Out they came in the rain to Belfast’s Waterfront to hear from most of Irish nationalism’s mainstream, under a still undefined umbrella.
A name will matter. The movement trading as ‘Beyond Brexit’ at least at the weekend has self-belief plus righteous indignation, plus anxiety. So maybe ‘Beyond Brexit Plus Plus’? The split said to be inevitable in all Irish movements could be on the way already. Or this could be the beginning of a valuable ginger group, even the Citizens Assembly some propose.
No interval, so no lunchtime huddle, but observation said the audience was a mixed bunch. To judge from their reactions to the speakers, most are upset and/or furious about losing European citizenship and were there because they fear a no-deal Brexit. The half-dozen plus who volunteered impressions (and passed on personal regards) differed in age, background and probably political involvement; a much-respected scholar who learned his first Irish songs from my father in Rannafast, a lawyer tempted for the first time to join the SDLP because of their move towards Fianna Fáil, someone insulted by repeated difficulties with authorities about her surname in Irish. A mid-Antrim school-friend of a young sister and a Dublin-based relative of a friend were there out of curiosity.
Didn’t Colum Eastwood speak better than at the non-event with Micheál Martin? Well-known Sinn Féin faces past and present were fairly numerous. A would-be sociable Alasdair McDonnell looked lonely. Mary Lou McDonald got to do the finale and send the crowd off enthused into the rain but punchy speaker that she can be, in Belfast lingo she ‘broke no delph’.
First slot after chief organiser Niall Murphy went to Fine Gael’s Joe McHugh, ‘our’ minister for education as ‘bean an tí’ Anna McHugh introduced him. Murphy was clunky as warm-up man but at a guess he raised all the topics most are bothered by, and like the later northern speakers far outpointed the TDs representing Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. But then they were there to recite that Stormont needed resurrection, and suggest a border poll must wait. The SF president wallops the second proposition but her early wobble on the subject still undercuts her.
How and when they applauded suggested what this crowd believe. There was no warmth for getting Stormont up again. The more time passes the harder it will get, said Joe McHugh; silence.
Restore the institutions to deal with pressing issues, said Dara Calleary; no applause. Human Rights specialist Professor Colin Harvey on the other hand delivered barn-storming expertise.
He kicked off with a swipe at ‘media negativity’(applause) and a ‘We apologise to no-one for being here today’ (bigger applause). They gave him his second biggest approval for slamming Irish government failure to deliver ‘clarity and certainty’ to the north’s Irish citizens, most of all for his ‘We do not need and will not be seeking permission to talk about the unity of our own country...the new Ireland we want to share.’
Clare Bailey’s scorn at the money northern women must pay to access abortion in the Republic failed to raise the roof. Though she got a ripple of acknowledgement for saying the programme cover should have shown a British passport, as she carries, alongside the Irish one.
Conversation was a buzzword on and off the stage, urgency about Ireland-wide exchanges, greater contact between north and south as well as with unionists. Personable Jim Dornan’s tale of his own ‘journey’ from Britishness to Irishness goes down well, but the decision not to invite unionist politicians met no audible disapproval. This was nationalism’s think-in, not a minute too soon.
The early platform swipe at the media kept echoing: BBC feebleness in correcting Brexiteer falsehoods, BBCNI inability or unwillingness to reflect the majority Remain view, to counter the illusion that the DUP speaks for Northern Ireland. TV coverage, said one media veteran, is all DUP, DUP, DUP; might not flatter them but effectively blanks everyone else. What about SF abstention, though? The mood says bah humbug.
David McCann got appreciation for noting that the DUP speak for about 30 per cent, more applause for recalling the Good Friday Agreement’s 71 per cent approval, warmth for signing-off with the event’s most winning slogan: ‘Ours is an open movement. Come along and be part of it.’
An escalator of people quiet after three hours solid listening glided down to the Waterfront lobby of glass and river views. Most of them dressed up to match the building; altogether, quite a show.
