the police are seen as the enemy, then who does one turn to deal with crime? Crime doesn't stop in a war zone. In come the vigilantes and paramilitaries. Say so long to your rights, due process, and trial by judge and jury. If someone says you did something they didn't like, someone in a mask will show up at your door to inform you that you have an appointment to meet in a field or in an alley way to get your legs shot later that night. If you don't show up, you will be killed, unless you flee first. This still happens from time to time, but not like it used to be.
    I suppose my point is that people who remember the Troubles know that warring factions is not the answer. It was only after both sides recognized that they could work through a political process, only then could progress be made.

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    1. Mary Stine

      True, true. And after all that blather you neglected to mention the Irish women who actually demanded an end to the violence and stood in harm's way to say so.

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      Bill Nelson

      Couple of points: much of the emigration was Protestants going to England, the Catholic birth rate exceeded that of Protestants.
      “… the religious fervour has subsided over time. ”
      Actual religion has not really been adhered to, but still remains an identity. The biggest sporting event is still a Rangers/Celtic match in Glasgow. But the identity is still there.

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      Johntadian

      ...Chris' point is that the political process works..."
      I believe he said he *hoped* it works. Tying the trajectories of our political system and that of the Irish seems like a really risky bet. If their effort to "Make politics work" fails, can you not see at least one faction here using that as a pretext for abandoning the system as a whole? To say the least, hijynx would prevail.

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  8. Jimlafferty1993

    I read Say Nothing by Patrick Keefe earlier this year. It is a damning documentation of how little you achieve with terrorism alone.

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      Billy.Faires

      Agreed. Incredible book and, despite some of the reactions to those too close to the story, as even-handed and sympathetic to most involved as I'd imagine is possible.

      Except Gerry Adams. That guy got roasted.
      (I almost wrote "deservedly" but I didn't wanna start a war...)

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        Bill Nelson

        Gerry Adams was interred twice without trial.

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    Earl King

    FWIW
    I remember playing golf in Northern Ireland prior to the accords and after. I remember one particular round of golf with a Protestant caddie and a Catholic caddie. They were each well in to their 50’s. They’d been life long friends since 4th grade. They were quite specific in their understand of “the troubles”. They each claimed that no more than 500 people were activists, bombers and anarchists participating in the war etc. Belfast was the center of the problem. They contended that most people got along just fine. Conversely when traveling in the South and discussing “the troubles” with the rest of the Irish....they largely didn’t want anything to do with the North....thinking they all were crazy...and a pox on both their houses.....My last trip was in the early 2000’s and I remember asking what had happened to the Orangemen and IRA....I was told they had become organized crime syndicates....engaging in Prostitution, Drugs and crimes of theft and robberies in general.

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  10. Jon

    I remember when many thought that brokering peace in Northern Ireland gave many hope that the Israeli Arab conflict would follow shortly thereafter. Alas only more Abraham accords provide a viable path towards that anytime in the near future.

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