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.
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