Summary
Unionism in Northern Ireland is facing a highly uncertain future. Its divided party politics make the headlines. But beyond that, post-Brexit border rules and talk of a possible vote on Irish reunification is causing much anxiety. Even more profoundly, changes in the province’s population and attitudes among different generations are weakening traditional loyalties. Pessimists fear all this could be seriously destabilising. Others argue that a new kind of unionism, focused on the practical benefits of links to Britain, can revive the cause. Chris Bowlby listens in to a debate with major implications for the UK as a whole.
Producer: Jim Frank Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:41.0 | Hello and thanks for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at some of the |
| 0:46.8 | ideas behind the news. |
| 0:49.5 | In this edition, Chris Bulby asks, what's next for the Unis people of Northern Ireland? |
| 0:57.0 | We may all think we know the essence of Northern Irish Unionism, men in bowler hats and sashes proudly Protestants, |
| 1:05.2 | marching around, shouting defiance living in the past. The apprentice boys of Derry in the |
| 1:10.3 | northwest of the province annually celebrate what they see as deliverance from foreign |
| 1:14.6 | and Catholic domination in a 17th century siege. |
| 1:18.6 | And there's another of their rituals, less well known, focused on the idea of betrayal. |
| 1:23.4 | If you want to understand Northern Irish Protestantism, you have to understand Lundy. |
| 1:27.1 | Lundy was the governor of the city of Derry in 1689 when the city was besieged |
| 1:32.0 | by the Catholic Jacobite forces of King James |
| 1:35.0 | and Lundy didn't think that the city was capable of withstanding a long siege |
| 1:40.0 | so he wanted to negotiate terms of surrender with the Jacobites. |
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