Opinion

Alex Kane: The reality is that identity matters and always will

Alex Kane

Alex Kane

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and political commentator and a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party.

UVF flags have been put up in a shared neighbourhood in Belfast
UVF flags have been put up in a shared neighbourhood in Belfast UVF flags have been put up in a shared neighbourhood in Belfast

Why is anyone in Northern Ireland surprised by the fact that flags matter so much to so many people?

And not just flags: murals matter; commemorations matter; place names in Irish matter in some areas; parades and re-enactments matter; an Irish Language Act matters; recognition for Ulster-Scots matters; culture matters; identity matters; us-and-them matters; signs, symbols, touchstones and benchmarks matter; orange matters; green matters; names matter; funding matters; numbers matter; identity matters. I could fill another few paragraphs with what matters to us.

The problem, of course, is that the same things don’t matter to the same people. What you see around you—indeed, what you hear around you—are the signs and sounds of division. You won’t see much evidence of unity and consensus. You won’t see much evidence of ‘mixed’ areas: the names on the shop fronts, the height of the bundles of the local newspapers in the newsagents and the assorted street furniture will give you all the information you need to know about what political or identity area you are in. In other words, you’ll know where you can fly the flag of your choice.

90 per cent of those who could be bothered to vote, vote for parties that have a very clear position on the constitutional question. Tens of thousands of people who vote for the DUP, UUP and TUV (almost 400,000 of them on June 8) will not agree with their view on same-sex-marriage, abortion and other socio/moral issues; but their constitutional identity trumps all else. Tens of thousands of people who vote for Sinn Féin and the SDLP won’t agree with their view on socio/moral issues, either; but again, their constitutional identity trumps all else. Alliance tries to get around the problem by claiming to be ‘agnostic’ on the question, but Alliance has still failed to make the sort of electoral breakthrough which suggests that, for most people, identity is less important than a broader political/economic agenda.

Flags matter to some unionists just as much as an Irish Language Act matters to Sinn Féin. And they matter for exactly the same reason: they highlight the differences between us. An Irish Language Act wouldn’t make a button of difference to the chances of Irish unity any time soon, but, if enacted, it sends the message that Northern Ireland isn’t quite as ‘British as Finchley.’ For most of those unionists who want to fly flags, it’s about sending the message that, in their area at least, they have more in common with Finchley than the Falls.

As it happens, neither side is right or wrong. In a country where there is no consensus on the constitutional future it is inevitable that, as I keep saying, numbers will continue to matter more than anything else. It has been like that my entire lifetime. It has been like that for all of the hundreds of years that people across Ireland have taken opposing sides on the ‘who are we?’ question. And even if there is a united Ireland, that question will not go away. My sense of being more British than Irish is never going to go away. Gerry Adams's sense of being more Irish than British is never going to go away. And for so long as we have those competing senses and identities then for so long will flags—and everything else that adds to those senses and identities—matter to us.

Since the Good Friday Agreement there have been numerous attempts to try and resolve the identity question. The Stormont House Agreement and Fresh Start have sections about it. It’s being talked about again as the parties try to nail something into place before June 29. But talking doesn’t help with that sort of question. You can build in as many safeguards and acknowledgements and recognitions and protections as you like, but the fact remains that unionists will still prioritise their own agenda over nationalists—as will nationalists over unionists. And that’s because most of us aren’t agnostic on the identity question.

So let’s just draw a line under the drivel, for once. Let’s face the fact that we don’t want to be the same. Let’s face the fact that there isn’t and never will be consensus on unity versus the Union. Let’s face the fact that you can’t have ‘normal’ politics when the two power blocs don’t agree on the name and future of the country they govern. Politics here is of the potato-pohtatoh variety: different languages, different symbols, different pasts, different futures.

Will the parties go ahead and strike a deal on June 29? It won’t matter if they do; because in a matter of months there’ll be another problem, or crisis, or hiccough or—go ahead, think of your own word. The dreary steeples, billowing flags, touched-up murals, parades, commemorations, graveside orations, new spats and us-and-them politics are here to stay. And here to stay because it’s what hundreds of thousands are voting for; and will keep on voting for. It’s about the identity, stupid. Always has been. Always will be.