Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground

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The author has an uncanny ability to see warts and all but also describe in a human way as if you are there watching. You get dragged back into the old divide,” she says wearily, noting how the traumas of the recent past so inform the stalemates of the present. 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. Written with McKay’s trademark passion and conviction, and full of vulnerable and valiant testimony, this book is compelling, essential reading.

I saw another review of this book that expressed disappointment that McKay doesn't offer suggestions for how to fix the problems of northern Irish society. I'd have liked a conclusion that could recommend what could be done to help NI move forwards, or provide an analysis of where it stands now.

I had almost forgotten having read Susan's previous "Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People" - it was before I started keeping a record of the books I read and I never owned a copy. Having tied themselves to a Tory-driven Brexit during the last half-decade (just as the UK Conservative Party seemed to be jettisoning what remained of their own unionism), they find themselves betrayed by Boris Johnson, with the union of Britain and Northern Ireland apparently weakened by the Protocol agreement. She has made award-winning television documentaries, including The Daughters’ Story about the daughters of the murdered musician Fran O’Toole of the Miami Showband. They include students, artists and entrepreneurs as well as former policeman, paramilitaries and victims of the violence of the Troubles. She seeks to understand how the Northern Protestant community is negotiating the ‘shifting ground’ on which it stands.

My response to that is: the book promises to hold up a mirror to Northern Protestants and that's exactly what it delivers. I would be particularly interested in how liberal unionists react to this book, and the many contradictions in unionism/loyalism that it brings to light. At present, it would seem, unionists are fighting mainly with themselves, the DUP’s leadership debacle a symptom of a deeper existential crisis within unionism caused by a conjunction of forces, some predictable, some unforeseen, which have rendered Northern Ireland’s future as part of the United Kingdom increasingly uncertain. I would have liked a bit more context, but this was obviously a hard balancing act that, in the round, McKay pulled off. 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.We are on really uncertain ground at present, but these are my frustratingly thran and diverse people. First published in 2000 and updated in 2005, the book looks at the period following the Good Friday Agreement and the referendum. I think it has been very thoughtfully and sensitively put together, to show the northern Protestants as they are, in all their various manifestations, situations, hopes and fears.

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. I helped a protestant man on his milk round, but as we sat and ate sandwiches, we didn’t talk so much. Especially those from a unionist/protestant tradition, as they move into the unchartered waters of becoming a minority in a statelet designed to maintain, [what I suggest was the lie which fed) their perception of being in control.

Feminism in particular is striving for change and you can only feel optimistic with so many driven women featuring strongly, looking to make the shift to issues that need to be tackled. More importantly, there seems to be a lack of willingness to compromise meaningfully with nationalists. Despite that, it is a book worth reading to understand why it is so difficult to find a way forward in Northern Ireland in 2021.