Devolution and Identity by John Wilson & Karyn Stapleton

Author:John Wilson & Karyn Stapleton [Wilson, John & Stapleton, Karyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Political Science, History & Theory
ISBN: 9780754644798
Google: OC81QwhbyEoC
Goodreads: 5779432
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2006-01-01T08:11:37+00:00

Some Conclusions

Analysis of the use of symbols must involve an exploration of the way symbols work. The same symbol can be viewed and used in many different ways. There is no innate meaning to a symbol. Humans give symbols meanings. Thus a flag can simultaneously be the marker of official and legal sovereignty and also the marker of local territory. It can be emblematic of democracy but also the harbinger of fear. The display of a symbol can be defended as freedom of speech whilst also be criticised as intimidation. This is particularly evident in Northern Ireland where political divisions over the nature of the polity have often been expressed though violent conflict.

In theory at least there was potential for the flying of official flags to represent the aspirations drawn up in the Agreement. However, in spite of the broad language of recognition of diverse communities and an attempt at the politics of a new Northern Ireland, the Agreement is consociational in nature and the disputes over the flying of official flags has characterised this. Neither unionist nor nationalist politicians have argued in a coherent fashion that the symbols used might represent a wider community or diverse communities, simply that they should represent the Unionist community and/or the Nationalist community. Changes that have taken place in official flag flying practice have been driven by legislation. In many ways this mirrors what has taken place more generally in public space. In disputes over parades, new legislation, the Parades Commission, and changes in policing have altered the management of public space in a way that reduces the number of times boundaries and interfaces are crossed, and gives access to both identities into the centre of towns, such as Belfast and Deny. This new legal dispensation has changed the use of symbols in public space but in the main, not through agreement, but through enforcement.

In strand one of the Agreement on the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland there are written in 'safeguards to ensure that all section of the community can participate and work successfully together' (p. 5) but the 'cross-community arrangements' then detailed rely on nationalist and unionist members of the Assembly designating themselves as such. What is distinctiy missing from the discussion is the creation of new political identities through the Agreement. An alternative strategy could have discussed: the need for neutral or agreed symbols. This strategy, used in police reform, would conceive the new political arrangements as needing their own distinctive civic identity to which the diverse communities could show allegiance. This some authors have characterised as civic nationalism.

This nationalism is called civic because it envisages the nation as a community of equal, rights-bearing citizens, united in patriotic attachment to a shared set of political practices and values

(Ignatieff 1994:3-4).

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