Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground by Susan McKay

Abstract

Reviewed by: Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground by Susan McKay Dr Kevin Hargaden (bio) Susan McKay, Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground (Newtownards: Blackstaff Press, 2021), 346 pages. Susan McKay published one of the definitive modern books on Northern Ireland in 2000: Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2000). Now, almost a generation later, she has published a sequel. It follows the same format, of using extensive interviews to weave together an evocative impression of the tensions and hopes that lie below the surface of the still-dominant (at least in some respects) community in Northern Ireland. Consisting of ten chapters, organised around four geographic sections – Far North, Belfast, Down to Mid Ulster, and The [End Page 203] Border – the author’s voice only explicitly comes to the fore in the epilogue. The book begins with a description of the annual burning of the effigy of Robert Lundy, the governor of what was then called Londonderry, who advocated for compromise during the 1689 siege. The book ends having convincingly demonstrated the ways in which this founding ‘No Surrender!’ myth of Ulster Unionism is self-immolating. The refusal to adapt, to even engage in such conversations remains foundationally prevalent. Again and again through the book, people describe how they won’t even engage in the formal process of dialogue we call voting (a non-exhaustive list includes: 26, 31, 45, 153, 182, 192, 292). The backdrop for these conversations – which partially took place through the pandemic – are concrete political disputes. The obvious complications around Brexit are central here, but so too are local issues like the ‘cash for ash’ scandal and the unjust treatment of NHS nurses in Northern Ireland. These are issues that can be addressed, even resolved, through community organising and clear political advocacy – developments that are not just permitted to Ulster Protestants but actively encouraged through EU peace funding. And yet so often the conversation with the interview subjects is mired in the endlessly self-referential debate about identity. One person opines that ‘Protestant working-class people don’t have a problem with limited abortion rights. … Gay sex, marriage, nobody gives a damn.’ A surprising perspective perhaps? But they then continue, ‘But see if they put Irish language road signs in my estate? They’ll be gone the next day’ (23). This is not to say that material politics are absent from the conversations that McKay presents. Her interviews engage voices from across the socioeconomic spectrum and they often speak with striking clarity. So one person admits that their standard of living and the ability to own a house and run a car ‘matter more to me than the flag that’s flying above our country’ (122) and another, a community activist, concisely describes the reigning neoliberal orthodoxy of the DUP’s economic policies based around deregulated land development before concluding that she would ‘rather politicians focused on policies that eradicate poverty than deliver food parcels’ (90). The craven greed of Ulster Protestant’s ruling class is a recurring motif. I could almost hear the voice of the conservative Ulster farmer who issued a damning verdict using only polite words: ‘The DUP seem very, very influenced by material gain’ (225). McKay’s interviews thus manage to combine to make an important point: what looks like an absurd preoccupation with questions [End Page 204] of identity for those outside the region are in fact articulations of the hopelessness with respect to material questions for those who live inside. What I mean by that is that there are vast swathes of Ulster Protestantism that have been without meaningful political representation for a long time. There has been little peace dividend in the working class estates or the deep rural interior of Ulster. And it is a material political decision to continue to divert discourse towards seemingly ephemeral identity questions so as to deter any serious questioning about why so many people are so politically homeless that they don’t even bother to spoil their vote. When ‘bread and butter’s hard to come by every day’ then it is easy to understand how one could conclude ‘a flag is all that people really do have to cling to’ (113...