‘PEACE WITHIN THE REALMS OF THE POSSIBLE’? DAVID TRIMBLE, UNIONIST IDEOLOGY AND THEATRICAL POLITICS

Abstract

This article uses a theatrical metaphor to achieve a more empathetic and nuanced explanation of David Trimble's leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party since 1995. This article focuses on three criticisms of Trimble's leadership: (1) his incoherent and contradictory ideology; (2) the lack of idealism in Trimble's unionism and his failure to expound a clear civic unionism; (3) the unionist leader's failure to move further towards nationalism during the peace process, in particular his insistence on decommissioning, is seen as further evidence of his timidity and/or sectarianism. David Trimble has faced considerable problems in trying to modernize the Ulster Unionist Party's script while keeping the support of important hard-line and moderate audiences. The performance of the political actor on the stage of politics is contradictory because she/he is attempting to appeal to various sections of the audience with very different perceptions. The actor's ability to rewrite the script and win over key audiences to this new script is limited by the expectations of the audience and how well they will receive a change in performance. The art of theatrical politics is the ability of the actor to play the audience and to know how far the actor can win support for a new script. Or to what extent the actor must play to the expectations of the audience and express their feelings using more familiar, traditional scripts.