Irish people are not the ‘minority community’

IN its eulogy to the late Dr Maurice Hayes, Viewpoint (Comment, December 26) gratuitously introduced a discordant note: “There are many who regarded him as a flag-bearer for the minority community in Northern Ireland, not in any bellicose way, but by proving that he and his co-religionists were really up to the job.”

Branding Irish people as “the minority community” puts them in a subordinate position to the “majority” Ulster/British community. In other words, the right of Irish people to govern themselves as part of the sovereign Irish nation is deemed less important than the wish of the majority Ulster/British community to maintain the Union. However, Northern Ireland “democracy” must be seen in the context of partition.

In a recent newspaper column, the commentator Alex Kane stated: “In September 2014, after six years as First Minister, Peter Robinson concluded, ‘The arrangements for devolved government at Stormont are no longer fit for purpose and the weight of the issues to be resolved is such that it must be tackled in a St Andrews 2 setting with government involvement’.”

About the same time, Mr Robinson also stated: “The stark reality is that Northern Ireland is a deeply divided society. Deeply divided between those who identify themselves as British and those who identify themselves as Irish.”

In short, Northern Ireland is not — and never was — fit for purpose. A separate state for the Ulster/British people only makes sense if it is exclusively for the Ulster/ British people. Providing them with an Irish “minority” to rule over is worse than mad.

In the absence of an Article 50-type mechanism, it is basically a matter for Irish people in Northern Ireland to get over their “minority community” complex and assert their right to national freedom.

The “majority” Ulster/ British people are not shy about asserting their right to be British.

MALACHY SCOTT Belfast