The communication gap
Lord 0•Neill of the Maine It was in 1947, a few months after I arrived at Stormont, that I had a conversation which could not have taken place anywhere else in the United Kingdom. I was having tea with a Unionist MP. He was a typical example of the best type of Protestant farmer. "Tell me", he said, "You have lived across the water [the normal way for an Ulsterman to talk about Great Britain], and would know how many Catholics they have there?" I, replied that I didn't really know but that I would imagine that in the whole of Great Britain at that time there would have been less than 5 million out of a population of some 50 million. A look of astonishment crossed his face: "Boys a Boys" he exclaimed, "Britain must be a wonderful Protestant country."
In vain, during the rest of tea, I tried to explain to him that people who were not Catholics in Britain did not necessarily call themselves Protestants, nor did they care whether their neighbours turned out to be Catholics. As this made little impression I told him that most British people never went near a church and that only when they noticed that their neighbours went to church every Sunday did they discover that their neighbours were actually Catholics; but it was all to no avail. As we left the dining room, I could hear him still muttering "Boys a Boys, Britain must be a wonderful Protestant country."
To the Protestant in Ulster the Queen is not just Head of State as she is "across the water", she is the symbol of Protestantism. To the majority in Ulster the Union Jack is a Protestant flag, not, as it is in Britain, the flag of the country. A hundred years ago in Britain, Catholic emancipation had only been on the statute book for forty-five years. In those days there was a strong anti-Catholic feeling in Britain. In those days it was easier for the British people to understand Protestant prejudices in Ireland, but whereas in England the old attitudes have largely vanished, Ulster is still frozen into the attitudes of early Victorian Britain. Even today there are many working-class families who have never been further than the Isle of Man, and then only for a day trip. Protestant Britain with her Protestant Queen is often an unvisited country "across the water".
People in England often ask me why tne people of Northern Ireland cannot act and behave like the people of Britain. Unless they have been to Northern Ireland and made a study of its habits they cannot possibly understand. In a typical Ulster village there will be two or three Presbyterian churches called 'First', 'Second' and 'Third' followed by the name of the village. There will be a Church of Ireland church (low church Anglican); a Catholic chapel — the word church is never used for Catholics; a Methodist church and perhaps a Gospel Hall. If you try to drive through this village at 12 o'clock on a Sunday morning you will find so many cars parked outside the various churches that it is hard to get through. Sunday Schools will be packed out and in fact the Victorian Sabbath, long vanished in England, still flourishes in Ulster. And then, once again in contrast to England, you will find the pubs closed. These then are a very few of the deep differences between the British and the Ulster outlook, and help to explain why an Ulster Protestant cannot live like an Englishman.
If most people "on the other side of the water" find it hard to understand the Ulster Protestant attitude they will find it almost as difficult to follow Irish history. It will only take my readers back to the Plantation of Ulster: it occurred in the same year as the Plantation of Virginia — 1607. There had been other plantations in other parts of Ireland, but the only one which really stuck was the one in the North. Whereas in all other parts of Ireland the native Catholic Irish outnumber the 'Anglo-Irish' — there are very few Presbyterians in the South — in the small northeastern corner -the Protestants, and in particular the Presbyterians of Scottish descent, outnumber the native Irish Catholics.
Moreover, the Ulster accent with its Scottish flavour is completely different from what the English call an Irish accent. And this accent is common to Protestants and Catholics alike. This is why — just to mystify the English again — it was possible for Gerry Fitt, the Catholic MP at Westminster, to say that he had far more in common with a Belfast Protestant than with a Cork Catholic! It is also true that in some ways Catholics and Protestants get on quite well.
One of the terrible results of the last ,; years has been the imposition of almost t°:'i apartheid. In my day Protestants 84' Catholics were slowly starting to live toet; in new housing estates. Intimidation, in, last few years, has driven thousanusc families, mostly Catholics but also Mali Protestants, back into their own areas. It be years before confidence returns sufficie° for mixed housing estates to be planned, 814 built again, while recent efforts to establi,°',( integrated education have received a rebuff from the Catholic Church. h, But if I am honest I must also relate Pe, myself suffered from a communication when I first went to Stormont. Having been serving in the Irish Guards, where of the guardsmen were either Irish, or uti'lf gow or Liverpool Irish, I. thought 1 1'1)6,6 introduce something into an early S1 about how much easier it would be everyone in Northern Ireland if it were P64, sible for Catholics to be loyal to the Tbr°n,hii, delved into history and recalled how, His Most Catholic Majesty King PhiliP„'A, Spain sent the Armada to conquer 130`,1; Lord Howard of Effingham,thougU Catholic, decided to fight for his Protesr Queen. I was developing my theme to Oh hoped was good effect, when suddenlY1'4, was a shout from the Nationalist side 0.111 regard to Lord Howard: "Ach sure be ‘'1
only English anyway." v hie)
I hope that in some small way I maJ cot been able to lift the veil of incomprehell,;04 which enshrouds most English people Irish affairs in general and Northern affairs in particular. Because of their the people of Northern Ireland do not tn'o act or behave like the British. The Protest°, have been brought up to believe that theY,ii° 'the master race'. In my day PaisleY shout at his meetings, "We will be maste,'t our own house." The Catholics are brong" to believe not only that the Protestsau discriminate — which to the fury of mYch.i porters I said was correct when I Minister — but also that the wicked P't keep Northern Ireland because they writ have it. I don't think many people ill would be likely to agree with that sugge.,", Once it became necessary for the arl'iri come along in aid of the civil Piottii August, 1969, I always wondered svil`co there could be any solution; I still today. There is, however, one point vv,Illirec'ti would reiterate. I still believe that if Rule had been introduced as the ArmY into the operation, it might have been Oryotcl to avoid much of the bloodshed and n1is,e,04 the last few years, but"this and much els'
will have to leave to the historians. optit Of one thing, however, I am certaiji>1
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