I was in Belfast last week, speaking at Féile an Phobail about the legacy of the historian Éamon Phoenix, who died in 2022. A gifted and powerful communicator, Phoenix did much to promote nuanced understanding of the evolution of Northern Ireland (NI), its Troubles, texture and achievements. He was a particular expert on the plight of the Northern nationalists whose experiences he analysed in his 1994 book, Northern nationalism: nationalist politics, partition and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland 1890-1940.
Phoenix underlined the “trauma of partition” and its impact on those left “marooned” in the new NI. This had profound implications, deepened by a fracturing of northern nationalism regarding what attitude to adopt to the new realities. The death of Michael Collins in 1922 was also a complicating factor; he was regarded as “the only Sinn Féin leader for whom partition and the plight of Northern nationalists were a major concern”. But that same Sinn Féin, Phoenix noted, had “naively” believed that when partition was imposed, it was doomed and “stillborn”, meaning there was hostility to a “united nationalist movement which might hope to defend the minority interest within the constitutional framework of Northern Ireland”.
Hopes rested on the outcome of the Boundary Commission (BC), the origins of which Phoenix was the first to skilfully document using British and Irish state papers. The recommendations of the BC report, which were leaked in 1925, were far from the stuff of nationalist dreams and even proposed that NI would gain part of Donegal. The report was suppressed and the Border remained as it was. It was a devastating blow to Northern nationalists, but it did offer stark clarity; as Phoenix put it, the fiasco “dispelled the uncertainty which had overshadowed Northern Catholics since 1916”.
A century on, the related themes of vulnerability and frustration are far from irrelevant. The peace process, demographic and political shifts, Brexit and the demise of unionist supremacy have of course radically altered the balance of power. But another theme Phoenix highlighted – the perceived indifference of southern Irish governments to advancing the aims of Northern nationalists – remains contentious. Colum Eastwood, the former SDLP leader, also spoke at Féile an Phobail and voiced his perturbance at the lack of discourse about this.
Northern nationalists, the argument goes, cannot settle for mere aspirations or slogans
Speaking of his desire for Irish unification even if it meant he had “to eat grass”, Eastwood insisted the unity discussion should be part of the upcoming presidential election. Earlier this year, Eastwood wrote in this newspaper of it being “starkly clear” to him that “southern establishment views on partition . . . require a new and radical challenge”, as “atrophied attitudes” have become “a barrier to a real national conversation about the future”.
Northern nationalists, the argument goes, cannot settle for mere aspirations or slogans, and Eastwood insists “it is an abdication of responsibility to tell people that change is on hold indefinitely”. There are clear echoes here of the complaints of 1925, as when Cahir Healy, the nationalist MP for Fermanagh and Tyrone, declared the Free State government had agreed “to a partition forever”.
The sense of abandonment endured. At the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969, Hugh McCann, secretary of the Irish department of external affairs, brought his new minister Patrick Hillery on a tour of Iveagh House and was asked by the Minister “Where is the Northern Ireland desk?” There wasn’t one.
Diplomat Seán Donlon, with responsibility for assessing the situation in NI for the Irish government, met SDLP members in October 1973 and they described the then Irish government’s attitude as “generally partitionist and indicated Dublin may not be sincere in its approach to Irish unity”. When Charles Haughey became Fianna Fáil leader in 1979, he claimed NI constituted “the first national issue”, but Donlon told the British ambassador no one in Iveagh House had “any meaningful talk” with Haughey on the subject.
It was also revealing that when the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in 1985, giving the Republic a say in the future of Northern Ireland, SDLP leader John Hume declared: “For the first time our people have been treated with total confidence.” This was a full 60 years after the BC report.
In April 1998, just before the signing of the Belfast Agreement, an Irish government official noted “while the Irish government does not have a direct negotiating role, we are working intensively with the SDLP on tactics and drafting”. Yet what is striking now is the wide chasm between the SDLP and Fianna Fáil. Not long ago, there was talk of a merger between the two parties, but relations imploded. It is now more common for former Fine Gael taoiseach Leo Varadkar than Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to voice desires for unity and insist on advancing plans for a border poll. The mental borders complained of by Eastwood continue to sour matters.
