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Political argument will not persuade unionists in Northern
Ireland that they have a future in an Irish nation, a senior
Orange Order official has told an audience of academics in
Huddersfield today, March 4, 2010.
Dr. David Hume, the Orange Order's Director of Services,
said that nationalists in Northern Ireland could not convince
people like him that they were Irish.
But he said that while he had no sense of being Irish, he
respected Irish history, tradition and culture.
"I know and respect it as a person would know and respect
their next door neighbour, but that knowledge and respect
does not make me a member of the family," he told a seminar
at the University of Huddersfield this evening.
He cited members of the Orange Order in the Irish Republic
- who said that while they were not politically or legally
British, they felt culturally British - as an example of the
layers of Britishness which prevail in different parts of
the British Isles.
The Orange Order's Director of Services was addressing the
sixth in a series of interdisciplinary seminars on new perspectives
of Britishness.
Dr. Hume's speech followed on from previous speakers including
Jake Bowers (a Romani journalist who talked about Roma, Gypsies,
Travellers and Britishness); Mark Perryman (who addressed
civic Englishness); Chris Harvie MSP; Adam Price MP; Alan
Powers (an expert on British art, design and architecture);
Bernadine Evaristo and Paul Burston (both writers).
Dr. Hume said that being British was not something defined
by faith, colour or background, and that pluralism was part
of the process by which Britain defined itself. The arrival
of new peoples in the United Kingdom was part of the process
of history which had been happening for centuries, but there
was a challenge to ensure that new communities were assimilated
and respected.
He cautioned that no one should confuse being British with
being English, in that regional culture and identity should
be encouraged; "There has, in the modern UK, to be a
greater sense in England in particular that we are all part
of the nation, we are all as British as Finchley. That is
very important if the regions are to be encouraged in their
sense of belonging and not pushed in other political directions,"
he said.
Dr. Hume said that Northern Ireland was the only part of
the United Kingdom where, in recent decades, people had died
in order to remain British, citing the loss of life in the
Troubles and the losses sustained by the Orange Order, now
put at 335 members.
He said that the Orange Order, having sustained the loss
of so many, remained proud to be British and was well placed
to encourage British values and pride.
"We are an organisation which is unashamedly Protestant
but which also espouses civil and religious liberty for all,"
he said.
"The Orange Order is well placed to ensure that we do
not lose our sense of British identity across the Kingdom
and that that sense of identity is brought into the mainstream
of our communities and not abandoned to others. It is important
that a sense of Britishness is not left carelessly lying on
the political fringes of the nation," he said.
Among those present at the speech was an invited audience
of students, academics and representatives from the public,
including members of the local Orange lodge in Manchester.
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