Section:GDN 1N PaGe:19 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 20:26 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
19Ireland’s creation, Catholics are
expected to outnumber Protestants
but will fall well short of 50%, with
“others” making up the diff erence.
“We’re all minorities now,” said
Conor Houston, 36, founder of
Connected Citizens, an initiative to
foster dialogue and inclusion. “Non-
aligned people are starting to raise
their voice.”
In the European election in May
non-aligned parties took 21% of the
vote, their highest share since the
1960s. Naomi Long, leader of the
Alliance party, astounded observers
by winning a seat with 18.5% fi rst-
preference votes.
Last week an audience at Féile an
Phobail, a festival in the Sinn F éin
bastion of west Belfast, welcomed
Long almost as warmly as it did Sinn
F éin’s leader, Mary Lou McDonald.
The paradox is that the centrist
surge is happening amid polarisation
that has collapsed power-sharing
at Stormont and stirred resentment
over unresolved “legacy” killings,
many involving British soldiers.
With nationalist and unionist
blocs each hovering at about 40%
it is “neithers” who will probably
determine the result of a referendum
on unifi cation with the Republic of
Ireland – an existential choice, if it
happens, paved by Brexit.
The death of Lyra McKee , the
29-year-old journalist shot by the
New IRA in April, shone a light on
a new generation that, like McKee,
cares more about LGBTQ+ rights,
healthcare and jobs than whether
sovereignty lies in London or Dublin.
Sara Canning , McKee’s partner,
has republican roots but does not
yearn for unifi cation. Pragmatism
trumps ideology for her. “As I grew
up, I realised that didn’t match the
person I was or my wants and needs
for the future,” she said.
“Most of my friends are non-
aligned. We want a better life for
everyone [whether ] under the union
fl ag or tricolour.”
There is a perception that in
1969 Northern Ireland’s middle
class, and by extension many of the
non-aligned, went off to play golf
in leafy enclaves and never came
back, leaving the Troubles to unfold
mainly in border towns and blighted
urban pockets.
Kennedy, for his part, was hardly
apolitical. He wanted – and still
wants – Britain’s Labour party to
stand in Northern Ireland. Bereft of
a leftwing option, he skirted politics
and instead contributed by working
in housing and reconciliation.
The “neithers” surfaced in
occasional elections – the cross-
community Alliance party won 14%
in local elections in 1973 and 1977.
But centrists lacked the urgency
of nationalists and unionists
locked in a zero-sum struggle that
generated martyrs, songs, murals
and parades. “It’s diffi cult to makea positive identity out of a negative
defi nition,” said Paul Nolan, an
academic who studies social trends.
The 1998 Good Friday agreement
drew a line under violence, allowing
more fl uid national identities, but its
focus on “both communities” and
“two traditions” entrenched binary
politics, according to a 2018 Queen’s
University study.
Still, the number of “neithers”
has since grown, it found. They tend
to have jobs, a good education and
to have lived abroad. They are more
likely to be women and Catholic.
The numbers will probably keep
growing, said Katy Hayward , a
co-author of the study. With Brexit
and the recent electoral success of
the Greens and the Alliance, a centre
in favour of devolution and EU
membership seems to be forming,
she said. “Those from a unionist
background that are pro-remain
are reconsidering themselves as no
longer unionist with a capital U.”
Some 57% of Northern Ireland
voters voted to remain in the 2016
referendum but the Ulster Unionist
party (UUP) has since joined the
Democratic Unionist party (DUP) in
backing an exit from the EU.
It is unclear how “neithers” would
vote in a unity referendum. It would
depend on the impact of Brexit,
the handling of cultural issues
such as same-sex marriage and
the Irish language, and the details
of a proposed united Ireland, said
Nicholas Whyte, an analyst.
Belfast still seems a divided city.
Flags and murals glorifying
paramilitaries mark republican and
loyalist territory. “Peace walls” split
districts. Parades and bonfi res are
used to taunt the other side.
Change is afoot. Seemingly
mundane developments such as a
bus route connecting east and west
Belfast have normalised journeys
that cut across sectarian divides,
said Fr Martin Magill, a Catholic
priest on the Falls Road.
Increasingly, foreigners come
not to gawk at murals but for jobs
in a burgeoning technology scene,
or for Titanic and Game of Thrones-
themed tourism.
Another cultural export, poetry,
has also evolved. Cross-community
“planter and Gael” collaborations
between poets from each side of
the political divide have given way
to works by Sin éad Morrissey , Alan
Gillis and Leontia Flynn that refl ect
increasingly mobile, fl uid identities,
said Nolan. “It is a perspective which
allows them to touch glancingly on
the Northern Ireland experience
without ever being branded by tribal
loyalties.”Timeline
Key moments in a bloody confl ict14 August 1969 British troops were
fi rst deployed after rioting in Derry,
which began after nationalists threw
stones and bottles at a contentious
Protestant Apprentice Boys parade
two days earlier.
January 1972 On Bloody Sunday , 30
January, the British army shot dead
13 Catholic protesters during a civil
rights march against internment in
Londonderry.
March 1972 Edward Heath’s
Conservative government closed
the unionist-dominated Stormont
parliament and imposed direct rule,
which was practi sed for 26 years.
October 1974 The IRA expanded
its campaign to mainland Britain,
detonating bombs in two pubs
in Guildford, killing fi ve people.
It continued to target other pubs
popular with army personnel.
March 1979 The Irish National
Liberation Army assassinated Airey
Neave, the shadow Northern Irelandsecretary , a confi dant of Margaret
Thatcher, using a car bomb.
April 1981 Bobby Sands died after a
66-day hunger strike , a month after
he was elected to parliament.
October 1984 An IRA bomb
exploded at the Grand Hotel in
Brighton during the Conservative
party conference, killing fi ve people
and injuring 30.
April 1998 The Good Friday
agreement was signed and
celebrated as the end of the
Troubles. It established the
Northern Ireland assembly, with
David Trimble as fi rst minister.
August 1998 A car bomb planted
by the Real IRA, a dissident splinter
group, killed 29 people in Omagh,
County Tyrone.
May 2007 The Democratic Unionist
party and Sinn F éin agreed to enter
a power-sharing government, with
Ian Paisley as fi rst minister and
Martin McGuiness as his deputy.▲ Anthony Kennedy says he never felt
isolated, though he was non-aligned A British army
soldier in Belfast
in August 1969.
There was a
brief period of
goodwill between
troops and
many Catholic
residents▲ A mural of
the murdered
journalist Lyra
McKee, who has
come to stand for
the ‘neithers’
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