Opinion

Tom Kelly: Hope and history in full retreat at Stormont

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Alliance leader Naomi Long (centre) has spoken out against 'identity politics'
Alliance leader Naomi Long (centre) has spoken out against 'identity politics' Alliance leader Naomi Long (centre) has spoken out against 'identity politics'

THE Alliance leader Naomi Long wishes that people would stop trying to fit her into the category of unionist or nationalist as neither label reflects her identity nor her politics.

Long was quite fired up on the issue. And when she gets fired up so do commentators on her social media.

It's quite shocking the level of online abuse she receives - but the Ginger Ninja gives as good she gets with her pithy put-downs.

Social media has become the equivalent of the backstreet mugging.

Cowardly keyboard warriors lurk online in the same way that hooded thugs stalk back alleyways.

No balaclavas are needed for social media - anonymity is almost guaranteed as you can sign up with a false email, made up name and no picture.

The scumbags who leave the vilest of comments on social media are always anonymous.

If Facebook or Twitter really wanted to clamp down, rooting out anonymous internet trolls would be the starting point.

But back to Naomi and her almost Utopian clarion call.

Of course she is right, we are more as people or individuals than simple definitions such as nationalist or unionist - which are, within the context of Northern Ireland, different forms of nationalism.

Recently, I came across a letter from an irate reader who was unhappy about a speech I gave in 1988 at Methodist College to students.

The reader's outrage arose from a comment I made which expressed the hope that one day in the future, people like me would not have to describe themselves as nationalists.

Thirty years later, I still stand by that comment. The angry letter-writer felt that somehow I was diluting my, and by extension his, nationalist identity.

I wasn't. I had hoped that after 15 years of direct rule that there would come a day when the constitutional issue would be settled and that our politicians would be focused on matters that did matter such as housing, health and education.

In 1988 people were literally dying because they were nationalists or unionist, Catholic or Protestant.

Those doing much of the killing back then did so in the name of either nationalism or unionism.

Little did I know then that it would take a further 10 years of mayhem to establish the ground rules to make Northern Ireland/the north a better place.

Then along came the Good Friday Agreement which seemed to change the landscape of Northern Ireland and the relationships within and between these islands of Britain and Ireland.

Roll on another 20 years, and all the hope invested in the Good Friday Agreement was wiped out by the hubris of one side and a sense of entitlement of the other.

Seeking to redress the comments of Eamon de Valera some 70 years earlier, the newly-appointed deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, famously said "labour would no longer have to wait".

Mallon, like the rest of us, was impatient back then. For a time it all seemed to be working.

Whilst identity politics was never far from the surface, the sense of grievance on either side seemed to be diminishing. There was an emerging sense of 'us', not 'them'.

But now, without any local or functioning accountable government for over two years, labour does have to wait.

So too do those on hospital waiting lists. Also waiting are those most vulnerable, victims and their families and those whose equality rights are being denied. Hope and history are in full retreat.

Identity politics are more visible now than they were in 1988. We are back to 'us' and 'them'

True, we are not killing each other over it but we are slaughtering each other by escalating cultural conflict.

Brexit has threatened the security and comfort of our settled identities. And whilst most public debate on Brexit has focused on the potential for physical borders on the island of Ireland, the reality is the walls are slowly being re-erected in the borders of the mind as each community withdraws to the safe space of same-culture.

The British government clearly are not in position to win the confidence of the local political parties to have talks about restoring devolution.

This government can't even win the confidence of its own party members.

The current secretary of state, Karen Bradley, is the political equivalent of a sticking plaster.

It's hard to credit that having emerged from conflict to create the Good Friday Agreement, we have lost perspective on issues that matter because being nationalist or unionist is a top priority.