In our Northern Roots series, we speak to readers originally from Northern Ireland but currently living elsewhere, or vice versa – or who’ve spent time away from NI. This week’s interviewee is David McDonald who is originally from NI and currently living in Scotland. You can follow David on Twitter @dtammcd.

 

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

Like many of my peers I left Northern Ireland to go to university, leaving Belfast in 1997 to go to Glasgow University to study History and Politics. I worked for a homeless charity and then went to Carlisle to train to be a History teacher, taught in Northamptonshire for a year and then returned to Glasgow in 2006, and moved into museum work. I’m now a Learning Officer in a local authority museum, working with schools and community groups, helping them explore the heritage of their communities. I met a lovely Scottish girl in 1998 who I’ve done all that with and we are now married with two girls of our own, living in the suburbs, which I swore I’d never do – it’s the schools you see.

I couldn’t wait to get away from Northern Ireland when I was 18. When I sat at my desk to study for my A-levels, that was the goal – the exam results were the means to escape.

I’d spent my teenage years being frisked going into shopping centres, avoiding no-go areas, getting my head kicked in when I didn’t, and avoiding talking about politics or religion in case I upset someone. I’d been evacuated from school in bomb scares, dodged burning buses during riots, had the family car hijacked and turned into a roadblock, questioned on a bus by a guy with a machine gun and the rest. And I was from the nice part of town. Many of my peers had it much worse, I’m sure.

When the Drumcree controversy shut Belfast down I remember trying to get to a friend’s house on the Antrim Road one afternoon and I didn’t see a single car, on one of the busiest roads in Belfast, and I was the only person on the bus. Belfast wasn’t normal in the nineties; it was scary and sad. Northern Ireland was run by childish bigots, I thought, and frankly, it didn’t deserve me. So, I left.

When I arrived in Scotland I was very much opposed to nationalism of any kind as a result of growing up in Northern Ireland, but twenty years later I find myself out canvassing and leafletting for the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and the independence movement. I still wouldn’t call myself a nationalist, because the Scottish Independence movement isn’t about identity or nationalism, it’s more motivated by a desire for better democracy and equality, and its inclusive too. I’ve been on the campaign trail with Swedes, Poles, French, Belgians, Norwegians, and shedloads of English folk, plus people of all religions and none, even Rangers fans! It’s funny that I left Northern Ireland to escape from the trouble caused by nationalism, and then ended up in a nationalist movement, but I’ve changed my mind about Scottish Independence and now have a more sympathetic view of nationalisms broadly, but that process took years.

 

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

The news from NI we get over here is still very much linked to the national question and latterly Brexit, which is a shame because I know Belfast has blossomed since the Good Friday Agreement and there are good news stories to be told. I saw Jim Wells [DUP MLA] was on the TV here this week complaining about men dancing together, and I genuinely feel embarrassed, and angry, for us when we put that bigotry front and centre. Social media is a bit better and there are some good websites like yourself [Northern Slant] and Slugger O’Toole.

The big news stories from the island of Ireland, apart from Brexit, have been all the referendums in the Republic, so the news now is showing Ireland to be a progressive, modernising society. In comparison, the news from NI focuses on the views from Jim Wells who clearly doesn’t represent the majority in Northern Ireland. Until progressives start voting a bit smarter, folk like Jim will keep representing us, and they’ll keep showing us up.

 

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

Brexit will absolutely make a difference. I believe it will have a similar effect on the whole UK as the Troubles did on NI: investment will dry up and people will start to leave; public spending will plummet, and Northern Ireland will be hit very hard by that. The border will be an issue I’d expect. I have family who commute across the border for work; there’s a Chinese takeaway in Muff, County Donegal, delivering spring rolls across the border, and the ease of this is what people have become used to.

If you are a nationalist in Northern Ireland, then the Good Friday Agreement and the European Union really allowed you to act as if you lived in a united Ireland – you could live and work where you want, your rights don’t change as you cross the border, which you couldn’t even see anyway. After Brexit, Northern Ireland will start to feel much more like little Britain and nationalists will feel less comfortable there, and will start to make themselves heard: and why shouldn’t they be angry? They had something good, and it’s been taken away from them.

I don’t share the fears of return to violence, however. The generation that would be the foot soldiers of a terror campaign have largely grown up without political violence. Even if they are still educated separately, they are more used to mixing with each other. I can’t see where their motivation for violence would come from. But, I’m not sure I’d really know, I’m not in those communities, I’m following Northern Ireland on Twitter, from another country.

For Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK, Brexit needs to be cancelled entirely, though I’m not hopeful that Brexit can be stopped. I actually think a united Ireland is now more likely than ever because of it.

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

Since coming to Glasgow I’ve lived in England for two years and did the obligatory year backpacking around Australia, and it’s always been Glasgow I’ve wanted to come back to. Glasgow is such a great place to live, the cultural opportunities here are phenomenal, from football to modern art, gigs, theatre – whatever you’re into, Glasgow will provide.

There are still greater professional opportunities here too – there are probably only ten or twenty people in Northern Ireland doing the job I do, so it’d be difficult to come home without changing career, and I really love my job.

I come home four or five times a year to visit, and I do want my children to feel a bit Irish/Northern Irish – since Brexit they’ve ordered Irish passports anyway. But I’ve lived here longer than I lived in NI and, apart from my accent – which I’m told is lovely – I might just be Scottish now. When I come home there’s always a wee tug, and it would be nice to see more of my family, but I haven’t ever really felt homesick. I know where you can get the Club Orange in Glasgow, so I’m grand.

 

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

I think NI could look at how the Scottish Independence movement has developed regardless of religion or identity politics. That wasn’t really something the 18-year-old me thought was possible. The national debate in Scotland is mostly free of sectarianism and bigotry, on both sides. You can make the case for major constitutional change, or not, based on rights and equality. Even if you don’t agree with independence, you should agree that these are the issues that the decision should be made on, rather than tradition or tribalism. The debate about a united Ireland has begun and I hope the issues people focus on are rights and prosperity. If that happens then regardless of the result, we’ll know NI really has moved on.

 

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

I’m not too keen on top-down change. If I swept in and banned marches, or segregated education, I’m not sure I’d take the people of Northern Ireland with me. Those things will go when people want them to. What I would do is get those MLAs back to Stormont immediately. Northern Ireland needs its own assembly, direct rule is a big step back into the past, a past that very few people want.

There is some talk over here about the possibility of building a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. I don’t know how realistic that is, but if I’m in charge I’d love to make that happen. I’d love to be able to jump on a train or bus in Glasgow and get off at home.

 

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

A wee bit of satire maybe. The situation in NI is sometimes inherently ridiculous, but people are entitled to take the piss out of the politics of Northern Ireland. I think people in NI are generally pretty good at it too, but they do need a safe space to do it since it’s clear that some political figures there have no sense of humour.

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

This is hard because the politicians in Northern Ireland were a large part of what drove the young me away, so there aren’t many who I would want to split a bowl of nachos with.

David Ervine was an interesting guy, we’d have disagreed on the national question for sure, but he seemed to be one of the only unionist politicians who genuinely respected the nationalist viewpoint.

I’d invite Monica McWilliams from the Women’s Coalition too – the three of us could sit around, not talk about the national question, and probably listen to Oasis.

I’m struggling a bit; can I say Tommy Sheppard? He’s the SNP MP for Edinburgh East, but from Coleraine originally. Like me he left Northern Ireland to go to university, so if I’m still from Northern Ireland, then he is too. I’ve met him a couple of times and he would definitely be good craic at dinner.

The SNP’s Phillippa Whitford is also originally from Belfast, and most days in the House of Commons she’s the smartest person in the room. She also spends her holidays as a breast cancer surgeon in Palestine, so I’d gladly cook her dinner. That’s four, sorry.

 

9. Do you have a favourite quote or mantra?

I’m a Manic Street Preachers fan, so I basically collect quotes on t-shirts. I’ve been reading Seamus Heaney over the last year or so, in an effort to reconnect with the homeland, and I’ll be getting “Walk on air, against your better judgement” printed on a mug or tote bag soon.

In Scotland we often worry that Scots don’t have confidence in Scotland – “Too wee, too poor, too stupid” – and I think Northern Ireland suffers from a similar cringe. Both countries are used to seeing themselves as burdensome and backward, and that’s what Heaney was arguing against.

 

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

Don’t listen to me. I left in 1997 and my view of Northern Ireland is still too bound up with the Troubles. There are young ones now able to vote and speak out who don’t have the pain and baggage of the past – we should listen to them. There’s a whole generation raised in peace and I think they might know more about it than us.