With All Due Respect

With all due respect Pluralism and parity of esteem Tom Hennessey and Robin Wilson democratic dialogue Democratic Dialogue Report No 7 June 1997 Democratic Dialogue 5 University Street Belfast BT7 1FY Tel: 01232-232230/232228 Fax: 01232-232228/233334 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.dem-dial.demon.co.uk c Democratic Dialogue 1997 ISBN 1 900281 06 6 Cover design by Dunbar Design Photographs by Lesley Doyle Printed by Regency Press 2 DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 Contents Preface 4 Executive summary 6 National questions 13 A defining issue 44 British? Irish? Or what? 55 Feeling institutionalised 69 Reconciling a balance 79 Conclusion and recommendations 105 DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 3 Preface illie Thompson has recently writ- little work to fill out what ‘parity of es- ten: “The rise to prominence of teem’ might in practice entail. W ‘identity politics’ has to be reck- It is in this context, of intense ener- oned one of the most striking features of gies incoherently directed, that the whole the later twentieth century. In one sense parades controversy has erupted in all modern politics is identity politics ...”1 Northern Ireland since 1995. And it was Identity politics has of course always in response to this controversy that been the alpha and omega of the North- Democratic Dialogue decided to initiate ern Ireland conflict, particularly with the a research project on what was theoreti- emergence of the portmanteau term ‘par- cally and practically required to engen- ity of esteem’ in the 90s. Yet it is remark- der in Northern Ireland a climate much able how identity politics has been more favourable to pluralism and parity assiduously prosecuted in Northern Ire- of esteem. land almost completely without regard DD, in addition to its core funders, is to any understanding of its wider grateful to the Central Community Re- significance. lations Unit of the Northern Ireland Of- There has been no appreciation what- fice for supporting this project financially, soever of the wider international debate allowing the appointment of a researcher on nationalism, invigorated by the fall of for six months. This does mean that this the Wall in 1989. There has been no en- report is necessarily more rigorously ‘aca- gagement with the more specific debate demic’ than others from DD, and the ini- about the ‘politics of recognition’ in multi- tial, theoretical, chapter is inevitably cultural societies which has emerged in intellectually challenging as a result. this decade. And there has been precious In line with DD’s principle of carrying 4 DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 out its work in a participatory way, how- ever, the opening review of the international debate is balanced in subsequent chapters by teasing out the thoughts of a range of key players in Northern Ireland through interviews, and testing this against popular opinion on the ground via focus groups. Tom Hennessey diligently carried out these tasks. As ever, the views expressed in this report, unless attributed, are the respon- sibility of the authors alone. Further copies are available from the address on the inside front cover, price £7.50 (£10 insti- tutions, £4.50 unwaged) plus 10 per cent postage and packing. DD aims to publish several reports per year. Readers may wish to return the en- closed subscription slip, to avail of re- duced-rate payment for reports, free copies of DD’s newsletter and notification of all DD events. We are open to requests to organise discussions around any of the themes or ideas raised in this, or other, reports. Again, the contact number is on the inside cover, where details of our web site can also be found. DD Footnotes 1 Willie Thompson, The Left in History: Revolu- tion and Reform in Twentieth-Century Politics, Pluto, London, 1997, p198 DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 5 Executive summary he term parity of esteem has, since following the fall of the Wall. the Opsahl Commission of 1992-93, But one of the lessons of this interna- T become a political buzzword in North- tional debate is that in these uncertain, ern Ireland. Yet there has been no at- ‘post-enlightenment’ times, universal tempt to develop its intellectual potential democratic norms require particular ap- as the basis for an egalitarian and plu- plication. And so the report then explores, ralist politics in Northern Ireland. In the via interviews with key players from a absence of this, parity of esteem has be- range of social and political positions in come incorporated into a pre-existing Northern Ireland, what parity of esteem political culture based on adversarial means to them. These interviewee re- partisan claims, evidenced in 1996 in the sponses are also tested against the re- polarised aftermath of the Drumcree sults of several focus groups to get a sense crisis. of how ‘representative’ they are of the Part of the problem is that parity of broader mood(s) on the ground. esteem has, in Northern Ireland, been The methodology focused on two key played out regardless of wider interna- questions: (a) what is parity of esteem? tional conceptual debates. Though widely (b) how can parity of esteem be achieved utilised in political discourse in North- in Northern Ireland? ern Ireland, it is ill-defined. This report Aside from the broad international begins therefore with an international sweep of literature and commentary, the commentary on how concepts of plural- investigation involved interviewing a ism and parity of esteem have developed sample of some 20-30 prominent indi- in recent years, particularly since the ef- viduals from civil society in Northern Ire- florescence of ethno-nationalist conflicts land and running several diverse focus 6 DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 groups. relationship of the data gathered in in- The interviewees were selected to terviews with the opinions of those in span government, relevant agencies, po- the focus groups. Given the short time litical parties, the main churches, trade available for the research project, six unions and the voluntary sector. Locat- months, the focus groups were again ing interviewees was almost always done brought together through networking. by networking—personal contact or in- They comprised: troduction. This may appear subjective • a Protestant urban focus group, but is normal in much ethnograpic re- • a Protestant rural focus group, search. The technique employed was that • a Catholic urban focus group, of a simple structured sheet of cues. The • a Catholic rural focus group, wording of the questions and the order • a Protestant women’s focus group, in which they were asked remained the • a Catholic women’s focus group, and same. • two youth focus groups. Data from structured interviews are generally regarded as more reliable than he review of the international litera- unstructured interviews: since the order ture and commentary highlights a and wording of questions are the same T worrying ignorance in Northern Ire- for all respondents, it is more likely that land—including in government—of the they will be responding to the same extent to which concepts regularly de- stimuli. Thus different answers to the ployed as if they were unproblematic are same set of questions will indicate real in fact quite inappropriate to addressing differences between the respondents; dif- such ethno-nationalist conflicts. In par- ferent answers will not therefore simply ticular, terms like ‘the right of peoples to reflect differences in the way questions self-determination’, of ‘sovereignty’ un- are phrased. Nevertheless, some flexibil- derstood as territorial integrity, and of ity was of course allowed to accommodate democracy understood in majoritarian differences in responses as interviews terms have all been thrown into question. progressed. Far from acting as a means to resolve In addition to the interviews, a conflicts such as that in Northern Ire- number of focus groups were established land, on the contrary, they merely pro- to compare the opinions with those of ‘or- vide vehicles for their prosecution. dinary’ people. The aim was to create in- The report thus explores new concepts teractive enviroments to assess the which may have a contrary potential, to DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE NO 7 7 diminish conflict and favour pluralism fear and threat. and parity of esteem. It suggests that The sense of a British national con- such notions as multi-cultural citizen- sciousness among unionists was the most ship, minority rights and dialogic democ- fundamental difference distinguishing racy offer an alternative and more unionist from nationalist respondents. constructive basis for addressing group Among Catholic interviewees and focus antagonism. And in particular it notes group participants, it was clear that the emergence in the 1990s of a series of Britishness is exclusively a unionist con- international conventions enshrining cept in terms of a positive association such principles in a legal—if not yet with it. Irishness, on the other hand, was justiciable—form. an identity common to both unionists and This approach offers a manner of nationalists. But Irishness is a highly avoiding the cultural relativism—and contested identity, subject to funda- political antagonism—into which the mentally different nationalist and Northern Ireland debate on parity of es- unionist perceptions which profoundly teem has become mired, placing as it does affect notions of allegiance and group these particularistic concerns in a more membership. universal frame. This is crucial, because For unionists, their imagined politi- from the Northern Ireland fieldwork it cal community, or nation, extending be- emerges that while there is consensus yond the confines of Northern Ireland, is that parity of esteem should involve rec- a British nation—or British patriotism/ ognition and tolerance of differing cul- civic nationalism, depending upon one’s tural traditions, this begins to fragment definition—which is a social reality for as soon as those particular cultural them.

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