THE STATE OF NORTHERN IRELAND
The unionist identity was and remains a confused identity, but it was no less certain for its confusion of what it represented and what it wanted. It was a Protestant state in existence to protect the interests of the British Crown in Ireland.
There is a great deal of false loyalty in unionism, and the most notable false loyalty is in unionism’s desire to remain loyal to the British Crown.
It seems to many outsiders that this loyalty is a kind of profound guilt at not being able to live up to the expectations of the British Crown in Ireland.
Yet the question has to be asked: why are the unionists so loyal to the British Crown? Indeed why are they loyal to the British Crown at all?
The British Crown encouraged them to breach faith with the rest of humanity when they crossed the Irish Sea to take over, in many instances, the lands of their Irish counterparts. Perhaps part of the confusion in the unionist identity relates to a guilt that they departed from the ways of Christianity in favour of the ways of the very empires that Christianity was attempting to curtail and suppress. In other words, there is a feeling that they rejected Christianity when crossing the Irish Sea.
Northern Ireland was formed in 1920, and it was from its inception, doomed to division, violence and ultimately failure as a democratic state. It was formed after threats of violence, it was maintained by brutal law and order policies, and it ultimately failed because of acts of violence perpetrated against the Catholic minority, particularly Bloody Sunday in January 1972.
It was never an independent state in that it was supported by Britain by economic subventions throughout the course of its existence, and continues to be to this day. The British yet again acted out of guilt, and a false sense of loyalty to the unionists and maintained their state.
The history of British involvement in Ireland is immersed in violence, brutality and coercion, which have resulted in a great deal of bad faith on the part of both unionists and nationalists. Their involvement has not been good for Ireland, nor in reality have they been any friends to the unionists.
British stewardship has been exercised in bad faith to the extent that most nationalists and more conscientious unionists will see that it has to end.
This plan to end British involvement in Northern Ireland will be addressed to both unionists and nationalists
