DISCUSSIONS around the Northern Ireland Protocol have never been easy. Nothing here that revolves around the issues of Britishness and Irishness is ever smooth, due to the passion with which we hold onto our identity and sense of belonging.
The Protocol conversation has been a particularly vicious one. The Protocol came into being back in 2021 and aims to ensure free movement of good across the Irish land border – preventing a hard border – and resulting in checks being conducted between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.
As was to be expected by such a move, many unionists thought of this as a symbolic severance of ties with the UK that undermines Northern Ireland's place with it. Just as many other people are in favour of it remaining in some form or fashion so as to avoid a hard border and the friction that will also inevitably cause.
Tough, hard, fraught, tetchy negotiations have been ongoing between the European Union and the UK to try to iron out this seemingly impossible to fix problem and last week it looked like an end could be in sight. But then again, this is Northern Ireland, and nothing is set in stone. A solution this week could be a crisis next week and vice versa.
What is certain is that we have not had a government here for a year. Before that our government was down for three years. We love stop-start politics, it seems, and going around in circles and never getting anywhere is our sport of choice.
Crisis is our default setting here in Northern Ireland. But it is not our fault. Most of the people our political realms revolve around grew up in a completely dysfunctional society – navigating the Troubles – the hangover of which is still being felt by the current generation.
Psychologists would say that those who developed in an environment of chaos and instability – as in every single person over 40 in Northern Ireland – had lived in a constant state of fight of flight, hypervigilance, survival mode and high stress. The anxiety around that chaos becomes so normalised that we think it's completely natural to be this way.
Chaos is our comfortable. Distrust is our default setting. Grasping tight to what we hold dear – our identities, our flags, our family traditions, our blinkered perception to see only our side of the story, because it's safe and comfortable – is what we do. It's what we've always done, because it's within our comfort zone.
You don't need to be a psychologist to know that, like children, adult human beings thrive in stable and nurturing environments where they have a routine and know what they can expect. Disruptions and chaos and uncertainty and hostility can be extremely stressful and impact on people's sense of security.
Chaos and uncertainty is exactly what we are feeding the people of Northern Ireland every single day with this ceaseless and exhausting political pandemonium.
Whether people like it or not, folk look to their political leaders for guidance and actual leadership. Positive, supportive, progressive politics can act as a buffer against the negative effects of historic instability and chaos. Positive politics can help people learn to cope with adversity, adapt to their surroundings and regulate their emotions.
Negative politics gets people riled up, angry, lashing out, digging their trenches even deeper, standing still, fighting, and moving backwards not forwards. How we are where we are, getting on with life in the midst of political disarray, is a testament to the our strength and resilience in the face of constant challenge.
Imagine what we could be in a supportive, positive, nurturing environment. Our business would be booming. Our children wouldn't be leaving in their droves. We would be almost unstoppable.
