Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground

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This new title will be accompanied by a new edition of 'Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People' which has already sold over 10,000 copies. But what elevates Susan McKay’s masterful book is that it challenges our preconceptions about a community that is regularly reviled by their political opponents, and shines a light on the heretofore overlooked diversity within that community.

Ulster Unionists are facing a demographic tipping point, with the likely loss of their long-standing majority status within Northern Ireland. Had I read a book like this as a teenager, I imagine it would have shocked me enough to change my adolescent views on whether it's possible to reconcile left wing ideas with any kind of formalised unionism.And yet so often the conversation with the interview subjects is mired in the endlessly self-referential debate about identity.

There’s an effortless flow to the writing in the book, and I especially liked the way Susan McKay represents and moves between the individual voices. Towards the end of the decade, as civil rights protesters demanded an end to a political system designed to disempower Catholics, that unionist rallying cry grew louder and more strident in its opposition to the same. Interviewees include: Eileen Weir, Dee Stitt, Dawn Purvis, Chrissie Quinn, Clare Sugden, Toni Ogle, Kyle Black, Sammy Wilson and others. Her latest book follows a similar format to that previous tome, in that it attempts – primarily from a series of interviews - to paint a portrait of Northern Irish Protestantism through the words of more than 60 members of that community.

All of these are reasons why “Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground” is such a crucial read right now. There has been little peace dividend in the working class estates or the deep rural interior of Ulster. The book is largely oral history with a few tidbits of historic background to help the general reader understand some references mentioned by interviewees.

We are on really uncertain ground at present, but these are my frustratingly thran and diverse people. There's constant, unsettling chatter about a poll for a united Ireland, for the first time in years. Maybe the title would be - 'A settled people, on firmer ground', having taken their place in a new Ireland where they had proper representation in parliament, their customs and traditions protected and they weren't subject to the whims of an increasingly weary and hostile westminster government. The different stories and opinions are wonderfully textured and interwoven, and the author has a real eye for detail.It was this later emerging diversity that left me feeling surprisingly hopeful about Northern Protestantism by the end of the book, and more optimistic that a more forward-looking, less fearful Unionism might yet emerge in Ireland. The presence of a range of female voices was particularly welcome, though the lack of progressive voices from a male, explicitly loyalist or faith-based perspective doesn't necessarily reflect my experience. She seeks to understand how the Northern Protestant community is negotiating the ‘shifting ground’ on which it stands. It also offers a wide range of views, from ordinary unionists from a variety of backgrounds on how they feel let down by the political representation they received over the years from the various unionist parties.