The Council of the Isles and the Scotland Northern Ireland relationship
by Graham Walker
Scottish Affairs No.27 1999. (Published by Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland at Edinburgh University)
V
Thinking about the Council of the Isles also involves consideration of questions concerning culture and identity. Those intellectual figures discussed above who have done much to refine the concept have been motivated to a large extent by the goals of cultural pluralism and the co-existence of different identities and allegiances (Kearney 1997). They have been dismayed by the tendency in the Northern Ireland conflict for both sides to engage in a 'zero sum' approach to cultural and political matters, and to hanker after the 'victory' of their respective nation-state, either that of the UK or the Irish Republic. The idea of the Council of the Isles is thus of its intellectual time, as acknowledgement is increasingly made of the rights of individuals to hold and express different - perhaps multiple - identities. The 'umbrella' quality of the BIC seems designed to reflect both the social and cultural interactions within these islands and also the layered sense of identity held by many people. The spirit in which it has been argued for and presented politically has been that of an opening up of cultural channels often politically closed, at least in the context of Northern Ireland. It represents a shift away from the tendency towards 'oneness' and cultural homogeneity in traditional nationalisms, and a repudiation, on a theoretical level at least, of outdated assertions of sovereignty.
Nonetheless, competing agendas may turn the BIC into a site of cultural and identity struggles. There is, for example, the question of the BIC helping to renew and strengthen the idea of British identity, an apparent objective of the Blair government. Here, the hope seems to be that the forging of new relationships within the context of the BIC will help smooth the constitutional transitional process and help ensure the success of decentralisation in terms of governance and administration, while at the same time re-vitalising a collective British identity. This is a 'new Unionism', a positive project which some pro-government commentators believe can engage particularly those Unionists in Scotland and Northern Ireland who have been put on the defensive by respective Nationalist pressures. The 'new Unionism' of the constitutional re-structuring project is viewed as an antidote to the 'defeatism' which characterised the Unionist position in the unreformed context (Hassan 1998). Again, intellectually, there is much force in the argument of this kind of Unionism based on a reforming vision and freed from shibboleths about Westminster sovereignty, is in keeping with the pluralist spirit of the times. Moreover, if it turns out to be a vision which does engage the energies of those who wish to renew a broad-based and expansive form of British identity or promote federal ideas, then the BIC would seem the ideal forum in which to make such efforts.
However, others will be likely to want to pursue very different goals through the Council of the Isles. It is, for instance notable that the Scottish National Party has endorsed the concept warmly, although this is not so surprising given the party's support, independently of the Irish peace process, for a Nordic-Council type body bringing together Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland (North and South) as equal (national) partners (Kerevan 1998). For the SNP the Council is attractive on account of the opportunity it might afford for Scotland to act independently. The SNP view of European trends is that they are running in favour of the cultivation of strong national identities, and that independent nation-states are best placed to inter-relate with others (Interview with Alex Bell, 10 September 1998). Clearly, the SNP view the Council of the Isles as a forum in which the separate 'Celtic' national identities can be enhanced; Britishness, on the other hand, is regarded as being in inexorable decline as a form of identity.
In conjunction with a desire to see British identity fade, the SNP has also
signalled its hope that the Council of the Isles will renew close ties between
Scotland and Ireland. While sensitive to the Northern Ireland situation,
there is little doubt that Scottish Nationalists are now looking much more
purposefully than before at the question of links with the Irish Republic.
In Ballina, Co Mayo in August 1998 the SNP leader Alex Salmond spoke enthusiastically
of re-establishing links between Scotland and Ireland which had been 'dislocated
by the affairs of the United Kingdom' and pointed to the Council of the
Isles as a structure 'which can allow us to communicate directly work together
on shared interests and influence each other by example'. Salmond listed
four priority areas for such exchanges: education, culture and the media,
transport and Europe, and even held out the possibility of a shared television
channel on one of the digital multiplexes (Irish Times 22 August 1998: Salmond
1998). |
