Leaving your herd is hard.. as my ‘West Brit’ pal finding out

I HAVE a friend I call the “West Brit”. He was raised, like myself, a Catholic but when he’s in “mixed” company – that’s local speak for Fenians and Prods – he frequently refers to the city on the Foyle as Londonderry, not Derry.

When he uses the term “mainland”, I have to remind him we are on an island and the mainland is right here.

I have never got a straight answer either to a straight question, but I’m betting he votes Alliance, if not unionist. Probably the latter.

He loves the whole British system, too. Absolutely loves it.

Loves the old golf club camaraderie, loves his big house, his new 4X4 top-ofthe-range “Chelsea Tractor” – it probably cost more than my house – even sends his kids (they are not, I can assure you, called Patrick and Mary) to non-catholic schools, though that option was available to them.

He never misses an opportunity either to laud the NHS, as opposed to the system in the Republic, though I’m sure he would never use it but go private if he needed any emergency treatment. Northern Ireland has been good to him. This being so, if you were a forward-thinking unionist, this is the type of Catholic you’d be courting, someone easily converted to the cause.

Put out the crumbs and he’ll follow the trail.

On Saturday morning, I got a call and it was the “West Brit” in a right thunderous mood. Absolutely bulling. “John Hume”, he spewed out before I could even ask who was speaking “was right when he said if they took the word ‘No’ out of the English language, the unionists would be left speechless.”

I corrected him and said Hume was referring to Ian Paisley, not unionism, when he said that, but the West Brit ignored that observation and carried on.

What he said next is, however, worth noting. So, I’m now going to quote here near enough 100% of what he actually said – old journalistic habits die hard as I still write down what people say to me over the phone – to give the flavour of our somewhat one-sided conversation: “They [unionists] said no to Home Rule. They said no to ‘having a Catholic about the place’. They said no to free secondary education for the working class.

“They said no to civil rights. They said no to Sunningdale and power sharing. No to the New Ireland Forum. No to Angloirish Agreement. And no to the Good Friday Agreement.

“And now they are out saying no again to the ‘European’ protocol. Have they no clue how stupid and destructive saying no all the time is?”

I have zero qualifications in psycho analysis but I think he was trying to find an excuse to justify why he, as a product of a Catholic-nationalist background, was out on a limb having turned his back on his own herd.

Now, he felt he was being hung out to dry, exposed to ridicule by those in his own community who would be delighted in deriding him by jeering “we told you so”.

Here’s what I’m referring to. Last Monday, the DUP organised a big debate in Westminster in regard to the antiprotocol petition. That was followed by Ian Paisley Jr suggesting Britain not share any spare vaccines with the Republic any time soon.

That was Wednesday, if I remember correctly.

Thursday, Arlene Foster led a delegation to meet with UDA/UVF and Red Hand Commandoes amongst others, and on Friday, Agriculture Minister Gordon Lyons ordered officials to stop work on new permanent border control posts.

It’s difficult trying to leave your herd in “our wee province”, difficult when those you are trying to find common ground with pull the rug where you are standing right out from under your feet.

And is that their idea of reaching out to those on the other side they’ll need down the track to maintain the union? Ask my mucker, he knows all about it.

Now, he felt he was being hung out to dry.. exposed to ridicule

VACCINES Ian Paisley Jr