The Conservative and Unionist Party’s rhetoric on Brexit illustrates a deceptive English colonial self-image and revives dark memories of Irish history. Should the days of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland return because of a no-deal Brexit, it would likely fuel sectarian agitation and violence once more. Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy neglects Northern Ireland’s Catholics and since the Brexit referendum in 2016 Irish Republican fringe groups, which previously have been regarded as illegitimate among many Irish, are believed to have gained increasing support. The modification of Northern Ireland’s political landscape may in fact lead to a long-sought reunification of the Irish isle.
The carousel that is Brexit seem to be never-ending. The EU has agreed to delay Brexit for a third time and the UK approaches a new general election in December. While a general election could tip the scale in favor for the “Remain faction” and even potentially even lead to a second Brexit referendum this is highly unlikely (Colson 2019; Levitt 2019). The reason for the current havoc goes deeper and is rooted in a collective English self-perception fully divorced from reality.
The English delusional self-image
Pax Britannica is long gone and the British Empire is merely a bleak shadow of its past “prime and vigor,” which included massacres, concentration camps, and deliberate famines (Gregoire 2018). Between 29 and 35 million Indians perished from famines as a result of British colonial policies, where the English contributed significantly to worsen the conditions. Colonial administrators who tried to feed the starving were reprimanded by London. Sir Richard Temple who initially aimed to save “his subjects” ended up placing Indians in labor camps where they received fewer daily calories than inmates in Buchenwald (Davis 2001, 37-74; Hari 2006; and Khan 2017). English concentration camps in Kenya in the 1960s, where nearly 1.5 million people were detained and Barack Obama’s grandfather was tortured, merely constitutes a fragment of the bestiality which have been conducted under the Union Jack (Parry 2016).
Still, a poll conducted by YouGov in 2014 indicates that 59% of England’s population consider the British Empire as something to be proud of, while 34% wish it would still exist. Only 19% regard it as something to be ashamed of (Dahlgreen 2014). Renowned English historians, such as Dominic Sandbrook, claim that “Britain’s empire stands out as a beacon of tolerance, decency and rule of law,” (Sandbrook 2010) while Lawrence James encourages people to be proud of the British Empire (James 2012). It is this kind of refusal to cast aside delusional interpretations of history which “has given us Brexit” (Younge 2018). Or as former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt put it in 2013 “it [the empire] is gone, even though you [Englishmen] still think it exists” (Elliott 2013). From a political-psychology perspective it can be demanding for any national entity to collectively accept that their country is no longer as influential as it once was (Erişen 2013; Neef 2017). While English politicians repeatedly have construed the image that a post-Brexit Britain will increase trade and bilateral relations with the Commonwealth, the hard truth is that the Commonwealth does not need Britain (Rudd 2019; Tharoor 2017). Imperial nostalgia may in fact have cemented Britain’s involuntary abdication from its position as the premier player on the world stage.
One may portray it as a fitting historical paradox that Brexit, with the aim of strengthening England’s prepotency both politically and economically (Ringeisen-Biardeaud 2016), has increased the likelihood for England to surrender its very first colony. Although Ireland seeded from Britain in the early 1920s following the Irish War of Independence, the six Irish counties of the North, commonly referred to as Northern Ireland, remain as an integral part of the UK.
In their book Rule Britannia Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson display how the fallacy of post-imperial hubris may lead to a severe backlash (Ferguson 2003; and Mance 2019). The vulnerability does not only correlate to the wellbeing of the English people, often presented in economic terms, but may have a severe impact on people in the last residues of the empire. Scotland, Gibraltar, and Northern Ireland, all constituent parts of the UK, voted to remain in the EU. In the wake of the Brexit referendum people in these countries are now forced to choose between Britain on the one hand and Europe on the other (Tempest 2016).
Boris Johnson was never a leading EU-skeptic. Rather he is an opportunist who saw the possibility to pamper his own political career through a die-hard EU-sceptic rhetoric (MacAskill 2019; Quatremer 2019). Johnson’s statements and actions cannot be excused as acts of simplemindedness. In fact, Johnson is well-versed in EU-politics and state affairs, and he speaks both French and Italian (Totaro & Mudge 2019). But his rhetoric and disregard for the consequences of his actions are “gunpowder” which may serve the same the effect as Guy Fawkes set out to achieve over 400 years ago. The difference: While Fawkes wanted to cleanse England from oppression, Johnson seems to be indifferent to any cause and the consequences of his actions, if he can keep his address on 10 Downing Street.
Ireland’s history of oppression and resistance
Ireland was to become England’s first colonial experiment, a laboratory for economic and cultural expansion. Although London had ambitions in Ireland since the twelfth century England manifested its control of Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the Tudor conquest. Following the Nine Years’ War of 1603, Irish Catholics became predominantly land-less and powerless (Barry 2019; Brady 1994; & Lennon 1994). Uprisings against the English crown characterized Irish history for the next 400 years.
It is difficult to determine which of England’s long list of historical atrocities has caused most grievances towards England in modern-day Ireland. Oliver Cromwell’s ravages and the Great Famine may both top the list. Cromwell’s campaign from 1642 to 1651 decimated the Irish population by at least 15% (St John Parker 1993). Cromwell made no secret of his contempt for Catholics and in the aftermath of the siege of Drogheda in 1649, the bloodiest massacre ever carried out on Irish soil, he stated that: “I am persuaded that this is a righteous judgement of God on these barbarous wretches” (Mullally 2017 and Mulraney 2019).
The Great Famine (1845-1852), commonly referred to as the Potato Famine, exemplifies the calculating nature of British colonial design. The potato blight was not confined to Ireland, but it was only here that famine erupted on a large scale (Gallagher 1987). Instead of banning export from Ireland to feed the hungry, large quantities of food were shipped to England and Scotland while approximately one million Irish starved to death or perished through sickness (Kinealy 1994, 354 and Woodham-Smith 1991, 75) and malnutrition. It is further estimated that up to two million people migrated as a direct result of food shortage (Ross 2002). While people starved, the English ruling class blamed the people for being lazy, claimed that the Irish were justly being punished by God, and that the real evil was not the famine but the perverse Irish people (O’Dowd 2019).
John Mitchell, an Irish journalist and political activist at the time wrote: “The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine.” This statement sentenced him to fourteen years in the penal colony of Bermuda (Duffy 2007, 312, 323). But Mitchell was not alone. The Times wrote that the English administration had created “a mass of poverty, disaffection, and degradation without a parallel in the world” (Seabrook 2013). Modern-day English historian AJP Taylor has compared all of Ireland to the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen (Murphy 2013), while Professor Francis A. Boyle has claimed that the famine was genocide in accordance with the criteria set out by the Hague Convention in 1948 (Boyle 2010).
It comes as no surprise that the Irish came to oppose their oppressors and as time went by the nature of resistance became increasingly more organized and refined. The French Revolution in 1789 came to inspire Irish political thought and saw the rise of Theobald Wolfe Tone who propagated new reformist ideals. He advocated the emancipation of Catholic and Presbyterian political rights and argued that English interference in Irish national affairs needed to come to an end (Connolly 2008). Tone’s understanding of society largely corresponded to the initial ideals of the French Revolution and Thomas Paine’s Right’s of Man published in 1791. Paine’s book is imperative as it legitimizes revolution when rulers break the social contract and act in direct opposition to the interest of its subjects (Paine 2012). Consequently, Tone’s organization, the Society of United Irishmen, asserted that London had to relinquish its power to an Irish parliament (Connolly 2008). Tone was arrested and condemned to death after the failed 1798-rebellion, but his legacy is immense, and he is widely regarded as the father of Irish republicanism (Bartlett 2011; and Mac Donncha 2017).
In 1916, Irish republicans launched the Easter Rising in the attempt to end British occupation. Initially the attempt seemed to be a failure and 15 rebel leaders were executed. The wounded James Connolly, who was unable to stand, was tied to his chair in front of the firing squad. But the cruelty of the British quelling during a few April days had enraged the masses. The seeds for further and more uncompromising struggle had been planted (Geoghegan, Kiberd, Norris, and Flynn 2017; and RTÉ 2013). The Irish Free State, making up 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties, was to gain its independence six years later.
In December 1916, eight months after the Easter Rising, James Joyce published his debut novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. In the book he depicts a young Fenian student who, when talking about the fate of Irish martyrs, states that “our day will come yet, believe me.” Although the protagonist of the book is critical of his friend’s resolute and unquestioning loyalty to Ireland he understands that suffering and injustice fuels rage and violence (Joyce 1916). The Irish slogan Tiocfaidh ár lá (our day will come) has become frequently used among Irish republican nationalists, including hunger striker (and British MP) Bobby Sands and current Sinn Féin leader Mary-Lou McDonald, to invigorate the discourse of freedom from England (Doyle 2018; McMahon 2018). One may refer to the brutal events in Ireland’s past, of which many likely could be classified as crimes against humanity or even genocide, as embedded in history. Could they therefore be evaded as historical mishaps, irrelevant for modern day Irish-British relations? Omitting the scars of the past, deeply rooted in Irish collective memory is a serious oversight. Moreover, the fierceness and callousness of English policy has continued towards Catholics in the North of Ireland up until to this present day.
Apartheid and violence in the North
James Toye grew up in Derry throughout the second half of the 20th century and remember how people living in social housing were not allowed to vote. Most social housing residents were Catholic. It was not uncommon that places looking for employment used the signs “Job Vacancy: No Catholics” (Barry 2019).
In 1993 Belfast-born journalist David McKittrick referred to the segregation between Catholics and Protestants in Ulster as apartheid by quoting both representatives of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and the Ulster Unionist Party. At the time, over 90% of children attended either all Protestant or all Catholic schools and a large majority of civil servants were Protestant (McKittrick 1993). In 2019, a quarter of a century after McKittrick’s article and twenty-one years after the Good Friday Agreement, journalist Pumza Fihlani who grew up in apartheid South Africa argues that she had never experienced segregation like in Belfast, where the so-called “peace walls” eat their way through the city isolating Catholics and Protestants from each other. “I come from a broken society and something felt broken here,” Fihlani commented on her Belfast experience (Fihlani 2019).
It is no secret that Irish identity and the civil rights for Catholics have been suppressed in the North. The Irish language and Irish history were excluded from Northern Ireland’s school curriculum and both Sinn Féin and the Irish flag was banned up until 1974 (Dorney 2015). Today segregation continues. A study from 2015 conducted by Vani Borooah and Colin Know from University of Ulster suggests that almost 90% of Catholics and Protestants still attend schools were their own religious identity is dominating (Borooah and Know 2015, 16). In 2010 Peter Robinson, then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) called the school system in Northern Ireland “benign apartheid,” claiming that “Who among us would think it acceptable that a state or nation would educate its young people by the criteria of race with white schools or black schools? Yet we are prepared to operate a system which separates our children almost entirely on the basis of their religion” (Belfast Telegraph 2010). That Robinson, a staunch unionist with close ties to Ian Paisley, acknowledges the fact of hardcore segregation illustrates the intractability of identity politics in Northern Ireland.
Moreover, Catholics have historically suffered from discrimination in the job market and access to social housing (Osborne and Cormack 1986, 4-5), a trend which, although improved, still constitutes common practice (Haverty 2019; Minority Rights Group International 2019). The discriminatory structure towards Catholics has long been deemphasized. Plural voting existed here in the 1960s, while it had been abolished in the rest of the UK in 1948. Only homeowners where eligible to vote in local elections and business owners were assigned even more votes. The large majority of eligible voters were Protestants. Moreover, the police, including both Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the Ulster Special Constabulary (USC), consisted of Protestants (Dorney 2015). The lack of housing and jobs made many Catholics take to streets and protest for civil rights in the summer and autumn in of 1968 (O’Hagan 2018). In Derry the protesters were attacked and beaten by the police without provocation (McClements 2018). Photographer Sean O'Hagan who marched with his family in Armagh in November 1968 calls the attempt for peaceful change “the lost moment” (O’Hagan 2018) before British troops were sent to Northern Ireland (Tooth 2017).
The IRA led a campaign from the Republic of Ireland towards the North during the fifties and sixties but the support among Catholics was insignificant (Dorney 2015). It was only after the civil rights protests failed, and riots between nationalists and unionists erupted, that IRA started to gain widespread support. RUC used machine gun fire against civilian Catholic buildings and unionists burned down an entire street in the Catholic part of Belfast during the culmination of the riots, the so-called Battle of the Bogside. English soldiers were sent to Belfast and the IRA split into two factions. The new so-called Provisional IRA argued that the old organization (the Official IRA) had been unsuccessful in its attempt to protect Catholics in the North. It was the Provisionals that would win the people’s support. The British Army’s insurgency resulted in Nationalist civilians being harassed, killed, and imprisoned without trial. Although unionists organized vigilante groups which targeted Catholic civilians, such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the main priority for the British Army was to target nationalist fighters through imprisonment and a “shoot to kill” strategy (Dorney 2015). Considering recent history, it comes as no surprise that many Catholics in the North have lost fate in institutions, such as the police and the judicial system, as they are perceived as tools to uphold an oppressive political structure (McKay 2019; Moriarty 2019). This has long been ignored by British authorities and Boris Johnson’s latest contribution to this vision may very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
When the Irish Free State gained independence in 1922, and six out of nine of Ulster’s counties were carved out to create Northern Ireland, approximately one third of the population in the North was Catholic (Archer 2018). The reason the three Ulster counties of Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan were left out from British administration was because most people here identified as Catholic and London sought to control the North by a strong religious-political allegiance (Dorney 2015). By 2021 the demographics in the North is expected to have changed so that over half of the population will be Catholic (Archer 2018; Barry 2019). In fact, a census from 2011 have already indicated that for the first time in modern history Protestants may no longer constitute the majority and make up less than 50% of the total Northern Irish populace (McClements 2019). Could this mean that if Brexit led to a referendum on Irish reunification it could in fact become reality?
While Johnson is playing the short game, the escalation has already begun
Since Boris Johnson has assumed the role as Prime Minister, he has consistently proclaimed that the UK will leave the EU on the 31st of October, regardless of whether the English government and the EU manage to secure an exit-deal or not (Georgiadis, Provan & Samson 2019). Primarily it has been the Irish backstop plan, the guarantor that the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will remain open post-Brexit, which has prevented the negotiations (Foster & Capurro 2019). However, the EU has finally agreed to an extension of Brexit to 31st of January next year (Barnes 2019) but as things currently stand the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit seems very likely.
The exit-deal, which Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May and the EU agreed upon, was voted down by the British Parliament on three occasions, a major reason for why May had to leave her post (Boffey 2019). Unlike May Johnson is opposing the backstop plan, which he has described as antidemocratic and counterproductive for peace in Northern Ireland (Blanchard 2019). Johnson’s approach has awoken strong reactions in Northern Ireland and in contradiction to what the English Prime minister argues, many believe that the backstop plan is the only solution to maintain a fragile peace. Guard towers and border control would induce memories of sectarian strife and centuries of English oppression. The majority in Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, which has led to Sinn Féin demanding a referendum for the North to leave the UK.
A UNESCO report from 2019 illustrates how the failure to produce an exit-deal will generate in an economic downturn which will encourage Northern Irish youth to join paramilitary constellations such as the New IRA (Daly, Dolan & Brennan 2019). These so-called “Ceasefire babies” makes up a makes up a generation which has not experienced the long period of constant threat and trauma but still associate the struggle to an era where the older generation fought for concrete purpose (Fenton 2019; O’Reilly 2019; McAlister 2019). In August 2019 the newly appointed Chief Constable of Northern Ireland’s police Simon Byrne predicted a violent development should the UK and the EU fail to reach an exit deal. Republican groups such as the Continuity IRA have increased their activities. A referendum concerning Irish reunification would however also risk bloodshed as the Protestant loyalist minority in a united Ireland would feel threatened (Carrol 2019; Marsh 2019).
Since the Brexit referendum in 2016 the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland has increased (Barry 2019). Following the referendum, a new Irish party calling themselves Saoradh, meaning Liberation in Irish, was formed in Derry. The party is commonly believed to constitute the political faction of the New IRA and has an objective of reuniting the 32 counties of Ireland and to rid the North of “English occupation.” Saoradh opposes the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which they regard as a sell-out of the Irish people. The party describes itself as revolutionary and its influence should not be underestimated. The party has succeeded to unite the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Republican Network for Unity and the 1916 Society under one banner and several prominent republican activists stand behind the party. This can be compared to how the New IRA was formed through a coalition of several smaller republican groups in 2012. Through the appointment of Dublin born former IRA member Brian Kenna as Chairperson, the objective is to raise support for Saoradh in The Republic of Ireland (Connor 2019; Reinisch 2018). Saoradh criticizes Sinn Féin to be “false prophet’s” and regards Brexit as a favorable opportunity to attain its political objectives (Ferguson 2016; Taylor 2018). Sinn Féin’s deteriorating support in both the general election and the European elections could be an indication that voters regard the traditional republican party as toothless. Saoradh and the New IRA can consequently gather support from anxiety, disappointment and populist currents (Leahy 2019). Only between January and September 2019 six major republican attacks have been carried out in the North. One led to the death of journalist Lyra McKee (O'Neill 2019).
The IRA was known for its military efficiency and discipline and the British Army was forced to deploy troops in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 2007, the longest continuous military presence in British history (Tooth 2017). Should England choose to leave the EU without taking the current political climate into consideration it is highly possible that violence will return, not only on the streets of Belfast and Derry, but also south of the Irish border and in English cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham and London.
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