P. Bew, K. Darwin and G. Gillespie (eds.)
(Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, £6.50)
Community relations initiatives in Northern Ireland have been accorded such significance in recent years that one commentator has referred to the ‘fetishisation of talking’. Passion and Prejudice reminds us that in previous years dialogue was more problematic. It presents the background to the establishment in December 1938 of the Irish Association, a non-party political and non-sectarian association whose aim was ‘to make reason and goodwill take the place of passion and prejudice in Ireland, North and South’. The debate takes place against a backdrop of increasing sectarian tension, culminating in the riots of 1935. The Association was established by Major General Montgomery whose correspondence with a variety of people, in particular Lord Charlemont, Northern Ireland’s second minister of Education, is here reproduced. While their families were rooted in Ireland, both Montgomery and Charlemont were born and educated in England, and consequently their perspectives are largely those of outsiders.
The theme of the book is the conflict between Catholics and Protestants but it is more informative on the divisions among Protestants in interpreting its causes and the possible ways forward. Perceptions of Catholics varied from those who believed they could be loyal if treated well to those who considered them inherently disloyal. Others saw no prospect of progress until Catholics accepted partition. For some, Catholics were an ungrateful and whinging minority whose organ, the Irish News, exaggerated their grievances. The Catholic Church was seen as an obstacle to peace for a variety of reasons — for its position on mixed marriages and Catholic education, for exerting pressure on Catholic voters at election time, for failing to condemn the firing on an Orange procession in 1935. The influence of Cardinal MacRory was also considered ‘baleful’. The nature of Protestant bigotry is likewise discussed at length, Lord Charlemont expressing despair about the possibility of countering it with reason. The Orange Order also emerges as an enduring impediment to peace, though one writer forlornly hoped that it might be possible to remind leaders that one of its stated aims was to abstain from all uncharitable thoughts, words and actions against Catholics.
Most of the analysis of the Nationalist position is presented by Protestant writers who appear to have been better at talking about rather than to Catholics. An exception was the lengthy correspondence between Fr John McShane and Montgomery from August 1939 until it ended in stalemate in April 1940. Fr McShane, then parish priest at Omagh, was well-known for his strongly nationalist views. Nevertheless, Montgomery wrote to McShane asking him to promote the Boy Scout movement. McShane warned that the movement was too closely associated with British propaganda to attract Catholic boys. The correspondence which ensued dealt with Anglo-Irish relations and local community relations in terms which left little room for optimism on Montgomery’s part.
McShane attempted to explain the absence of any sense of loyalty to the Empire on the part of Nationalists. He protested that England wanted the world to believe that the problems were due to the inability of Catholics and Protestants to agree among themselves and had never conceded a single point of Ireland’s claim to self-determination except in response to violence. He clearly saw England as the villian, arguing that the Unionists’ ‘not an inch’ strategy would change overnight if England withdrew her military and financial support. He saw no point in friendly moves until then.
Montgomery, however, set much store by improving community relations and hoped that with success in this area the constitutional situation would somehow resolve itself. Responses to his proposal for an association to promote goodwill varied. Some saw it as a variety of Nationalism, an attempt to get people to join an anti-partition movement. Others accepted it within the terms of Unionism but doubted whether this could be converted into anything positive. A number of the letters indicate that many opposed bigotry and discrimination, but were reluctant to make their opposition public. ‘What cowards we all are!’ was the comment of one writer whose friends had been well-disposed to Montgomery’s idea in theory, but had been unwilling to become involved in any public action. Another wrote: ‘I do not think any of our leaders are bigots but unfortunately many of the small fry are and the franchise plays into their hands’. Charlemont referred to the lack of moral courage, laziness, and vested interests:
No one in any of the superior ranks of public life (myself, for instance) can say very much because they would embarrass the Government so horribly. Not that the latter are violent individually but they have to keep in with the Orange Order because it is a bulwark against Socialism.
The unwillingness to rock the boat is vividly described in Patrick O’Shea’s autobiographical Voices and the Sound of Drums where apparently liberal and well-meaning members of the civil service accepted without question that Catholics would not receive equal treatment in the civil service.
Passion and Prejudice provides many insights into Unionist thought and into the way in which those of a conciliatory mentality allowed themselves to be silenced by populist sectarianism. It is particularly relevant for studies of the development of the Northern Irish state. Although focused on the 1930s, the book should be of interest also to those involved in contemporary initiatives to create a middle ground in Northern Ireland.
Mary Harris