If our Border home is to be a place, it has to be our place

“If our home is to be a place, if it is to be our place, then let us start by not blaming or pointing a finger at the other person. Instead, let us listen to the hurts we all carry in this melting pot of a place.

For we are all the makeshifts, the bystanders, the blow-ins, the rejects, the refugees, the asylum seekers, the migrants.

We are us. We are resilient, we are the heartbeat of this place, we can create a rainbow flag and compose a new national anthem for ourselves.”

The “rainbow flag” is a clue, and this is an extract from the book 'Impermanence' in an essay by South African writer Nandi Jola who left the country’s apartheid regime some years ago and moved to Belfast where she still lives.

It could, I thought, apply equally to Ireland. Or more specifically to the Border area which has been occupying my thoughts a lot over the last year.

The reason is that I have been engaged in a project with an organisation called the Clones Family Resource Centre in which we interviewed 40 Borderers, from north and south and from both sides of the political divide.

The interviews form the basis of a book 'Our Shared Way of Life' which is being launched in Clones this evening (Thursday.)

It was an intriguing experience and even as someone who has lived and worked here all my life, I learned a lot more about the people of this area.

Given the assurance of not being named, many people felt confident enough to take the opportunity to open up about their lives, their hopes and fears and the issues that were really important to them.

Naturally enough, they spoke about identity; not just British, Irish, Northern Irish or European; but about other aspects of their identity. Indeed, about their journey of identity which meant for one man: “We’re not locked into what your father and mother’s experiences were, we’ve broken the shackles of that.”

There is a chapter on the context of violence along the Border with harrowing experiences recalled by all sides. Everybody, of whatever background or persuasion, said they didn’t want to go back to a dark past.

The place for Orange culture and the decline in Protestant and Catholic church attendance is discussed, as is the perceived increase in confidence among Nationalists.

Wider issues include climate change, the cost-of-living crisis, isolation and the lack of infrastructure in remote areas.

The changing priorities of the younger generation 'The Agreement babies' is featured and there are opinions on the need for integrated education.

And, of course, people addressed the post-Brexit era and the talk of possible constitutional change at this pivotal time in our history.

One Southern Republican’s view is that “we will have our United Ireland and it will not be too long” but he adds, “we’re not talking about absorbing the Six Counties into the 26. We want to reframe a new Constitution".

But, a Northern Protestant said she didn’t believe there would be a United Ireland in her lifetime and another Northern Protestant said: “Why would you want something that you don’t see any benefit in? I just simply do not see any accommodation for our point of view.”

What struck me very deeply, however, was that despite our differences there is so much that we have in common. It may be something of a cliché, but it is so appropriate.

We have similar values and similar lifestyles. Border people have had to be resilient and resourceful. We are creative and we have character. And put simply, we do get on with each other in everyday life. There is more contact between communities and more links cross-Border now.

And there’s a love of place which shouldn’t be surprising when we consider context.

People who feel forgotten by Dublin, Belfast and London now see the Border as a region where there is a common bond.

Remember, the Border didn’t exist until a hundred years ago.

I attended a walk and talk at Crom last year and as I looked across the landscape of the Erne from Fermanagh to County Cavan and listened to the history of the area, I thought this is the place previous generations shared for centuries. Unhindered by a line on a map, albeit all their other differences in wealth and class, and religion.

In the same book 'Impermanence', Derry writer Neil Hegarty beautifully evokes images of the Foyle in June “swallows were darting and fluttering and the larks were wittering shrilly”. But with Donegal on one side of the Foyle and Derry on the other, he asks who owns the plump oysters or the swans or honking geese?

Despite a geopolitical border, despite a conflict which saw an increase in mistrust and misunderstanding, and despite the distance it created in hearts and minds, this remains a connected place which means that even with all our other differences, it remains a constant shared place.

The introduction to the book recalls:

'The play ‘The Border Game’ which toured theatres in Ireland in 2022 is the set in a boggy field where a barbed wire fence marks the Border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

'The story of the relationship between Henry, a Northern Protestant and Sinead, a Catholic from the South, the play was described by the journalist Susan McKay as a “sharp political satire about the legacy of Partition.”'

She quotes the play’s authors, Michael Patrick and Oisin Kearney as saying that the Border is misunderstood: "To Dublin it is a no man’s land, to Belfast it is a bog of culchies. To London, it is a place of bandits and criminals."

But, says McKay, "to the likes of Sinead and Henry it is home".

And in a preface to the book, Susan writes:

“These people who have been generous enough to speak openly and share their hopes and fears, are honourable and decent. By taking part in this project, they have asked for us to understand them, and this we must do.”

Having been involved in this project, I hope that people will listen to these voices and not only will people outside the area understand us a little better but that all the Borderers will understand each other better.

Our Shared Way of Life was launched at Monaghan County Library in Clones, Co Monaghan on Thursday, June 8.