Ireland – The Prism of Separation by Frazer McCammond

Ireland - The Prism of
Seperation I have come to believe that there is only one story of Ireland and that, accepting that as such, is fundamental to achieving true reconciliation and securing the foundations of a New Ireland for all.

Frazer McCammond| June 29, 2020

Early in 2019 Shared Ireland asked me to participate in their podcast series and it was a delight to have done so along with Nigel Watson. Two individuals with Unionist backgrounds in our families one of us convinced of the efficacy of a New Ireland and the other persuadable enjoying an amiable conversation with a nationalist.

“…suspicions linger, including amongst families, when telling a more senior family member over dinner that I had taken up learning Gaeilge, the thoughtful furrowed brow met me with “ now, just why would you want to do that?”

It is refreshing that individuals today increasingly feel able to express a view that perhaps jars against the preconceived notions of historical nationalism and unionism. It certainly contrasts with my decision to join Alliance in the early nineties being met with cries of “traitor” from my late mother- in-law and then again being accused of “coming out of the same litter as Sinn Fein “whilst being an elected councillor. Even today, suspicions linger, including amongst families, when telling a more senior family member over dinner that I had taken up learning Gaeilge, the thoughtful furrowed brow met me with “ now, just why would you want to do that?”

On 25 May 2020 George Floyd was unlawfully killed by police officers in Minneapolis USA. The Black Lives Mattered movement emerged reflecting and articulating the pent-up feelings of a discriminated community, spilling over into countries around the world including the UK. After the initial toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol a less than subtle change in emphasis is detectable in the UK with wider attention falling on the significant long-dead personalities of Imperial Britain. Indeed, the namesake of my birth country Cecil Rhodes is to be removed from Oriel College, Oxford. Who is next I wonder? It does, however, point to the importance of understanding one’s own history and the history of our countries in a mature, reflective and contextualised way for today. Sadly there has been a failing by successive governments in the way they have directed the teaching of history in schools, a matter which needs to be corrected.

Protestors prepare to throw a Edward Colston stature into the river in Bristol.

Ireland of course has its own experience of Imperial Britain. Depending upon whom you talk to, two contrasting versions of that relationship are prevalent within the Island with varying degrees of passionate support and distaste. I believe Ireland, North and South like the UK need to address the deficiencies in the teaching of our history and this establishes the focus of what I want to express here.

…the truth is other than a very basic outline of Irish history from an Imperialist British perspective, the story had not been told to me.

I say that my family background is a Unionist one. Historically that is true, notionally that has been true (as voting was at one time them or us) but as a measure of my identity and indeed the identity of my father and his father before him I cannot claim it to be so. Three generations (four if I include my own children) of this family have not been exposed to fundamentalist Protestantism, the Loyal Orders or active political Unionism. There have been no expectations to conform. I contend that this freedom of choice has in hindsight been emancipating, well nearly! In fact, very little about my family history was ever explained and there is no one to tell me why. As for my national identity I understood from my parents that I was British because I lived in a British ruled jurisdiction, so when as a 16 year old and refused a Full British Passport , a significant seed was sown and a vacuum created. I have never had an innate sense of being British and indeed later in life in countries such as  France would defer to being Irish. Did I have a strong sense of being Irish? In all honesty no, albeit my Irish passport became more and more precious to me, the truth is other than a very basic outline of Irish history from an Imperialist British perspective, the story had not been told to me. I certainly had not been taught history in such a way as to reflect the assertion made by Keith Clements in his book a Nationhood For Today that to love ones country is to “accept the next man with complete seriousness by learning through him of his background, by letting him speak, letting him put the challenges of his own questions, letting him express his own pain, letting him challenge one’s own presuppositions and prick one’s own presumptions”

Anecdotally I have recollections as a child of things said. One of the most potent memories I have as a young boy was my maternal grandmother, a Christian woman, telling me that the only good Catholic was a dead one. Firstly, I didn’t know what a Catholic was, and wouldn’t until well into my teens, secondly, what did Catholics do to deserve such contempt? I remember relating this to my
father and his disapproval of what had been said. I guess I was too young to have the political niceties of this place explained to me, but my father’s tone was sufficient for me to know that this was not a topic for conversation. When I was older my father would talk a little of the activities of the Black & Tans and particularly the B-Specials expressing his distaste for the things they had done, including the unexplained disappearance of Catholics.

Postcard depicting guns arriving at Donaghadee via Larne 1912

Following my father’s death, some papers came into my possession which started to illuminate some of my family history. I remember then discussing some of this with my paternal grandmother who produced newspaper cuttings detailing my great grandfather’s participation in the Larne gun- running in 1912. She seemed quite proud of this and I found it strange that she would have kept them.

Events in life such as the murder of Tony and Myles O’Reilly on 9 March 1976, whom I worked for, and loved, by a loyalist gang at their business premises at Aughnaleck. My involvement in politics with Alliance in the nineties and the bitterness I would experience from some unionism, not all, increasingly set me adrift from a culture and allegiance which I cannot to this day fathom.

In recent years I read JW Taylors book “Guilty but Insane” examining the life of Captain John Bowen- Colthurst and the tragic culmination of his actions in Portobello Barracks, over the days of the 1916 Rising, with the illegal execution of Francis Sheehy Skeffington along with two others. My interest was piqued as my great grandfather LT Col WEC McCammond was the commanding officer, although absent on the day of the executions. Perhaps also that my great uncle Lt CRW McCammond was the officer shot and wounded near Davey’s Pub who raised the alarm of the rebellion at the barracks.

As I read Taylors book I was faced with what seemed like contradictions in the identity of Bowen- Colthurst. Born and raised in Cork, Bowen-Colthurst clearly had a passionate sense of his Irish identity albeit apparently conflicted by his equally passionate view of his place in a British Empire which he served along with Irishmen of both cultures in the armed services. He is on record as declaring that he could not raise his rifle against a fellow Irishman. That ultimately he would be responsible for the unlawful death of those in Portobello and elsewhere is not so much about his national identity but rather some flaw of character or in his state of mind. His family ultimately paid a price for his actions and associations with the burning down of their home by “nationalists”.

Book cover for Guilty or Insane by James W. Taylor.

Notwithstanding all, I believe Bowen-Colthurst was an Irishman through and through. That by virtue of his birth- line, his religion and his allegiance to the British Empire he should be perceived by others to have been something else is a mistake of history.

JW Taylor’s book was also a moment of profound realisation for me personally. As Taylor reflected upon the consequences of the absence of my great grandfather on the night of the murders he speculates that if he had been present the murders would not have occurred, the level of public disturbance would not have been as great and the next rebellion leader due for execution would have been so executed. That being Eamon de Valera. I don’t speak to the veracity of such a claim but what it did was to make me realise for the first time that the story of the 1916 Rising was not simply the story of Republican Ireland it was part of the story of all of Ireland, of all of its players including my own family. It is the one story of collective Ireland and it is my story. It is a part of who I am and now my identity vacuum has been filled.

Since 1921 Governments, North and South, have sought to promote a lie for their own ends. I know as I write this that history taught to me has been sanitised, offering a view of truth and self- righteousness which has corrupted hearts and minds for a century.

Ireland has become a country of perceptions, just as light is refracted through a prism separating into its individual components destined to travel into infinity. Nationalists hang on to their view of history and culture, Unionists hang on to their view of history and culture, ne’er will the twain meet?

In 1998 many of us North and South believed that the GFA (Good Friday Agreement) would be the source of hope we all yearned for. A hope for an enduring peace.

Since 1921 Governments, North and South, have sought to promote a lie for their own ends. I know as I write this that history taught to me has been sanitised, offering a view of truth and self- righteousness which has corrupted hearts and minds for a century.

Twenty two years later we now see some of the flaws in the GFA manifesting themselves in increased separation of narratives and increased nationalisms.

This is not the fault of the agreement, it never was perfect. It was the best efforts of those at the time who truly desired peace in our land, they should continue to be applauded. It was to be a foundation stone upon which future relationships were to evolve and develop. That NI would develop into a mutually tolerant and shared society.

Brexit has exacerbated flaws already exposed in the GFA but, perhaps, also exposed flaws in the character of the respective nationalisms. It remains my hope and I am quite sure, the hope of the many that the spirit of the GFA will ultimately win through. That will require strong and neighbourly leadership, currently conspicuous by its absence in Northern Ireland.

Within my own circles there is an increasing appetite for re-unification as a means of preserving European identities and economic stability.

At the time of the GFA, I and very many like me believed that the constitutional position had been settled for our life- times. Brexit has dashed that and the single-minded attitude of the DUP, with the UUP on its coat tails, will potentially destroy the economy of the North. Protestants, unionist and non-unionists, professionals, business people and others are quietly re-evaluating their national allegiance. Economics and greater pluralism, particularly amongst the younger generation, are becoming more prominent in their thinking than the sectarian identities of old. Within my own circles there is an increasing appetite for re-unification as a means of preserving European identities and economic stability.

Returning to our separate narratives, this is part of the lie of history foisted upon us for political gain. The political establishment is fixated upon a shared history and future. This application of the word share clearly implies continuing separation of narratives but I have come to believe that there is only one story of Ireland and that, accepting that as such, is fundamental to achieving true reconciliation and securing the foundations of a New Ireland for all.

Let us remove the Prism of Separation

Frazer McCammond

Frazer is a friend of the podcast and you can listen to him on the highly popular Episode 4 here.

Frazer McCammond

@beingfrazer

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