I say this because unionism tends to represent the interests of business and landowning classes, a point which Billy touches on early in the book. Loyalism, though a form of unionism, tends to be more embedded in the working-class as opposed to the ranks of the bourgeoisie and, on occasions, has been extremely violent. The unionist classes know full well if the shit hits the fan, then hordes of working-class loyalists will go and fight for them and their economic interests under the guise of ‘Britishness’. They will do the spouting, the winding the clock up, and the loyalists will make it tick. Billy Hutchinson makes much of this clear in the early pages of this book which though not altering my view of loyalism, as a republican it still makes me ask Why? It is clear the Hutchinson family had little time for the likes of the late Ian Paisley and his brand of unionism based on fiery speeches from the pulpit. I just see a huge number of working-class Protestants allowing themselves to be used by the ruling so-called elite, some pumping a load of crap about God from the pulpit and very little about the conditions working-class Protestants live in.
Many of these Protestants support loyalist paramilitaries like the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) who are prepared to fight for their ‘way of life’ poverty and all! The original UVF was formed to oppose by force, if necessary, Asquith’s Home Rule Bill 1912. The modern UVF reformed in 1966 by Gusty Spence, a former British soldier, who actually questioned what he had been fighting for, seeing action in Cyprus, when he saw the shit he and his working-class brethren were forced to live in. He might have momentarily questioned what it had all been about but never for one second did he question his ‘Britishness’ and whether or not it might have been this ‘Britishness’ which forced him and his coreligionists to live in such conditions. A Protestant might get a “slum” quicker than a Catholic but it would still be a “slum”. When the Brexit referendum was held in 2016 the Six Counties or “Northern Ireland” voted to remain in the European Union as did Scotland. Surely, if democracy means anything, which when it does not go the way of the establishment it does not, then Scotland and “Northern Ireland” should have been still in the European Union? But apparently not in this case, these two semi-autonomous parts of the UK are dragged against their will out of the huge trading block. Loyalism is loyal to Ulster, or two thirds of it, and the British Government but loyalty to the latter is conditional. Leaving the EU and certainly against the electoral will of the people in “Northern Ireland” the loyalists did nothing to defend the interests of the people, the very people the UVF claim to represent. Usually if the British Government do anything perceived as detrimental, in their eyes, to “Ulster” loyalists are on the streets but not this time? Perhaps the will of the people was irrelevant in this case because the loyalist position was one of leaving the EU therefore the way the people voted did not matter on this occasion? However, the very mention of a united Ireland and armed UVF men and women are out in force! Loyalism and its loyalty even to “Ulster” appears very selective?
Billy, like many football fans of his generation, myself included, describes very passionately his days as a Linfield supporter. He tells us of coming back from the match and purposely standing outside the nationalist (Irish) Unity Flats singing God Save the Queen. This was akin to German youths forty years previous, just before the Nazis come to power, leaving a Bayern Munch game and heading to a Jewish sector singing the Horst Wessel song (anthem of the German SS during the Nazi years), an extreme example perhaps, but an antithesis to those who were forced to listen. OK, I get it, loyalists don’t like Catholics and want them out, certainly back in those days. Is sectarianism not similar in thought and deed to the anti-Semitism preached by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler? James Connolly thought so.
Billy, like many football fans of his generation, myself included, describes very passionately his days as a Linfield supporter. He tells us of coming back from the match and purposely standing outside the nationalist (Irish) Unity Flats singing God Save the Queen. This was akin to German youths forty years previous, just before the Nazis come to power, leaving a Bayern Munch game and heading to a Jewish sector singing the Horst Wessel song (anthem of the German SS during the Nazi years), an extreme example perhaps, but an antithesis to those who were forced to listen. OK, I get it, loyalists don’t like Catholics and want them out, certainly back in those days. Is sectarianism not similar in thought and deed to the anti-Semitism preached by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler? James Connolly thought so.
Billy Hutchinson tells us of Protestants demanding action by the security forces against the IRA because at a funeral men and women dressed in Berets, dark glasses, white shirts and black ties with black trousers or skirts were flanking a coffin of an IRA man killed by loyalists. This infuriated the ‘Prods’ who demanded action against this perceived show of strength by the IRA and their community. What harm was this doing to the Protestant community? All this over a few people in dark glasses and berets, no, there must be much more to it than that? Perhaps it was plain old sectarianism!
On page 52 Billy refers to a speech orated by then Sinn Fein President, Ruairi O’ Bradaigh, in Derry 1971 in response to a Provisional IRA bombing of the Four Step pub on the Shankill resulting in many deaths. O’Bradaigh apparently boasted; “we’re on a high road to freedom, and what we need to do now is to rock Stormont and keep it rocking until Stormont comes down”. What this speech had to do with the Provo bombing of the public house I’ll never know. There was no mention by O’Bradaigh of the Four Step bomb. Billy described O’Bradaigh’s speech in Derry as; “fascism pure and simple.” This word fascism is very much over used and nearly always in the wrong context. It may have not been the most tactful speech to embrace Protestants to join a united Ireland but it was not fascist! There were many tit-for-tat bombings in those days and claims and counter-claims were rife. The UVF bombed McGurks bar killing many Catholics as the Protestant community demanded retaliation for Four Steps.
This lack of action by the police and army drove the ‘Prods’ to riot. Billy himself climbed a flag pole after a fight with the British Army, their own army supposedly, another riddle, and claimed the regimental colours. Under different circumstances well done Billy, taking the enemy's colours except, or so the loyalists keep telling us, these were/are not the enemy! I bet the British Army were confused by this, loyalists taking the regimental colours? Republican youths, yes, but youngsters from the same side? Most confusing! This must have been one of those times when loyalty to the British Government, and their army, was conditional and on this occasion these conditions were not met?
This lack of action by the police and army drove the ‘Prods’ to riot. Billy himself climbed a flag pole after a fight with the British Army, their own army supposedly, another riddle, and claimed the regimental colours. Under different circumstances well done Billy, taking the enemy's colours except, or so the loyalists keep telling us, these were/are not the enemy! I bet the British Army were confused by this, loyalists taking the regimental colours? Republican youths, yes, but youngsters from the same side? Most confusing! This must have been one of those times when loyalty to the British Government, and their army, was conditional and on this occasion these conditions were not met?
Billy supported, as well as Linfield, Leeds United in the then English First Division (promoted last season back to the top flight), a team who had a right-wing support by the end of the seventies and early eighties. The National Front (NF) and British Movement (BM) had made inroads into Leeds support and a small but significant racist presence by these proper fascists were regular at Elland Road. A young black player, Terry Connor, scored on his debut against West Bromwich Albion in a 1-0 win for Leeds on 17th November 1979. A minority of Leeds fans refused to acknowledge the goal insisting the score was 0-0 because it was scored by a black player. I say this because later on the British National Party (BNP), successors to the NF, stayed as guests of certain Belfast loyalists during the ‘marching season’ and later the BNPs protection squad, Combat 18, also stayed as guests of loyalists. C18 were named as such after the first and eighth letter of the alphabet, A+H, Adolf Hitler. So if we are talking of Ruairi O’Bradaigh’s speech in Derry being “fascist” perhaps Billy should look closer to home in his own community for the real thing. This is not to say Billy Hutchinson knew or welcomed these guests to Belfast staying with loyalist elements but always look before you leap because still waters run deep!
Loyalism has many variants, facets, and the book tells of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) formed in the early seventies to fight the IRA. They were huge in number but I always remember seeing them on TV and they looked a bit of a joke to me. Large in numbers yes, efficient? They paraded around in Parkas with sergeant and corporal stripes on the arms of their attire suggesting the wearer held this rank in an army! On one documentary a funny little man in a UDA styled uniform walked up to a British Army officer and saluted. The ‘Brit’ just ignored the UDA man and walked away not returning the salute, suggesting the level of contempt the British had for this brand of loyalism.
Loyalism has many variants, facets, and the book tells of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) formed in the early seventies to fight the IRA. They were huge in number but I always remember seeing them on TV and they looked a bit of a joke to me. Large in numbers yes, efficient? They paraded around in Parkas with sergeant and corporal stripes on the arms of their attire suggesting the wearer held this rank in an army! On one documentary a funny little man in a UDA styled uniform walked up to a British Army officer and saluted. The ‘Brit’ just ignored the UDA man and walked away not returning the salute, suggesting the level of contempt the British had for this brand of loyalism.
Hutchinson was instrumental in the formation of the ‘Young Ulster Volunteers’ later changing their name to the ‘Young Citizen Volunteers’ (YCF), a change to highlight the importance of identity particularly “a historical lineage to Ulster’s past crises”. They saw themselves as the “inheritors” of the original UVF and YCF which fought against “Home rule and paid the ultimate price on the Somme”. Maybe they should have looked a little further back in history to October 1791 and the formation of the United Irishmen formed, chiefly by Protestants, to ‘break the connection with England’ and laid the seeds of physical force republicanism.
In truth there is much factual text in this book which it cannot be really disagreed with. For example, Billy asserts, the Protestant working-class saw themselves as part of the greater British industrial working-class such as the ship building, coal mining and steel workers as opposed to the rural farming communities of the Twenty-Six Counties. Catholics could not get jobs in these industries in the Six Counties, Harland and Wolf Ship Building, Mackies Engineering, now closed, etc. This might have been a reasonable point once upon a time, though many of the working-class in Britain perhaps did not share his views. Since the forced de-industrialisation of Britain, orchestrated under the Conservative and Unionist governments of Margaret Thatcher, whom the loyalists loved because of her evil stance on the republican hunger strikes of 1981, this ‘greater British industrial working-class’ is much smaller. In the Six Counties also a programme of de-industrialisation has taken place under the guidance of various British Governments, all to suit and increase the profits of the transnational corporations, the British bourgeoisie and the unionists of the Six Counties. Perhaps now loyalism should be looking elsewhere as the ‘British industrial working-class’ which they perceived themselves as being a part of has shrunken enormously in recent years. Maybe now with the economy in the Twenty-Six Counties in better shape than that of Britain a united Ireland might be a better prospect for their ‘two thirds of Ulster’! With the shrinking of the industrial working-class in Britain and “Northern Ireland” the “neo-proletariat”, to quote Andre Gortz, in a united Ireland may seem a healthier prospect. The neo-proletariat are still the working-class and the question of the ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange remains the same, the alteration in ownership is worth fighting for. All the implements of wealth creation remain in private hands and those who operate them, the working-class, are still exploited, selling their labour power for a monetary wage, we are still creating wealth for the bosses who would not know how to operate the new technology any more than many industrialists of the 19th century could operate their machinery, they had no need to, workers did all the operating work for them. Then, as now, these fat cats – transnationals – treat their workers like shit and live off the wealth created by labour power. Perhaps these exploiters of labour are the real enemy of the working-class Protestant or Catholic.
The enigmas of loyalism continue for me as I read on this very well written text. Later Billy asserts you cannot be a “racist” and a “loyalist”. I’m sure by the way Billy writes he is an opponent of racism as I am myself. I would imagine, and I may be wrong, the recent events in the Six Counties resulting in the far-right rioting against ‘International Protection Seekers’ and other ‘incomers’ from foreign lands would sicken him. Many of those rioting would consider themselves loyalists, whether Billy would agree is perhaps another matter, but it highlights for me the contradictions within loyalism. Loyalism on the whole is sectarian which itself is a form of racism or, at best, it is ethnocentric so we can see a contradiction in broader loyalism and Billy Hutchinson's definition of not being a “racist” and a “loyalist”? Of course, this depends how ‘race’ is defined? I am under no illusions that sectarianism is also present on the republican side as is, alas, racism, which is why there is no homogenous form of republicanism either. I see myself as a socialist republican in the mould of James Connolly and, later on to a large extent, Seamus Costello. You cannot be a racist and a socialist republican or republican socialist but it is equally possible to hold racist even fascist views and be an orthodox republican. I try and distance myself from these people who anger me when they wave placards bearing the image of James Connolly. These people, who obviously know fuck all of Connolly’s politics, and his fight against racism back in his day both in Ireland and the USA anger me hugely.
This book, My Life in Loyalism certainly explains a lot of riddles within loyalism for me. Like republicanism there is no homogenous brand of loyalism but many different ideological strands based on a loyalty to “Ulster” and conditional support for the British Government. Where would this support be if, as Tony Blairs ‘new Labour’ suggested, the ban on any Catholic becoming the British Monarch be lifted? Would these loyal subjects of the crown remain such? Billy Hutchinson would, I imagine, be on the left-wing of loyalism but how would he feel about a Catholic Monarch? And how would that have sat had Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party won the 2017 UK General Election? I say this because Corbyn greatly favours a united Ireland but on many other political issues he and Billy would be on the same page! Both would be anti-racist, both would support workers struggles and both, again I imagine, would support progressive policies advancing the interests of minorities thus making it a difficult circle to square. Any attempt to unify Ireland by any British Government would be a call to arms by loyalists! Would Billy have taken up the rifle again against a man he in many other respects be in full political agreement? Well, unfortunately, or fortunately whichever your point of view is, Jeremy Corbyn did not win the 2017 election but he came, for the establishment, frighteningly close!
In truth there is much factual text in this book which it cannot be really disagreed with. For example, Billy asserts, the Protestant working-class saw themselves as part of the greater British industrial working-class such as the ship building, coal mining and steel workers as opposed to the rural farming communities of the Twenty-Six Counties. Catholics could not get jobs in these industries in the Six Counties, Harland and Wolf Ship Building, Mackies Engineering, now closed, etc. This might have been a reasonable point once upon a time, though many of the working-class in Britain perhaps did not share his views. Since the forced de-industrialisation of Britain, orchestrated under the Conservative and Unionist governments of Margaret Thatcher, whom the loyalists loved because of her evil stance on the republican hunger strikes of 1981, this ‘greater British industrial working-class’ is much smaller. In the Six Counties also a programme of de-industrialisation has taken place under the guidance of various British Governments, all to suit and increase the profits of the transnational corporations, the British bourgeoisie and the unionists of the Six Counties. Perhaps now loyalism should be looking elsewhere as the ‘British industrial working-class’ which they perceived themselves as being a part of has shrunken enormously in recent years. Maybe now with the economy in the Twenty-Six Counties in better shape than that of Britain a united Ireland might be a better prospect for their ‘two thirds of Ulster’! With the shrinking of the industrial working-class in Britain and “Northern Ireland” the “neo-proletariat”, to quote Andre Gortz, in a united Ireland may seem a healthier prospect. The neo-proletariat are still the working-class and the question of the ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange remains the same, the alteration in ownership is worth fighting for. All the implements of wealth creation remain in private hands and those who operate them, the working-class, are still exploited, selling their labour power for a monetary wage, we are still creating wealth for the bosses who would not know how to operate the new technology any more than many industrialists of the 19th century could operate their machinery, they had no need to, workers did all the operating work for them. Then, as now, these fat cats – transnationals – treat their workers like shit and live off the wealth created by labour power. Perhaps these exploiters of labour are the real enemy of the working-class Protestant or Catholic.
The enigmas of loyalism continue for me as I read on this very well written text. Later Billy asserts you cannot be a “racist” and a “loyalist”. I’m sure by the way Billy writes he is an opponent of racism as I am myself. I would imagine, and I may be wrong, the recent events in the Six Counties resulting in the far-right rioting against ‘International Protection Seekers’ and other ‘incomers’ from foreign lands would sicken him. Many of those rioting would consider themselves loyalists, whether Billy would agree is perhaps another matter, but it highlights for me the contradictions within loyalism. Loyalism on the whole is sectarian which itself is a form of racism or, at best, it is ethnocentric so we can see a contradiction in broader loyalism and Billy Hutchinson's definition of not being a “racist” and a “loyalist”? Of course, this depends how ‘race’ is defined? I am under no illusions that sectarianism is also present on the republican side as is, alas, racism, which is why there is no homogenous form of republicanism either. I see myself as a socialist republican in the mould of James Connolly and, later on to a large extent, Seamus Costello. You cannot be a racist and a socialist republican or republican socialist but it is equally possible to hold racist even fascist views and be an orthodox republican. I try and distance myself from these people who anger me when they wave placards bearing the image of James Connolly. These people, who obviously know fuck all of Connolly’s politics, and his fight against racism back in his day both in Ireland and the USA anger me hugely.
This book, My Life in Loyalism certainly explains a lot of riddles within loyalism for me. Like republicanism there is no homogenous brand of loyalism but many different ideological strands based on a loyalty to “Ulster” and conditional support for the British Government. Where would this support be if, as Tony Blairs ‘new Labour’ suggested, the ban on any Catholic becoming the British Monarch be lifted? Would these loyal subjects of the crown remain such? Billy Hutchinson would, I imagine, be on the left-wing of loyalism but how would he feel about a Catholic Monarch? And how would that have sat had Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party won the 2017 UK General Election? I say this because Corbyn greatly favours a united Ireland but on many other political issues he and Billy would be on the same page! Both would be anti-racist, both would support workers struggles and both, again I imagine, would support progressive policies advancing the interests of minorities thus making it a difficult circle to square. Any attempt to unify Ireland by any British Government would be a call to arms by loyalists! Would Billy have taken up the rifle again against a man he in many other respects be in full political agreement? Well, unfortunately, or fortunately whichever your point of view is, Jeremy Corbyn did not win the 2017 election but he came, for the establishment, frighteningly close!
I have read, or tried to read, books on loyalism in the past; Ulster’s Uncertain Defenders 1984 by Sarah Nelson which I found heavy going. It must be remembered at the time I was coming from a very biased position against loyalism and to read the work again today I would be more objective, so perhaps I’m not being fair to the author. My Life in Loyalism is easy reading covering much ground and worth a read. I am much older now and able to see other points of view, even if I disagree with their position as is the case here. Nobody is asking the reader to agree with the author but the reading covers many years, and areas I was previously unaware of: the moral being there are two goals on a football pitch! I still believe in Irish unification and that the war in the Six Counties of occupation was justified, perhaps the only war worth fighting is a war of national liberation and socialism without which, for me, the former is pointless. The question here is; can a person be a socialist and a loyalist? I would argue not but for Billy, I would think, such ideology is possible!
Billy Hutchinson with Gareth Mulvenna, 2020. My Life in Loyalism. Merion Press, Co. Kildare. ISBN 9781785373459 (Paper) - 9781785373466 (Kindle) - 9781785373473 (E.pub)
Billy Hutchinson with Gareth Mulvenna, 2020. My Life in Loyalism. Merion Press, Co. Kildare. ISBN 9781785373459 (Paper) - 9781785373466 (Kindle) - 9781785373473 (E.pub)
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
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