Emma de Souza: People in Northern Ireland have moved on, even if the politics have not

John Hume once said, “The real division of Ireland is not a line drawn on the map, but in the minds and hearts of its people”. As such, the creation of the Border in 1921 did not just partition the island of Ireland, but it partitioned minds.

As conversations shift to the possibility of reunifying the island, the disconnect between citizens North and South comes into sharp focus. The perception of a Northern Ireland at odds with itself serves only those who have grown comfortable with its persistently divided constitutional status, disregarding the disposition of all others who share the region.

Why must those in the six counties be reduced to and defined by political or religious belief systems?

The tensions within politics in Northern Ireland have felt increasingly taut, but politics and people don’t always correlate – the majority of the people of Northern Ireland no longer define themselves as either unionist or nationalist, according to the National Life and Times Survey.

The DUP, for example, does not represent the majority of the people of Northern Ireland, rather it represents 225,413 voters out of a population of 1.9 million. Recent Lucid Talk polls show 25 per cent of respondents describe themselves as British and not Irish, and more than 830,000 Irish passports were issued to Northern Ireland over the period 2010-2019. Demographics and political attitudes are rapidly changing, having already transformed significantly over the past two decades.

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Regardless of the progress evident in the region, outdated and lazy perceptions of the people of Northern Ireland continue to circulate in the Republic of Ireland – not only among some citizens, but within political institutions. Referring to the people of the North as merely nationalist or unionist does not reflect the diverse society that exists today – rather, it is a misleading oversimplification that creates a division not only between people within Northern Ireland, but between the North and the South as well. Why must those in the six counties be reduced to and defined by political or religious belief systems, while those across an arbitrary line are free to define themselves? It is an archaic practice that does all of us a disservice.

Perpetual bogeymen

An "othering" of the North often rears its ugly head when any prospect of the people of Northern Ireland having meaningful participation in the Irish State is raised. When Green Party members in Northern Ireland had the opportunity to vote on the programme for government in the South, there was outcry – amid protestations over the supposed interference of northerners, Senator David Norris wondered in a letter in The Irish Times "if [he] was the only one who thinks it extraordinary that a group of 800 UK citizens from the North of Ireland, who are members of the Green Party, have the right to dictate what government we have in the Republic?"

Simultaneously, when it comes to extending presidential voting rights to Northern Ireland, we northerners seemingly morph conveniently into Sinn Féin voters who couldn’t possibly be trusted with the democratic right to representation, because of predetermined judgments on who we may or may not vote for. We are the perpetual bogeyman du jour, labelled and relabelled to suit a particular agenda.

Many have looked on longingly as the Republic shifts from a once conservative stronghold to a liberal, progressive society

There is an undercurrent of supremacy to many of these portrayals of the people of Northern Ireland. This superiority complex was expertly epitomised by a Sunday newspaper columnist recently who stated, “I will never consider them as Irish as I am”, believing that his being born in Dublin instead of Derry makes him more Irish. Constitutionally unsound, reductive perceptions are regrettably not all too uncommon – many believe that the privilege of being born on a particular side of the Border of the island of Ireland bestows upon an individual a superior version of Irishness. It embodies an incredibly offensive and egotistical mindset steeped in a lack of awareness, and ripe with a lack of understanding – we do not decide our place of birth; rather, it is an accident of birth that separates us.

Five collapses

Despite the political structures of Northern Ireland collapsing five times since the formation of the Assembly, the citizens inhabiting the region have embedded for themselves the concept of meaningful reconciliation. To see this progress for yourself, one need only look to the east Belfast schools voting to move away from a segregated system to become integrated, or to the youth groups working on a North-South/East-West basis, and to sports, arts or academia. Reconciliation is all around us, and while the politics of Northern Ireland may not have evolved, a substantial proportion of its people have.

There are no doubt those in the North who are equally guilty of holding on to outdated perceptions of the people of the Republic, but many have looked on longingly as the Republic shifts from a once conservative stronghold to a liberal, progressive society.

It's time to stop holding on to the fear of the past

My experiences have taught me that, beyond superficial discrepancies, there is no quantifiable difference between a person in the North and a person in the South – we are one and the same and we hold many of the same hopes, fears and desires. We need to see each other as people first and foremost in order for true reconciliation to begin, because it isn’t just the North that must heal the divisions of the past but the South too.

Yes, there still remain significant barriers, and there continue to be those who neither want peace nor reconciliation, however they comprise an ever-shrinking minority. There will always be those opposed to progress in peace-building in Northern Ireland – as we saw with this weekend’s disturbances in Derry and Belfast – but they cannot and will not win against the tidal wave of common purpose and reconciliation.

Some 1.3 million young people have been born on the island of Ireland since 1998. This is not 1985 or 1972 – this is a wholly different generation, living their lives in different times and building a new and progressive society. It’s time to stop holding on to the fear of the past. A geopolitical border might divide the land, but it doesn’t have to divide the people, not unless we let it.