The Ballymena Accent

Would the real Hard Right of Unionism please stand up?

 

Contentious political commentator, Dr John Coulter, uses his inaugural Ballymena Accent column to challenge Unionism’s Radical Right to get its act in gear.

 

 

 

The Protestants-only Orange Order officially welcoming a gay Catholic nationalist Taoiseach to its East Belfast museum; the leader of the DUP attending Muslim, LGBT and GAA events as part of a political ‘love in’ with minority groups – what has happened to the so-called Hard Right of Unionism?

  Ironically, liberal Unionism poses the single biggest threat to the actual Union itself than anything which Sinn Fein could achieve.

  Liberal Presbyterians within the Alliance and Ulster Unionist parties have ripped up the maxim – ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.’

  The constant secularist-style propaganda being pumped out by their so-called liberal unionists from both camps is doing more to undermine the Union than the IRA and INLA bombing and shooting campaigns.

  Why has the leader of the party whose founders once pelted a Taoiseach with snowballs decided to ‘go liberal’? Is it a publicity stunt to combat the rival Ulster Unionists’ ‘radical moderate’ agenda?

  I very much doubt it given the consistent electoral drubbing which the DUP has inflicted on the UUP since the 2003 Stormont poll. Unionism is having to chase these minority groups in Northern Ireland because it has been lured away from its traditional voters bases – the Loyal Orders, the marching band fraternity and the Christian Churches.

  Unionism seems incapable of guiding itself along the political parallel lines which the IRA’s ruling Army Council has pushed Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein has been able to eat substantially into the electorally lucrative Catholic middle class (the natural voter base of the SDLP) while at the same time, firmly holding on to its traditional republican heartlands.

  The days of the traditional Hard Right in Unionism are long gone into the annals of history. Could we see a return to the days of 1974 when the UDA muscle caused the collapse of the Sunningdale power sharing institutions? Not a chance.

  Could we see again the days when the Bill Craig-led Ulster Vanguard movement marshalled thousands of loyalists in Nuremberg-style rallies? No chance.

  Will we ever see the hundreds of thousands of Unionists who jammed the streets around the Belfast City Hall in the mid-Eighties to protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement? That’ll be another ‘no’.

  Will we ever see a DUP dominated by the party’s Free Presbyterian fundamentalist wing? Not if the leader is courting both the Islamic and LGBT communities.

  Will we ever see a rebirth of the Right-wing pressure group, the Ulster Monday Club, which dominated the UUP during the leadership of the late James Molyneaux? Not if the liberal clique in the UUP topple Orangeman Robin Swann’s traditional Ulster Unionist leadership.

  The annual Drumcree debacle is proof positive that nationalists and republicans have been able to outwit Unionism in terms of street marching.

  The Hard Right needs to get back to basics both in terms of mobilising Unionist opinion and picking its battles. The days of ‘Smash Sinn Fein’ when the Troubles were raging in the 1980s will not work.

  Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice party is essentially a one-man band and does not have the party machinery to mount an effective challenge to the DUP.

  The New Hard Right of Unionism must copy the initial structure of Vanguard, but must not fall into the pitfall of launching itself as a separate political party.

  Unionism’s New Hard Right must organise from the bottom up by becoming a grassroots pressure group aimed at getting Unionism’s core traditional support to register as voters. Social conservatism around opposing both same-sex marriage and more liberal abortion reform will be the battle cries of the New Hard Right, particularly in the Christian Churches.

  The mainstream Irish Presbyterian Church is having to soak up a lot of flak, especially from liberals in its own ranks following the recent General Assembly vote to ban same-sex couples from becoming communicant members, and refusing to baptise the children of same-sex couples, as well as cut its formal ties with the increasingly theologically wet Church of Scotland.

  Under the banner of ‘Defend The Faith’ – almost Cromwellian style – the New Hard Right must mobilise all the Christian churches, denominations and independent fellowships to the cause of opposing both same-sex marriage and liberal abortion reform.

  The battle grounds will not become the streets and roads, but the pews and the pulpits.

  While secularists point to the drop in numbers attending the main denominations in Northern Ireland, they are not taking account of the thousands of people who worship regularly at Sunday services and mid-week Bible studies of many of the smaller Christian denominations, such as the Brethren, Baptists, Elim Pentecostalists, Church of God, Church of the Nazarene, the Vineyard Church, as well as independent churches such as Green Pastures in Ballymena and Whitewell Tabernacle in north Belfast. Taken together, these worship groups represent a voting bloc of tens of thousands – but are they organised electorally?

   The Loyal Orders have a major role to play in the workings of the New Hard Right. For generations, the Orange Order was the communicative cement which held Unionism together, whereby the rich businessman could sit in the same lodge room as the window cleaner and refer to each other as ‘brother’.

  Using the Loyal Orders as their initial vehicles, the New Hard Right must use annual divine services, Twelfth parades, Royal Black parades, Apprentice Boys marches, and band parades to ensure that all those who participate and watch are registered to vote.

  Just as the Southern Baptists Churches in the Deep South of America mobilised the Afro-American vote during the 1960s civil rights era, so too, the Loyal Orders and Christian Churches can mobilise its pro-Union base.

  The New Hard Right can join party political branches and use its membership to either vote in candidates who oppose same sex marriage and liberal abortion reform, or de-select existing elected representatives who are pro-choice and pro-same-sex marriage.

  While legacy issues and the Irish language can be seen as important battles, the social conservative agenda is the one route which the New Hard Right can win.

  There has been much talk of the need for a new Christian Party because of the liberal drifts in some Christian denominations. In reality, the secular society has not yet got such a grip on the body politic that a Christian Party is now needed.

  Nor should the New Hard Right of Unionism be seen as a ‘Prods-only’ movement along the lines of the old Protestant Reformation Party. There are many socially conservative Catholics who would spiritually oppose same-sex marriage and liberal abortion in Northern Ireland.

  Yes, the New Hard Right’s day has come to flex its political muscle. Pro-choice activists in the republic brandishing ‘The North is Next’ banners may well be the taunts which mobilise the New Hard Right into top gear.

  There is a place for the New Hard Right in Northern Ireland, let alone Unionism. As with other nations in Europe, such as France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Austria – if a New Hard Right is not organised, the Far Right will fill the gap.

  This throws up the frightening possibility that groups such as Britain First, Generation Identity, and other more sinister groups on the Extreme Right will plug the void.

Dr John Coulter has been a journalist working in Ireland for 40 years. Follow him on Twitter.  @JohnAHCoulter