(The Nationalist, c. September 2001)
In Ireland, after the foundation of the Free State in 1922, we tried – in part – to have an inclusive society. An attempt was made to give Anglo-Irish Protestants a stake in society, to include them and make them feel part of it. It was fairly successful. But there was another part which identified Irish and Catholic. I grew up with the idea that to be Irish was to be Catholic; the two were inseparable. It wasn’t stated openly as a position to be argued for; I assumed it as a matter of course. In Northern Ireland both communities practised the politics of exclusion: if you are not one of us, you’re out. We have seen in the last thirty years where such exclusiveness leads. But a process of healing has begun, however long it may take to bring to fulfilment.
We have a problem with inclusiveness where Travellers are concerned. There is a long way to go – on all sides – before they can rightfully take their place as full members of society while retaining their distinctiveness. For example, they have a real point when they complain that their halting sites have no running water, toilet facilities or rubbish collection while facilities provided for refugees do. Like all such problems there are two sides to them, and Travellers sometimes do great damage to their cause by camping on parks and playing fields and then leaving them covered in tons of litter.
If we’re not careful, we may have similar problems with immigrants. We may ghettoize them, as the Turks are in Germany or Moslem women in parts of Britain like Leicester and Birmingham. Ghettoization is a two-way process. Sometimes the majority does not want them and effectively shuts them out of society; sometimes they wish to stand apart in order to protect their own identity. I am glad to see Africans, Romanians, Russians and Bosnians on the streets of Ireland. They are an asset to society and we are the better for them. If we don’t begin by welcoming them as an opportunity we will end by fearing them as a threat. We need to move away from the two-edged argument which says, if they don’t work, that they are sponging off the social welfare system, and, if they do, accuses them of taking all the good jobs. At another level, what we have at the moment is pieces of legislation on immigration but not something that adds up to a coherent policy.
We need to move out of the prison of narrow tribal loyalties and recognize our common humanity. It’s how the United States began, and it will be better for all of us.