The appointment of former Irish rugby international Trevor Ringland as special envoy on Northern Ireland to the United States is the political equivalent of a Garryowen by Secretary of State Brandon Lewis.
The announcement last weekend has received a mixed response from political leaders in the north.
Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill described the move as “arrogant and disrespectful” given that it was done without consultation with the executive. Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP seemed to question whether someone opposed to the protocol was the best choice for the job.
Predictably, UUP leader Doug Beattie welcomed it as a “fantastic opportunity” and First Minister Arlene Foster commented that she hoped it would “…help some in the US understand better the views of people in NI.”
On his appointment, Trevor Ringland said the role was: “about challenging some of the simplistic views on Northern Ireland. You can’t stereotype everybody. There is a variety of views. But some are based on the ‘it is an occupied island’ mentality.
“And it’s for me to say: Look, it is not like that at all.
“It’s actually people here who choose to live inside the UK, and there are many benefits to that.”
It is correct that many people in this part of Ireland choose to live inside the UK, but it is not the only view. There is another, equally valid view that a better option is building a new Ireland which places at its heart the best interests of everyone who calls this island home and builds from there.
Ringland is a former Westminster election candidate for the Conservatives and Unionists who has also worked with the American Ireland Fund, Co-operation Ireland and Peace Players International. He must understand that if his new role is to be truly representative of everyone who lives here, then it must be respectful and honest about the range of views that are held about the future of this place.
In March 2019, following the “Beyond Brexit” Conference organised by Ireland’s Future (of which I'm a board member) in the Waterfront Hall and attended by over 1,500 people, Mr Ringland said that nationalists were "emboldened" due to Brexit uncertainties and increasing calls for a border poll. He continued: "The message that meeting at the Waterfront sent to me was 'Boy, are we going to get our own back when we get control.' All of this needs hand-braked very quickly and a touch of reality brought to bear."
The consistent message of the Beyond Brexit conference was that there should be a rights-based approach to societal change, which is quite the opposite of Ringland’s assertion.
Perhaps what he meant needed handbraked was those who wanted a better future having the temerity to come together and articulate that this might be best found outside the United Kingdom?
Given that tourism and enterprise are devolved matters, there really is no real role for a special envoy that the NI Bureau, Invest NI, the Tourist Board and Tourism Ireland aren’t already fulfilling.
The NIO’s skin in the game is the need to undertake a propaganda campaign in the US in advance of trying to negotiate a trade deal. The protocol is bad, but not so bad that it negatively impacts the Good Friday Agreement. Oh, and say nothing, but if you invest in the north, you’ll have a back door to the EU market as well. We have vast experience of recent Tory governments talking out of both sides of their mouth.
The difficulty with a strategy which seeks to create a counter-narrative of history is that the US President, multiple senators and members of Congress, along with a sizeable diaspora, know exactly why their ancestors had to emigrate from Ireland. No amount of trying to paint the British government as a neutral party in Ireland will change that reality.
This is a US administration that intends to finish the job of implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and its subsequent agreements. Recent political developments in Washington underline that fact.
It is only three weeks since the US Senate passed a bi-partisan motion calling for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Stormont House Agreement and Northern Ireland Protocol. Just days before that, 25 members of Congress signed a letter to President Biden requesting him to appoint a US Envoy to the north; something it’s understood the White House is likely to do in coming months.
Lewis has kicked the ball up as high as he can in the hope that his forward will catch it and get it over the line. Ringland, however, may find that in terms of the NIO’s propaganda battle with Irish America, he has been handed a hospital pass.
