www.ulsternation.org.uk

This website is a forum for political debate and the exchange of ideas. Unless indicated, the opinions expressed in any article, commentary, argument or review is solely that of the author and not necessarily that of the publisher.

Home Page Reviews Ulster comment Archives International issues Links Conversation with Rabbi Schiller FAQs Open Forum For Sale Obituaries Culture and Identity

The Importance of Being Ulster: or Northern Ireland has no Future.

Robert K Campbell. Ulster Society Publications. Lurgan 1995: ISBN 1-872076-21-1, £1.00.

The purpose of this booklet, in my opinion, is to highlight the hostility shown toward Ulster by the mainstream British political parties, its media puppets, and to give credibility to the call for an independent Ulster. Robert Campbell does a superb job on all counts.

It was published in 1995, and at the time the conservative government, under John Major, ruled the political roost. On the first page Campbell hits you with quotes from two Conservative MPs and two Labour MPs that are really quite sickening when you consider that these are the people who are meant to be protecting Ulster as part of the United Kingdom.

The two quotes from the Labour MPs in 1993 spell out clear as crystal what the future holds for Ulster under a Labour government. Now in 2002 I can see that Tony Blair has not disappointed those on the 'treachery' wavelength. The Union is not safe. This is the fact of the matter. We have a 'new' Labour government that has bent over backwards to prove this to us since it came to power.

Some of the truths that Campbell points out regarding the English I found quite staggering because I, an Englishman, never really took any notice of the 'popular English attitude' toward Ulster until I first went there in 1995. I subsequently read this booklet, which I picked up on my travels around the province, even though a fashionable English saying is "they should pull out all the troops and let all them Irish bastards kill each other!" This statement alone clearly shows that the vast majority of English people care for nothing of their fellow Brits or the Union. Considering this 'attitude' it's not hard to see how England has ended up in the state it is now in. They, the 'ignorant English', care for nothing full stop. Not even England. It’s simply a case of 'bury your head in the sand', but rather than 'hope it will go away' like in the old days, people nowadays simply ignore it, whatever it happens to be.

Between the lines, Campbell points out how the English have embraced, here on the mainland, a people who hold a deep rooted hatred of us. But it's an embrace brought on by fear. Fear of more mainland bombings have bred an intolerance of our Ulster kin, and an extreme ignorance to their plight, which is further fuelled by the sob stories of a supposedly oppressed people, the Irish. In addition, the British media has played a major part in poisoning the minds of the English public against Ulster with its treacherous propaganda and republican-friendly broadcasts, despite the fact that republicans are the cause of all the problems, backed up by their imperialist cohorts in Dublin.

Campbell also takes a very in-depth look at the reasons why independence for Ulster is a viable option, and has clearly put a lot of work into researching this. The case is put forward brilliantly, drawing comparisons with other independent states from around the globe by raising cultural, geographic and boundary issues, along with economic and population statistics that make it hard not to see that an independent Ulster can survive given half a chance.

Considering the time of publication, and the present situation in Ulster, Robert Campbell has written a booklet of a truly prophetic nature that is worthy of anyone's time. But I do think that unless you support Ulster, the Union, and can accept that independence for Ulster is a viable option, it will prove a bitter pill for the 'ignorant Englanders' to swallow. But as the saying goes 'the truth hurts'. For it's not that their view can't change, they just don't want to change it. So they should hang their heads in shame, but arrogance won’t let them.

Russell Ewins

Booklet text

Home page

A THIRD WAY FOR ULSTER