Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground

Product Information

She also has 47 international caps for Northern Ireland and has been known since childhood as “the wee footballer.” She talked to me about how important sport is in building confidence and physical and mental resilience among girls. Former DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley whose paraty led opposition to the Good Friday Agreement. Photograph: Stephen Davison. The idea of change is central to Northern Protestants — On Shifting Ground. The book’s cover is from a photograph by Trevor McBride of the effigy of Lundy that is burned in Derry each December. This is an important book, a register of unionist and Protestant opinion and thought which, like her earlier work, provides a picture that will be examined and consulted by historians in the future. Anna is Presbyterian, and when I asked her what she thought of her church’s hostility to same-sex marriage, given Anton’s being gay, it became apparent that the two had never discussed Anton’s sexual orientation. This despite his having brought his boyfriend, David, to meet her, and talking about him all the time.

Twenty-two years ago, when I was writing Northern Protestants — An Unsettled People, the late Billy Mitchell, a former UVF man who supported the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, told me that, while he took responsibility for his own choices in life, it was Paisley who had fired him up to decide to become a paramilitary. The loyalist ceasefire meant that “we’ve sheathed the sabre — they can’t rattle it anymore”. In many ways the book is a continuation of her acclaimed 2000 book, Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People, which was updated and re-released in June.

Why Shop with Blackstaff Books?

In general, Susan says she would welcome more people from the south, and from the rest of the UK, taking an interest in the diversity and complexity of what it means to be a Protestant from Northern Ireland. Read More Related Articles

Northern Ireland was well described as an “armed patriarchy” during the Troubles, but while the guns have long since been decommissioned, the mindsets of the patriarchs have not. Bullies and bigots are just “larger than life”. Women who have suffered at the hands of hateful, violent men need respect, compassion and justice. Here they have to bare their souls and fight like warriors. Living in Northern Ireland and growing up from mid teens in the midst of an identity crisis, where death and destruction were commonplace and the "other" were always suspect. It was almost impossible to gain any traction on what was really happening. Politics were always reactionary. There was little time to pause and reflect on how others were feeling. In Belfast, Alan McBride, well known as a campaigner for the rights of victims of the conflict, talked to me about the need to enable people to change and stop defining them via the past. He wanted a “generous unionism” and if he could not find it, could imagine living in a unified Ireland. And it does work. It creates a sense of solidarity which is based on fear. But I think a lot of Protestants are feeling a new solidarity - solidarity with people who are experiencing poverty, solidarity with LGBTQ people, solidarity with women needing healthcare. More people no longer see being a Protestant as a key part of their identity, they're content to have their own religious beliefs, but not have them be at the heart of their political beliefs.Purvis described how, in 2006, she was talking with DUP members in North Antrim and she told them that, in her view, the-then DUP leader, Rev Ian Paisley, was going to do a deal with Sinn Fein. “And they said, ‘No, he’ll not, no, he’ll not. The Doc won’t sell us out.’” Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol has amplified the identity crisis felt among elements of the northern Protestant community. Picture by Alan Lewis/Photopress Bill Wolsey from Ballysillan - successful entrepreneur, owner of The Merchant Hotel, son of traditional socialist Methodists - was one of the few who spoke out against the DUP's support for Brexit, "because I could see nothing but danger for Northern Ireland". I just thought, aye, well I’ll form my own opinion here,” she told me. (Martin McGuinness was, in her estimation, “a bad rascal”.) She cites a BBC interview Arlene Foster gave earlier this year in which she said one of unionism's problems was that when it was "in difficult circumstances... they turn in on themselves and people start to look for Lundys to blame."

Her writing is lucid and spiced with humour and wry asides. She often lets characters ridicule themselves out of their own mouths. There are some great lines. Both men have had to revisit their early condolences. Tweed’s courageous and furious daughters immediately came forward to challenge what they described as a false narrative based on “blind loyalty”. His stepdaughter Amanda Brown put it starkly. “He was a predatory paedophile and a violent thug who smashed our mother’s face to a pulp,” she told a Sunday newspaper. She was eight when he first sexually abused her. He ruined her childhood. Five of his daughters spoke of horrific years of rape, physical and emotional abuse, of constant dread and terror. Victoria Tweed said he was a monster. His sister, Hazel McAllister, said he should have been in prison. With Northern Protestants - An Unsettled People, I wrote it at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, and it was interesting to see the range of reactions from Protestants. Seamlessly weaves together personal stories and political events with deep emotional intelligence … Vital reading in all senses of the word. But I found that most people I spoke to were quite happy with the current situation in Northern Ireland. I found that, for a majority of people, the bottom line is that they're happy there's peace. No one misses violence. Some people think the Good Friday Agreement has let them down, but they're in the minority.She said: "I was very surprised because I suppose it's often believed that people in the Republic of Ireland don't have an interest in the North. I know from working in the south that it's often an uphill struggle to get southern media interested in northern stories, but it's good to see that book-buyers are having more of an interest in the north." Margaret Veitch and her sister Joan, whose parents William and Agnes Mullan were killed in the Enniskillen bombing The book features almost 100 interviews with politicians, former paramilitaries, victims and survivors, business people, religious leaders, community workers, young people, writers, and others. Read More Related Articles So it'll be good if the book sells well in Britain as well, because they'll see that what they experienced with the DUP doesn't represent what it's really like in Northern Ireland, nor even what's it like in unionism." The coach said he was an inspiration to other young people. She mentioned his talent, his skill, and his dedication. But the special quality that enabled him to accept his defeat so gracefully was, she implied, his self-confidence. It was, she commented, a rare enough quality in Northern Ireland. She is right.

A coach who has known young Rhys McClenaghan from the start of his career was on the radio talking about the remarkable speech the 22-year-old Newtownards athlete made immediately after a small error in his gymnastic routine denied him the chance to win a medal for Ireland at the Olympics.When I go to Britain, the 'mainland', I don't fit in. They think I'm a 'paddy'... I don't see myself in the Republic... there's no place for me there." Despite all, she says she belongs here. The cover of On Shifting Ground has a photograph by Trevor McBride of the face of the effigy of Lundy, which is burned every December in my home city of Derry. Lundy was the governor of Derry in 1689. He believed the city could not withstand a siege and wanted to negotiate a surrender with the Catholic forces of King James. Dee Stitt, convicted armed robber, UDA leader and erstwhile community worker, told her to do research on him. This book is a very impressive collection of verbatim interviews with a broad spectrum of people who fall under the umbrella of Northern Protestants. But, and this only really became apparent when I was reading this splendid book, I was never once told to be fearful of or frightened by Protestants.There was no inherent bias in my upbringing.No one told me outright or blatantly that I shouldn’t mix with “them ‘uns’.The notion and reality of division seemed to be a given.You might not have wanted to take sides but by the very fact you came from Northern Ireland, your birth identity was stamped inside your head.A lot of it was and is nonsense, of course.