In the latest of our Northern Roots series, where we speak to people originally from Northern Ireland but currently living elsewhere – or vice versa – our interviewee is Richard Clements in Cambridge.

 

1. Tell us about yourself. When did you leave Northern Ireland, and where did you go? What do you do now?

I have left and returned to Northern Ireland several times over the past few years. After finishing my law degree at Queen’s University, I worked at a Belfast law firm for a time before being accepted onto the Leonardo da Vinci programme to work abroad. As part of this, I lived and worked in Florence, Italy for four months at the city’s public prosecution office. While in Italy, I realised I was keen to continue my studies, particularly in human rights or international law.

Returning to Belfast in January 2014, then, I spent some time working for a bank, before beginning my LLM in public international law at Leiden University in September of that year. After graduating, I worked on a case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and then undertook an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. But this is not the end of the NI link!

I moved back to NI in March 2016 to begin work as a policy assistant at the NI Human Rights Commission, where I did some work on local and national human rights issues such as counter-terrorism, the rights of persons with disabilities and traveller accommodation.

I was accepted to begin my PhD at Cambridge University in October 2016 and have been here ever since. I think the morale of that tedious story is that no one ever really leaves NI, in body or soul.

 

2. What do you think when you see the Northern Ireland of today, in the news and on social media?

I tend to keep up with a lot of local news, seeing it both from the perspective of those in NI and, indeed, the perspective from the other side of the Irish Sea. As other Northern Roots interviewees have noted, NI has appeared in the news much more frequently ever since the Brexit vote and since the DUP decided to prop up Theresa May’s government. It’s also been in the news for more positive reasons, as with the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

All of these conflicting arrangements therefore leave me ambivalent about NI. Ask me how I feel about it politically, and I’ll say “Disappointed”. Although many other contributors to the blog have expressed hope, I find this hard to reconcile with the fact that NI has been without a government for 18 months with the DUP and Sinn Féin playing a game of chicken to see who can wring as much electoral capital out of voters’ fears and prejudices as possible.

To my mind, all of this originates in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement itself, which essentially concretised for all time a sectarian divide which we are now left struggling to overcome.

On the other hand, ask me about NI in cultural terms, and I’ll say I’m proud of what the region has achieved in recent years, in terms of music, sport, art and literature. These achievements attest to the creativity and passion that local communities have for our small region. I suppose it is this image of NI that comes to the forefront most often, when I am asked about NI as a place, a home, a tourist destination.

 

3. Are you hopeful for Northern Ireland’s future? Will Brexit make a difference?

A lot of people seem content to compare anything we currently have as better than what we had 10, 20 or 30 years ago. While the existence of political institutions and the absence of political violence is welcome, I would have thought that a whole generation after the GFA was concluded, people – especially young people – would have raised their sights and expectations somewhat higher.

I am glad to see, for example, activism on a range of social issues like gay marriage and abortion, but on both political and economic fronts, Northern Ireland remains woefully ill-equipped to tackle the problems likely to confront it in the future.

Politically, real reconciliation never happened – we still have peace walls and bitter debates over victim status. A lot of the stalemate comes down to regressive political leadership, which I hope NI will get away from soon, but won’t hold my breath.

Economically, a number of contributors have linked peace and future prosperity to business investment in the region and things like lowering corporation tax. Frankly, I find this argument unoriginal and empirically unsubstantiated. Economic research shows that in the Republic of Ireland, which spent decades turning itself into a business paradise and gutting its public services, was unable to fend off the effects of the 2008 recession, and still imposed deep austerity measures affecting predominantly lower and middle-income households.

Why, then, the discussion is on business investment in NI is beyond me when focusing on creating sustainable jobs, good infrastructure and a good health and education system to create a stable and healthy workforce seem a better option in the long term.

I should also add that much of the Republic’s economic growth has been linked to EU membership. I am not a fan of endless EU paperwork, but I think this may be a small price to pay in comparison to the disadvantages to NI of being outside the EU. I think of regulations on working conditions, maternity and paternity pay, and anti-dumping laws to name but a few. I don’t believe Theresa May’s government knows what it is doing, with Brexit generally or with NI in relation to it, nor do I believe the DUP have any idea what the effects will be despite their blind obedience to the Tories.

A lot of this comes down to the fact that for decades, the EU has been a favourite scapegoat of right wingers, or British nationalists in the UK, including the Tories, when the real problem has been the increasing London-centrism of the UK economy and the failure to invest in jobs and public services in all regions. With Brexit, we are now completely distracted as a country from these vital questions.

 

4. Do you think you will return to Northern Ireland? What could convince you to come back?

Like many people who leave NI, I do so to find opportunities that accord with my career and life aspirations. Following a career in academia, I can certainly see myself returning to NI, with its prominent law schools and similar research interests. As someone who enjoys literature, the arts, and lively intellectual discussion, NI is increasingly somewhere I can not only make a life, but enjoy it, too.

But certain swords hang over a decision to move back. Things like the political bitterness, the tribal nature of some communities, the social conservatism. As a gay socialist, there are only so many places one is welcome (although which is more stigmatised in NI politics, I can’t be sure)

There are only a few places in the world where you can walk down the street holding the hand of a same-sex partner and not feel a sense of unease or even fear. Unfortunately, even the streets of Belfast engender such fear. There is only so much one person can take of having to check their actions, their mannerisms, their speech, before they turn into a different, usually lesser, version of themselves.

I didn’t quite expect to get so personal, but this is an interview and you did ask. So I suppose it would always come down to a balancing act and how confident I am in myself to be able to weather those pressures.

5. What can Northern Ireland learn from the place you live now?

I currently live in Cambridge, where bicycles are everywhere. I know how much of a difference it makes, physically, emotionally, and environmentally, to have a lot of people doing away with cars.

Belfast is, of course, a much bigger city and a much more industrialised, professional one, too, but the future urban space must be both sustainable for the environment and good for the people who live in them.

Another quirky thing I’ve noticed in Cambridge are things like disused telephone boxes doubling as a space for locals to exchange books and other things for free. These small but community-minded efforts seem to be appreciated.

 

6. If Northern Ireland had a president with sweeping powers, and it was you, what would you do?

As a believer in some form of democracy, I would be uneasy installing any one person into such a powerful position. But since you asked, moving on as a community begins with education. The total integration of all schools in NI is not only desirable at this stage, but vital if NI is to move forward and quickly.

I would also discard the constitutionally-mandated sectarian political arrangement, making sure that the real debates in NI don’t focus on flags or other symbolic niceties, but economic wellbeing. This would involve investing a lot in jobs, housing, infrastructure as well as schools, hospitals and new energies.

How to fund this, you ask? Taxes! Yes, those things that help a society to invest in itself and look after everyone. Those things that don’t rely on tax-avoiding businesses to take wealth from the region and then up and leave the next day. If you look at somewhere like Denmark, which has a high tax rate but also free healthcare, education and paid maternity/paternity leave and a strict working office hours-only policy, prosperity is possible without running a workforce into the ground and creating an unequal society.

My final act would be to give all those sweeping powers to the law-makers that actually represent NI – you never know which demagogue might abuse the position in future…

 

7. What would you like to see more of on Northern Slant?

I see a lot of focuses on prominent political leaders, especially from the 1990s, like Bill Clinton, Tony Blair etc, but also from modern politics. If history has shown us anything, it is that political leadership is nothing without the activists behind it. So it would be nice to see more content looking at local community work across the province, whether volunteer organisations or new community initiatives designed to support refugees. I know that 10 Downing Street and Stormont are full of pomp and intrigue, but politics happens and has its greatest effects at the grassroots, so this is what we should be reporting on.

 

8. If you could ask three Northern Ireland politicians (past or present) to dinner, who would they be? And why?

If I wanted to have an enjoyable, relaxed dinner, do you really think I would invite any politicians from NI? All jokes aside, I do think I would enjoy Eamonn McCann’s company, even though he’s no longer an MLA. He has a wealth of experience and a great political record in activism and I’d love to hear more from him. He’d also be a laugh.

I’d also invite Marie Jones, Belfast playwright and writer of ‘A Night in November’ among other important cultural markers for the region. She’s an inspirational figure for those of us who aspire to write fiction and draw on their experiences of growing up in NI.

And finally, I’d have to say Patrick Kielty. As well as being a hoot, his recent BBC NI documentary on his relationship with the GFA and its legacy was, I think, a hugely important moment for many people reflecting on NI’s past. Kielty brought an open-mindedness and sense of responsibility to his investigations which I think sets the tone for many people (and politicians) who also wish to see NI move forward. Those are my three, I hope they’d get along!

 

9. Do you have a favourite quote, or mantra?

I don’t have any mantras I repeat to myself daily, but I do lament the death of irony in modern political and cultural life. This, I think is why I enjoy drag culture so much, because it never takes itself too seriously, but also has an important message attached to it.

In that vein, perhaps I’ll just end with a quote from the queen of drag, RuPaul: ‘If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?’

 

10. What’s your message for people back home?

This question has an air of condescension, so I’ll just say that while there are a lot of reasons for us to hate things that go on in NI, the decision to voice that hate lies with everyone. Individuals can’t change the world alone, that much is clear. But people can think again on old ideas they have inherited from their parents or their communities, and reflect on whether those really provide the recipe for a peaceful, equal, liberated society.

Also published on Medium.