In 1967, while teaching in a Derry Secondary School , I was part of a visit by the history and English departments to the Parliament at Stormont. None of the four teachers involved had ever visited there but had been part of an organised demonstration outside the building the previous year to protest against the decision not to site the second university in Derry. Our host at the Parliament was Unionist , MP , Edward Jones, in whose constituency the school was located. The pupils were on their best behaviour in the public gallery but were bemused by the truculence of MPs in the Chamber.
Jones, the Attorney General, proved a very gracious host and with his wife treated our group to tea and cakes in a committee room. He gave a brief talk on his work as an MP and then invited questions. The teachers had not primed pupils in any way but the MP was taken aback when a first pupil asked about his role in denying Derry the university; it was quickly followed by a suggestion that he had helped to close the BSR – a factory which made record decks . He replied politely but in overblown , verbose terms, including phrases such as ‘ultra vires ‘ and ‘collective Cabinet responsibility’. In plain language, he claimed innocence on all charges.
The gerrymander of Derry City by the Unionists , with the support of the Stormont Government, was the prototype for sectarian control of the State; despite being 70% Catholic and Nationalist, through blatant manipulation of ward boundaries, the City remained under Unionist control. Professor Henry Patterson of the University of Ulster has recently had access to State records and , particularly, those of Mr Edward Jones; his research shows clearly that our pupils’ questions, were very close to the events of the time. Unionist leaders in Derry were paranoid that any development of new industries in the City would precipitate an influx of mainly Catholic workers which would threaten their boundary manipulations and power. Jones was their conduit to the Prime Minister to ensure such a calamity was prevented.
The facts about the University debacle are now well known but , through letters accessed by Professor Patterson , we now learn that Jones and the local Unionists put every possible impediment in the path of US multinational, Dupont, to prevent the establishment of their plant at Campsie. However, the Americans were not to be deflected and planning permission was only reluctantly granted when Dupont agreed to appoint a Unionist Personnel Officer whose job was to give the phrase , ’employing the best people’ , a whole new , sectarian meaning.
Despite the Good Friday Agreement and the serious power which Sinn Fein exercised through the late Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, change in the City has been largely cosmetic. John Hume’s powerful connections in the US and Europe attracted some investment and the construction of the Foyle Bridge. The latter was opposed by Unionists who viewed it as a pathway to Donegal in the Irish Republic. The DUP is intent on centralising power around Belfast and its environs. The recent bung from Theresa May will undoubtedly be spent around the Lagan.
The Laager mentality prevails.
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