Another year, another summer where exceptionalism and exceptionalist sensibilities take precedent over all other considerations. Poisonous materials and the potential of shutting down not one but two hospitals are no impediment to ‘culture’. Rejoicing in being neck-deep ’in Fenian blood’ to ‘Kill All Taigs’ is part and parcel of a sacrosanct ritual at this time of year. Groundhog day for the exasperated and fed up.
A request from Belfast City Council to aid the removal of the bonfire at the offending site above was rejected by the PSNI, and not for the first time, on the back of Loyalist threats. No doubt the police will poetically articulate why this decision was taken. Perhaps even making us doubt our own reality. But of course this isn’t a one-off. Actions speak louder than words and this latest action, or lack thereof, is part of a long pattern. Many readers of these pages will note the arrest of two female anti-Genocide, Palestinian supporters in Belfast city centre while days later masked racists quite literally walked past PSNI officers to place industrial bins on railway tracks to set alight. This is the same PSNI who were found guilty in court of facilitating illegal parades past Short Strand during the 2012 flag protest. A protest where they stood idly by while handfuls of mostly women were allowed to block main thoroughfares in and around Belfast.
PSNI patterns of behaviour go beyond handling racists and Loyalists with kid gloves. They continue to block and frustrate numerous inquests into state killings and collusion cases, amounting to a de facto defence of their predecessors in the RUC and the British state. Partiality was hardwired into policing as a ‘rampart’ of the northern polity from its inception. The new beginning to policing envisaged by Patten was being unpicked before the ink was dry as the old ethos carried through into the new era. Catholic recruitment is at 20% while PSNI stop and search operations are disproportionally biased against Catholic/Nationalists according to a 2024 Policing Board report. While the PSNI rejection of the Belfast City Council request to help contractors remove a dangerous bonfire, on many levels, was disappointing, it was sadly expected.
The annual festival of one-upmanship brings to light the true nature of northern society. The PSNI are but one pillar of this failing polity, political Unionism being another. We need only look at the racist rampage where the range of ‘Kill Alls’ was expanded to include any foreign nationals, particularly those of colour. Effigies of migrants on bonfires is political expression. The response from political Unionism was as poor as it was unsurprising. Indeed, one Unionist government minister stood accused of identifying the location of refugees fleeing for their lives after the co-ordinated pogrom in Ballymena. The same minister has now joined a legal case to prevent dual-language signage being erected in a public transport hub in Belfast. This is the same Unionism that blocks and delays funding for Casement Parkreminiscent of the decision to build the University of Ulster’s second campus in Coleraine and not the natural choice, Derry, because ‘they’ are in the majority there. Decades apart but depressingly familiar. A society where a known Loyalist can get caught with a car load of guns and receive a slap on the wrist from the judiciary. And the list goes on. Of course there are many British citizens of the north who abhor such conduct. The voices of the liberal Unionist and the progressive Loyalist are unfortunately drowned out by an increasingly regressive Unionism led by the DUP dog being wagged by the TUV tail.
An obvious fact in all this is that Nationalists and Others have no genuine Unionist political partner. Current political arrangements continue to block any Nationalist from being Minister for Justice. Discriminatory at the very least. The more things change the more they stay the same. Absent of true partnership in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement things will undoubtedly remain so. The Unionist veto has been now repackaged as the St. Andrew’s veto whereby the First or Deputy First Minister can block any items going on to the Executive’s agenda leading to lack of progress and stalemate. To those who lament that ‘Northern Ireland’ is not working I would categorically disagree. Without rehearsing history, the underlying fact is that bigotry and intolerance are hardwired into the very DNA of the northern polity. As such it is working exactly as per its design specifications. That is, to maintain the dominance of one community over all others. The Good Friday Agreement’s promise of ‘the right to freedom from sectarian harassment’ were simply nice words it seems. While Unionism is on the wane politically they remain a powerful force illuminating the glaring incompatibility of pluralist political arrangements superimposed on the foundations of structural supremacy.
The underlying message in terms of policing and political Unionism is that it’s the same old story. Loyalists and Unionists may rejoice, viewing the PSNI decision not intervene at a hazardous bonfire site as a victory. But to the wider community it demonstrates how dysfunctional the north remains. Under the regret of not ‘making Northern Ireland work’ the logical question is what was ‘Northern Ireland’ meant to do? And the answer is exactly what we’re witnessing now. The old ramparts of the state coming to the rescue of one section of the community while Unionist politicians cheer on. Sectarianism, supremacy and partial policing will never be eradicated because they are dependent on the existing state structure and vice versa.
Such is the Alice in Wonderland nature of northern society fire engines will be out tonight hosing down buildings while fires go untouched. Where common sense goes up in flames to satisfy a collective narcissism excused and tolerated as culture. Irish unity provides the best and perhaps only chance to disentangle all of this. It’s long overdue.
Another year, another summer where exceptionalism and exceptionalist sensibilities take precedent over all other considerations. Poisonous materials and the potential of shutting down not one but two hospitals are no impediment to ‘culture’. Rejoicing in being neck-deep ’in Fenian blood’ to ‘Kill All Taigs’ is part and parcel of a sacrosanct ritual at this time of year. Groundhog day for the exasperated and fed up.
A request from Belfast City Council to aid the removal of the bonfire at the offending site above was rejected by the PSNI, and not for the first time, on the back of Loyalist threats. No doubt the police will poetically articulate why this decision was taken. Perhaps even making us doubt our own reality. But of course this isn’t a one-off. Actions speak louder than words and this latest action, or lack thereof, is part of a long pattern. Many readers of these pages will note the arrest of two female anti-Genocide, Palestinian supporters in Belfast city centre while days later masked racists quite literally walked past PSNI officers to place industrial bins on railway tracks to set alight. This is the same PSNI who were found guilty in court of facilitating illegal parades past Short Strand during the 2012 flag protest. A protest where they stood idly by while handfuls of mostly women were allowed to block main thoroughfares in and around Belfast.
PSNI patterns of behaviour go beyond handling racists and Loyalists with kid gloves. They continue to block and frustrate numerous inquests into state killings and collusion cases, amounting to a de facto defence of their predecessors in the RUC and the British state. Partiality was hardwired into policing as a ‘rampart’ of the northern polity from its inception. The new beginning to policing envisaged by Patten was being unpicked before the ink was dry as the old ethos carried through into the new era. Catholic recruitment is at 20% while PSNI stop and search operations are disproportionally biased against Catholic/Nationalists according to a 2024 Policing Board report. While the PSNI rejection of the Belfast City Council request to help contractors remove a dangerous bonfire, on many levels, was disappointing, it was sadly expected.
The annual festival of one-upmanship brings to light the true nature of northern society. The PSNI are but one pillar of this failing polity, political Unionism being another. We need only look at the racist rampage where the range of ‘Kill Alls’ was expanded to include any foreign nationals, particularly those of colour. Effigies of migrants on bonfires is political expression. The response from political Unionism was as poor as it was unsurprising. Indeed, one Unionist government minister stood accused of identifying the location of refugees fleeing for their lives after the co-ordinated pogrom in Ballymena. The same minister has now joined a legal case to prevent dual-language signage being erected in a public transport hub in Belfast. This is the same Unionism that blocks and delays funding for Casement Parkreminiscent of the decision to build the University of Ulster’s second campus in Coleraine and not the natural choice, Derry, because ‘they’ are in the majority there. Decades apart but depressingly familiar. A society where a known Loyalist can get caught with a car load of guns and receive a slap on the wrist from the judiciary. And the list goes on. Of course there are many British citizens of the north who abhor such conduct. The voices of the liberal Unionist and the progressive Loyalist are unfortunately drowned out by an increasingly regressive Unionism led by the DUP dog being wagged by the TUV tail.
An obvious fact in all this is that Nationalists and Others have no genuine Unionist political partner. Current political arrangements continue to block any Nationalist from being Minister for Justice. Discriminatory at the very least. The more things change the more they stay the same. Absent of true partnership in the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement things will undoubtedly remain so. The Unionist veto has been now repackaged as the St. Andrew’s veto whereby the First or Deputy First Minister can block any items going on to the Executive’s agenda leading to lack of progress and stalemate. To those who lament that ‘Northern Ireland’ is not working I would categorically disagree. Without rehearsing history, the underlying fact is that bigotry and intolerance are hardwired into the very DNA of the northern polity. As such it is working exactly as per its design specifications. That is, to maintain the dominance of one community over all others. The Good Friday Agreement’s promise of ‘the right to freedom from sectarian harassment’ were simply nice words it seems. While Unionism is on the wane politically they remain a powerful force illuminating the glaring incompatibility of pluralist political arrangements superimposed on the foundations of structural supremacy.
The underlying message in terms of policing and political Unionism is that it’s the same old story. Loyalists and Unionists may rejoice, viewing the PSNI decision not intervene at a hazardous bonfire site as a victory. But to the wider community it demonstrates how dysfunctional the north remains. Under the regret of not ‘making Northern Ireland work’ the logical question is what was ‘Northern Ireland’ meant to do? And the answer is exactly what we’re witnessing now. The old ramparts of the state coming to the rescue of one section of the community while Unionist politicians cheer on. Sectarianism, supremacy and partial policing will never be eradicated because they are dependent on the existing state structure and vice versa.
Such is the Alice in Wonderland nature of northern society fire engines will be out tonight hosing down buildings while fires go untouched. Where common sense goes up in flames to satisfy a collective narcissism excused and tolerated as culture. Irish unity provides the best and perhaps only chance to disentangle all of this. It’s long overdue.