To use the blunt phrase, both would be spinning in their grave at the violent sights which have unfolded this month.
My dad was Mayor of Ballymena from 1993-96, with mum as the Lady Mayoress; dad having already served as a councillor and alderman on the old Ballymena Borough Council since 1985.
Ballymena was a central town in the North Antrim constituency, which he represented first in the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue and later as a UUP MLA from 1998 to 2011.
The photo accompanying this column was taken in 1993 in the Mayor’s Parlour in Ballymena with mum and dad along with myself and my eldest son who was only a few weeks old. This, for me, is a happy image of Ballymena.
While dad came originally from Stewartstown village in Tyrone, after moving to the region in 1963 to become minister of Clough Presbyterian Church in the Ballymena Presbytery, he and mum always saw Ballymena as their adopted home town.
I went to prep school and big school at Ballymena Academy and my journalist training was under the late Maurice O’Neill at the Ballymena Guardian. I’m also a former member of the First Ballymena Boys’ Brigade company.
Religiously, Ballymena was always viewed as being at the very heart of the North East Ulster Bible Belt with virtually every Christian denomination imaginable represented either in the town itself or the surrounding area.
When scenes of what erupted in Ballymena last week were flashed across both social and mainstream media, I was truly gobsmacked by what I was seeing - especially the footage of police water cannon being used.
In September, God Willing, I turn state pension age and clock up 47 years in journalism, mostly spent in Northern Ireland.
When I had my first briefing with Maurice O’Neill in the late Seventies to discuss a weekly Boys’ Brigade page, the thought never crossed my mind that I would live to see a race riot in my home town.
Ballymena was affectionately known as the City of the Seven Towers because of its tremendous architectural history. Given its rich commercial backbone, it was always known as a place to find a bargain - a great wee shopping town!
But after last week’s serious rioting, the Ballymena community must bond together to ensure that the town never gets the name of now being the Southport of Northern Ireland - the lovely English seaside town (which I also spent my 1975 summer BB camp in) which faced its own race riots last year following the killing of three young girls.
During my time in journalism, I’ve had to cover many challenging stories. But as the first of the rioting erupted, I found it very, very challenging trying to ‘hold it together’ as I did my live television political commentary for GB News talking about the scenes in my home town.
The title of a song written by Phil Coulter (no relation!), The Town I Loved So Well, kept buzzing round in the back of my head as I tried to focus on not just why the violence had erupted, but on how to get it stopped permanently.
At some point, every organisation with community links; every politician, will have to address the so-called elephant in the room in Ballymena - immigration.
Perceptions can quickly become reality. Some of those perceptions fuelled the violence. Violence, if we have learned from the experiences of the Troubles, is not a slow dripping tap; it is a gushing hosepipe.
Already the trouble in Ballymena has caused a ripple effect, with violent incidents breaking out in other areas of the Province.
Before we address the issues of why it erupted and how it can be prevented from reigniting, society needs to have a bitter medicine discussion on how that gushing hosepipe can be completely turned off.
Over the years, many immigrants from various parts of the globe have made Ballymena their home.
Whilst the vast majority have integrated themselves into Northern Ireland culture and the ‘Ballymena way of life’, there is a perception that a small minority of migrants cannot - or will not - make that integration process, but instead choose to retain certain values and beliefs from their home nations - and especially when it comes to the treatment of women.
There is also the perception that migrants get preferential treatment when it comes to housing, jobs and much easier access to medical services. So what are the workable solutions before suggestions from the real Far Right about the use of mass deportations and repatriation of all illegal immigrants overtakes current issues such as the cost of living crisis and people having to choose between ‘heating or eating’?
The first immediate solution is to end the violence through effective policing - and that means putting more ‘Bobbies on the Beat’.
Yes, the current PSNI is cash-strapped in terms of both an operating budget and manpower and is having to rely on drafting in police officers from mainland Britain to help contain the trouble.
Like it or not, the warnings of the late former South Down UUP MP Enoch Powell, speaking as a then Conservative MP when he talked about the long-term consequences of mass immigration in his so-called ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech appear to be coming true.
In practical terms, what is needed is money from either Stormont’s Executive or the Westminster Government to re-create the former B Specials. Their power and influence was the fact they were locally recruited officers who patrolled their specific localities.
These would make up the bulk of the ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ - and they would be given considerable powers of operation to stamp out any riotous behaviour.
Long-term, the Christian Churches and community groups will have a vital role. Many churches and places of worship are already providing support activities for newcomers to Northern Ireland. As part of this integration process, they are teaching the newcomers Christian values on issues, such as the treatment of women, and how what may be acceptable practice in their native lands, it is not legally tolerated in Western Christian society.
The schools and colleges have an equally valuable role in terms of teaching the children of immigrants what life is like in Northern Ireland in terms of what is expected of a model citizen. The content of these lessons can be filtered to their parents and family adults.
Northern Ireland suffered decades of sectarian conflict as a result of the Troubles. The rioting must end as soon as possible otherwise racism will become the new sectarianism.
Similarly, those responsible for housing immigrant families in Northern Ireland must be careful that in placing too many of these newcomers together in regions that they do not create ghettos as this is a racial recipe for disaster.
If the rioting in my beloved Ballymena has taught us a lesson, it is that time is not on our side if we are to permanently defuse this racial hydrogen bomb.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
Paramilitaries and pervert clergy committed more sex crimes against women and children than any immigrants to NI.
ReplyDelete"Whilst the vast majority have integrated themselves into Northern Ireland culture and the ‘Ballymena way of life’, there is a perception that a small minority of migrants cannot - or will not - make that integration process, but instead choose to retain certain values and beliefs from their home nations - and especially when it comes to the treatment of women."
ReplyDeleteHardly a perception, that IS what is happening and the locals have had enough.
But then you would imagine they would have enough of their home grown abusers of women: the murder rate for women in the North was pretty high there - four in six weeks at one point. Jonathan Cresswell does not sound like a foreign name.
DeleteThe locals who have genuine concerns were hardly behind the race riots Steve; the racists who have hatred rather than concern were responsible for that.
Steve, is that claim based on personal observation or impressions gleaned from social media? Btw, I welcome today's announcement about a national inquiry into grooming gangs and even now hope those who covered up child abuse in the interest of faux anti-racism go to prison.
DeleteCam comments
ReplyDeleteSteve R and J Coulter
After reading the article it is the most clear example of how to grow up in a closet! Dissociative and detached are the two words that come to mind. Is it any wonder that I never read anything by this commentator.....devoid of reality. AM, I really can't understand how you can claim this to be 'reflective and sobering'......it's like someone who grew up in the 1930's in Germany and talks about their father being a 'mayor' in a small Bavarian town called Nuremburg and fails to mention the Nazis or that 'Jewish thingy' and then years later when the 'Turks have taken all their jobs and sucked their social system dry' calls for the return of the Gestapo...like seriously John, WTF were you thinking!
It really brings home the view how Unionism really sees itself as the victim and having never done any harm and how easy it can publicly distance itself from the unfavourable behaviour of its followers whilst privately welcoming their actions.......it's a bit Scooby Dooish isn't it...only for those pesky kids (Catholics, Immigrants, etc, etc) we would have got away with it! Those 'immigrants' who fail to 'integrate' John and retain values and customs that are alien to the locals, such as rape, prostitution and brothels, drug running (Ballymena being the heroin capital of the North since the 70s), intimidation of local businesses, organised crime, murders, is that the unionist paramilitaries you are referring to and who were around and doing the same thing as when your father was mayor? The only positive from what is happening in Ballymena John is that the locals are leaving the Taigs alone, for a while anyway!!!!
Sober and reflective because it does not ignore the elephant in the room - racism: he identifies these events as race riots. Nor does he pretend that immigration itself does not pose a challenge to communities.
DeleteNot so sober and reflective when offering solutions - the B Specials? That would mean a state force burning out the immigrants, much as happened in Belfast in 69.
But some good stuff from you in there on the history of Ballymena - the heroin capital of North since 70s. Didn't know that. Had always heard of Edinburgh described as the heroin capital of Scotland but not Ballymena having a similar status. But it does put into context that it is not drugs and prostitution that the riots are against - it is race.
I think Ballymena became the heroin capital of NI in the 1990s - post-ceasefire, and at a time when NI became awash with drugs. It is strange that opiate addiction became associated with the bible belt. I wonder if a Marxist analysis would be relevant. I don't think there was anything other than an extremely tiny amount of heroin in NI in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteI've spoken to John a number of times and find him a warm and intelligent man who helped me extensively with a piece that I didn't end up presenting for publication as it could have led to AM being inundated with libel claims. But his insights gave me a much more nuanced view of the antics of loyalist/unionist politicians and militants. That being said, I think John has difficulty in accepting what many on TPQ see as settled history - namely that the B-Specials were a violent, sectarian threat to peace and stability, and instead see them as something more benign and positive.
There could be the essence of a solution in his proposal though. The Special constabulary exists in England, Scotland and Wales, and is, pretty much, a reflection of the populations of those countries. I wonder if a Special constabulary could be raised in NI, with strict quotas to ensure PUL, CNR, and Others fully represented? Could recruitment laws be relaxed so that former paramilitaries, those with "community influence", could join?
That the CNR community has not attacked immigrant communities is extremely interesting. I think multiple factors are at play. Firstly, there's the reason that Scotland football fans are so different to England fans: they want to be different from the auld enemy. Secondly, perhaps there's corporate memory of what it's like to be burnt out and a hesitation to engage in such actions (but of course the PUL community experienced this as well). Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, the men who wear balaclavas in the PUL community seemed to be joining in/leading the attacks, whereas within the CNR community, they might well visit the homes of those who engage in such activities. And not to congratulate them or wish them well...
PS - Edinburgh was the "AIDS capital of Europe" not so much heroin - Glasgow would have vigorously competed for that. Irvine Welsh noted that injecting heroin was an Edinburgh rather than a Glaswegian thing. Now-a-days, so I am told, heroin injecting has rapidly decreased due to the fatal adulterants found on it, and shooting up cocaine and/or methamphetamine is becoming more common.
Cam Comments
DeleteNo Brandon,
Ballymena was the heroin capital long before drugs took a serious hold elsewhere in Ireland, even Dublin started late compared to it. I've no idea as to why Ballymena but can make an educated guess and why not Belfast or Derry or for that matter else where but it was serious enough for us to be aware of it back in our punk days in the 70s when we were 13 or 14.......Limavady has/had a serious heroin issue in the later 80s to 90s as I have talked to lads from there who quite openly talked about the experiences of people they knew from school who were on it or had died from it......social services records contain a lot of information on it. It seemed to be an issue that was never ever raised in the public domain and I have no idea as to why.....perhaps the on-going conflict took precedence or maybe Ian Sr didn't want his constituency blackened under his watch and thus used his influence to keep it under wraps.