Opinion

Patrick Murphy: The border will disappear when we tackle 100 years of entrenched ignorance

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy

Patrick Murphy is an Irish News columnist and former director of Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education.

An old customs post at Ballyconnell near the Cavan/Fermanagh border Picture Mal McCann.
An old customs post at Ballyconnell near the Cavan/Fermanagh border Picture Mal McCann. An old customs post at Ballyconnell near the Cavan/Fermanagh border Picture Mal McCann.

As the border celebrates (if that’s the right word) its 100th birthday, the arguments surrounding it remain fixed, if somewhat inconsistent.

Nationalists claim that partition was an injustice foisted on Ireland, even though a majority of them supported the1921Treaty establishing the border and the Good Friday Agreement which enshrined its legitimacy.

Unionists insist the border defends Ulster unionism, thereby ignoring the sizeable unionist populations in Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal and failing to recognise that Edward Carson disagreed with partition, arguing instead for a united Ireland within the UK.

So, after 100 years, what is the legacy of partition and, as the wrangling over the Irish Sea border becomes more embittered, will the land border survive for another century?

The border was not a solution, it just made an existing situation worse. It created two main problems. The first was that it was based on 13th Century county boundaries, which followed townland boundaries of uncertain historical origin.

So while smugglers made small fortunes (and a few big ones) most people in the borderlands suffered the disruption of an international boundary running with remarkable disregard through their fields, farms, homes and villages.

The second problem was that partition allowed both Irish states to live out their political fantasies. The south immediately banned imports from the north, which was busy gerrymandering electoral boundaries and abolishing proportional representation in elections.

Apart from regular hostile references, the two states ignored each other, planned their economies separately and treated their religious minorities with contempt.

The southern state inherited a 10 per cent Protestant minority which declined considerably, particularly among working class Dublin Protestants. (There was no religious segregation in Dublin. Working class Catholics and Protestants lived side by side, as evidenced by the Protestant Bessy Burgess in O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars.)

The 1937 constitution recognised the “special position” of the Catholic Church and by 1961 less than five per cent of the population were Protestant.

Meanwhile the north’s institutionalised discrimination was articulated by interior minister Dawson Bates, who said that he did not want even the most juvenile clerk or typist if they were a Papist. Partition gave a free hand to bigotry and discrimination.

So the border became not just a line on the ground, but a huge chasm in the hearts and minds of the Irish people. Attempts to remove the border by violence were a bit like trying to remove spots from a child’s face in the hope of curing measles.

The border will naturally disappear by tackling the underlying disease, which in this case is 100 years of entrenched ignorance. Few on both sides of the border know much about everyday life on the other side.

The three main strategies currently attempting to remove the border do not tackle that ignorance. Inter-government bodies such as the North-South Ministerial Council, have little relevance to the lives of ordinary people. Advocating a border poll tends to harden attitudes and the Dublin government’s Shared Island initiative throws money at cross-border infrastructure in the apparent belief that physical structures will generate human enlightenment.

This week hearts hardened and minds became more closed with a court ruling that although the NI Protocol is not unlawful, it conflicts with the 1800 Act of Union.

This apparent victory for nationalism is a rallying cry for unionists who, in a reverse of 1921, now claim the Irish Sea border has been unfairly imposed on them. Unionists have been handed the unifying cause they lacked in recent years.

Following the Brexit referendum five years ago, this column suggested that the Dublin government should talk immediately to unionism to manage the inevitable challenges and opportunities for the north. Instead Dublin adopted the hostile 1921 attitude, which suited unionism perfectly, and the two sides have been shouting at each other ever since.

Which is good news for the 100 year old border, because it will be there until the shouting stops and, following this week’s events, there is little sign of that happening any time soon.