John Bull's other problem

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN

I had firmly resolved not to write on Northern Ireland or on Ireland for some weeks to come, or possibly some months, but, much to my surprise, things are moving fast in Ulster, and on the whole in a hopeful direction. Captain O'Neill seems to have called Mr Craig's bluff successfully. It is possible that the occupation of Armagh by the Rev Mr Paisley's private army helped the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

It is possible that the threat to order and decency in Ulster brought out the combative spirit of Captain O'Neill, who is, among other things, a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Anyway, Captain O'Neill has dis- missed his would-be Bismarck. It is probably too flattering to see Mr Craig as Bismarck— he is more a revolting cabin boy or bo'sun, and the unkind reminder of how much, finan- cially speaking, Northern Ireland owes to the British taxpayer may appeal to people whose passion for abstract justice is not very lively. There has also been a sensible debate in the Imperial House of Commons on Northern Ireland in which nothing foolish was said, and perhaps Mr Delargy provided the most suc- cessful suggestion, that nothing should be said, wise or unwise. Even Captain Orr was not his usual exuberant self, and fortunately Sir Knox Cunningham was not heard from.

As the SPECTATOR pointed out last week, the by-election in Mid Ulster may produce a for- mally 'surprising result. It seems only a few weeks since someone wrote in to this journal to say that elections had shown that the people of Tyrone and Fermanagh were de- voted to the Imperial connection and to the rule of these two counties by the Orange Order; but this was never plausible and will soon be decided. The sudden death of the Unionist MP for a constituency which includes most of County Tyrone will enable us to judge whether a very necessary evolution in the politics of Ulster is taking place. The old Unionist member, whose name I have already forgotten, was chosen in a manner that recalls Mr Luttrell. Mr Luttrell. it will not be remembered, was the gentleman of suspected Irish origin who was elected by the House of Commons in place of that great patriot John Wilkes, whom the electors of Middlesex had preferred.

But in this time of the breaking of all political habits in Ulster, it is possible that the Nationalist majority in the Mid-Ulster con-,

stituency will combine to nominate a candidate who would appeal to more than the old anti- partition zealots. Alternatively, the victorious Prime Minister of Northern Ireland may try to make sure that a Unionist candidate who could appeal to people who are not devoted to 'the old cause that gave us our freedom, religion, and laws' is nominated. A real contest between a comparatively enlightened Unionist and a comparatively enlightened Nationalist might be very educational for the whole of Ulster.

I say 'comparatively' because that is the most we can hope for for some time to come. Of course, it is also to be hoped that the Prime

Minister of the Irish Republic will not put his oar in with inevitably damaging results. I

can hardly believe that so intelligent a man swallows all the automatic nonsense which is uttered rather than believed in Dublin.

There is, as I pointed out, a vested interest in the present political set-up in Northern Ireland. There are jobs, and I reflected a week or two ago on the famous story of the two Castle officials under the old regime who were discussing patronage. 'I must say that, ceteris paribus, I always give a job to a friend.' 'Ceteris paribus be damned.' This is a very human, and especially a very Irish, attitude, and there are people who are in Parliament and in local office, for instance in Dungannon, who would not be there if the old polar icecap of Ulster politics began to crack. If I were one of the profiteers of the icecap, I should not be busy voting myself out of office, power, prestige, etc.

What I dci not know about, and I would like to know about. is how far the young people of Ulster are simply bored by the apparatus set up in that province, or in two thirds of it? It must be remembered that Nationalist policies in Ulster before the First World War were in many ways a mirror-image of Unionist politics. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, I

think, admitted only Catholic members, and Joe Devlin, MP, one of the most brilliant con- tributions of Ireland to the Imperial Parliament, was as much a political boss as was Captain Craig.

Indeed, as Asquith found to his annoyance, all Irish politicians understood each other very well, and joined in sentimental invocations of what they had in common, accompanied by tears. This annoyed Asquith, who had that simple, straightforward, frank, Yorkshire atti- tude to politics which we have seen in -later Yorkshire statesmen. He did not like any Irishmen, Catholic or Protestant, an attitude which a great many Irishmen shared. 'The Irish are a fair people. They never speak well of one another,' as that most sagacious of

English commentators on Ireland, Mr Samuel Johnson, once observed as a snub to Boswell. It will, for example, be very helpful if the threats of one of the more secret branches of the Orange Order turn out to be vain, and Captain O'Neill can defy successfully the pres- sures of the Order. I cannot really think that Captain O'Neill. who is an old Etonian and, for all 1 know, an ex-member of Pop, really likes some of the Orange ritual, or even some of the Orange ballads which, I think, he prob- ably does not sing very well. I doubt whether,

if he were exiled to the Province of Connaught, he would know the words of the 'Protestant Boys,' which, as we all know, survived the exile of Bob Williamson from Dungannon.

When the Vichy regime cracked down on•the Masons of the Grand Orient and published their archives, it was discovered how few im- portant Frenchmen were, by 1941, Masons: The power of the Grand Orient had been largely eroded from within, and was suddenly revealed to be null. (An attempt has been made to revive the Grand Orient as an effective propagandist and political force, but I suspect the French are bored with the whole apparatus of clericalisme and laici.sme.) It would be highly promising if young men at Queen's University, Belfast, did not enter politics u Mr Craig did, but entered it as members of, for example, a real viable Northern Ireland Labour party. It would be helpful if an attempt were made to revive in Ulster the older Presbyterian tradition to which I have already referred in this journal. All, or most, Ulster Presbyterians rejoice, naturally enough, at the victory of the Stadholder at the Boyne; but not all rejoit e or even rage at the victory of people like Castlereagh in Irish politics.

There is, of coutsie, a converse to this. I understand that Captain O'Neill made a suc- cessful compromise with the Catholic bishops of Ulster, giving more money to Catholic• schools with more control for the government than had been secured in the past. (In reply to an indignant Mr Sinclair of Edinburgh, who wrote to this journal with much fury about the Munro Act in Scotland, it might be pointed out that the Catholic schools are en- tirely under public control in Scotland. The Scottish bishops were forced into accepting the complete intervention of the state in the management of their schools, which so far has not been obtained in Ulster.) But, of course, there are and will be difficulties. As someone has recently pointed out, it makes a good deal of difference in Derry if you think that the most important figure in the history of that charming city is Colmcille, who christianised and civilised his fellow Scots who had been invading Caledonia; or Dean Walker of Derry, who was killed at the Battle of the Boyne, much to the irritation of William of Orange who wondered what he was doing at the battle anyway. But it would be necessary to invent or revive a common history which could perhaps be taught in all Ulster schools, thus downgrading Dean Walker or even Lord Craigavon. It might and should downgrade Joe Devlin. Perhaps even Joe Biggar. An alternative would be to abolish Irish history altogether, which is a solution of a kind, attrata- -tive but impracticable.