Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The rest of the interviews,snatches of conversation with people at Drumcree and historical analysis and context provided by McKay only serve to confirm the accounts of the former. First published in 2000 and updated in 2005, the book looks at the period following the Good Friday Agreement and the referendum. Now with 100 years of the intentional segregation of people on this small island based on their religion; it is timely to ask ordinary people how they feel.

Well written and just enough author commentary to provide context to the interviewees’ comments but oh what a tale of despair. These are issues that can be addressed, even resolved, through community organising and clear political advocacy – developments that are not just permitted to Ulster Protestants but actively encouraged through EU peace funding. What I mean by that is that there are vast swathes of Ulster Protestantism that have been without meaningful political representation for a long time.Most people interviewed seemed willing to respect the rule of law and democracy on the inevitably of a United Ireland. One person opines that ‘Protestant working-class people don’t have a problem with limited abortion rights. Her latest book follows a similar format to that previous tome, in that it attempts – primarily from a series of interviews - to paint a portrait of Northern Irish Protestantism through the words of more than 60 members of that community. Who knows what the future holds for them, but there are lots of people in this book for whom I wish nothing but the very best.

She works with NGOs, including WAVE Trauma Centre for which she has made podcasts as part of the ‘Stories from Silence’ project. She has made award-winning television documentaries, including The Daughters’ Story about the daughters of the murdered musician Fran O’Toole of the Miami Showband. If “Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground” were just an excavation of the level of post-Troubles trauma that exists within Northern Irish society, it would be hugely worthy and a superb achievement. Towards the end of the decade, as civil rights protesters demanded an end to a political system designed to disempower Catholics, that unionist rallying cry grew louder and more strident in its opposition to the same. But it is on the more personal, human level that “Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground” is really illuminating.Susan McKay interviews people from across the North and weaves their stories into the history of the state. That frustration with things as they are is a constant in this fascinating and constantly thought-provoking book.

Interviewees include: Eileen Weir, Dee Stitt, Dawn Purvis, Chrissie Quinn, Clare Sugden, Toni Ogle, Kyle Black, Sammy Wilson and others, and ties in to topical debates around identity in the context of Brexit and the centenary of the foundation of Northern Ireland. If we are ever to have a lasting political solution in Northern Ireland the two communities need to understand each other.Feminism in particular is striving for change and you can only feel optimistic with so many driven women featuring strongly, looking to make the shift to issues that need to be tackled. I found it fascinating: uplifting, and inspiring at times, then just heartbreaking or downright infuriating. My only beef is that she's just reporting on what people are saying without fact checking, but I suppose that's the point. I would have liked a bit more context, but this was obviously a hard balancing act that, in the round, McKay pulled off. She seeks to understand how the Northern Protestant community is negotiating the ‘shifting ground’ on which it stands.