A Geographical Fact or a Thing of the Mind? Rediscovering Ulster and the Northern Irish identity

The debate regarding the existence of a specific Ulster or Northern Irish 'identity' can be summed up in two statements made in the early stages of what later developed into the 'Troubles'. The first is a comment made by Edward Carson, one of the founding fathers of the Unionist movement in 1914 who argued that 'Ulster is a geographical fact'; the second was made by Eamonn De Valera, who later became Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, asserting that 'Ulster is a thing of the mind only, non-existent in the world of reality' (Graham 1994: 257). Although both of these statements were made some time ago, the two opposing views that they express are at the core of the 'Northern Ireland debate'. The recognition of Northern Ireland as a separate entity is a key component in each of the conflicting discourses. For Republican Nationalists, recognising Northern Ireland would almost be a sign of surrender, the acceptance of an eternally divided Ireland whereas for Unionists, Northern Ireland is the last bastion of the British Empire in Ireland, a protective zone without which they would be 'pushed into the sea' by the Nationalist majority in Ireland.

What is interesting about both of these points of view is that each views Northern Ireland's 'regional identity' so to speak as inherently tied to the identity politics of another area. The rhetoric of both sides, both Nationalist and Unionist, conflates the identity of Northern Ireland with the identity of the island of Ireland as a whole or the identity of the United Kingdom as a whole. Although this is not entirely surprising given the historical and cultural experiences of inhabitants of Northern Ireland, is does cause some problems for analyses of Northern Ireland within the present political context in Britain. Given the drive towards devolution and recognition of regional identities within Britain, the debate regarding the existence of Northern Ireland as a specific region raises some serious questions for the politics of the region not least the question of whether a Northern Irish identity exists at all.

Of course this is not to say that a region needs to have a homogeneous identity, but in light of the attempt to graft further decision-making power onto regions in the UK, the continuing confusion regarding the existence of Northern Ireland as a socio-political region onto itself appears at best anachronistic and at worst prohibitive to political development within the area. Fundamentally, the question of how political power can be devolved to Northern Ireland if a sizeable proportion of Northern Ireland's population still believe that the political entity of Northern Ireland does not exist still remains unasked.

However, this is not a blanket criticism of the worth of existing explorations into the politics of Northern Ireland or attempts to devolve political power to Northern Ireland. On the contrary, I applaud efforts to involve residents of Northern Ireland in the decision-making process and in light of the political debates particular to Northern Ireland a move towards some form of devolved 'self-rule' cannot be praised enough and it would be wrong to condemn the steps that have been taken to allow this 'self-rule'. Nevertheless it would be equally wrong to ignore the continuing gaps in research into the politics of Northern Ireland specifically with regard to regional identity in the area. Despite the proliferation of research into partnership working and cross-community initiatives since the conflict in Northern Ireland (or the 'Troubles') has lessened, it would appear that little attention has been paid to the nature of Northern Ireland as a whole by social scientists and few empirical investigations explore the views expressed by De Valera and Carson sufficiently.

For this reason, I wish to suggest two things. Firstly, that there is a dearth in investigations, both theoretical and empirical, into the identity of Northern Ireland as a whole. Admittedly the process of identification amongst differing groups in Northern Ireland - e.g. the Catholics in Northern Ireland, the Protestants in Northern Ireland, young people in Northern Ireland and so on - has long been the subject of in-depth empirical analyses but this does not negate the fact that the question of what Northern Ireland actually is remains largely unanswered.

Secondly, I seek to suggest that the very fact that existing investigations into identity politics in Northern Ireland are rooted in this conflict schematic could potentially skew these analyses. By this I mean that, by using the conflict in Northern Ireland as the base of all research, research into the identity of Northern Ireland as a whole could be, in some respects, impossible. Identity in Northern Ireland will always be contested, always an area of conflict and never over-arching. Although this could of course be due to the socio-political and cultural history of the area and in the absence of detailed empirical evidence it is difficult to draw any real conclusions other than theoretical observations, it is an issue which requires further attention by researchers.

Overall, although there has been quite a substantial amount of attention paid to identity politics in Northern Ireland, I would argue that there is an equally substantial gap in existing research specifically in relation to the existence of a Northern Irish identity. Certainly previous research has highlighted the distinct characteristics of different groups in Northern Ireland but I would argue that this is still not enough. Essentially, as social science research, how can we investigate, with any degree of certainty, the politics of Northern Ireland after the Troubles if we don't first investigate what Northern Ireland actually is?

Deirdre Duffy, Research Associate
CRESR, Sheffield Hallam University

References
Graham, B.J. (1994) “No Place of the Mind: Contested Protestant Representations of Ulster”, Cultural Geographies 1(3): 257-281.