preaching ulster's eternal verities
TRANSCRIPT
Fortnight Publications Ltd.
Preaching Ulster's Eternal VeritiesIan Paisley: Voice of Protestant Ulster by Clifford SmythReview by: Steve BruceFortnight, No. 262 (May, 1988), p. 21Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25551554 .
Accessed: 28/06/2014 13:28
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Fortnight Publications Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fortnight.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 185.31.195.178 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 13:28:14 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
BOOKS
Preaching Ulster's
eternal verities Steve Bruce
Clifford Smyth Ian Paisley:
voice of Protestant Ulster
Scottish Academic Press, ?7.50
Eighteen months ago there were no serious books about Ian Paisley; now
there are three. Andy Pollak and Ed Moloney wrote the fat sexy thriller
version and I wrote the dull but worthy explanation of Paisley's success.
Clifford Smyth's book comes somewhere between the two styles. It is a
carefully documented assessment of Paisley's motives and actions but it
also benefits from some personal touches. Smyth was a rising young star
of the DUP and secretary of the United Ulster Unionist Council until
Paisley and his lieutenants turned on him (he's still coy about the reasons) and he is able to describe the early history of the party from the position of an insider.
Although one might expect the expellee to be in the axe-grinding business, Smyth's assessments are more balanced than those of Pollak
and Moloney?probably because, although like them he relies a lot on the
accounts of ex-Paisleyites, his own knowledge acts as a test of plausibil
ity. Thus he rejects the attempts to link Paisley closely with Gusty
Spence's UVF in the early 60s, or the argument that Paisley deliberately
destroyed the UUUC coalition with Vanguard and the Official Unionists to further the interests of the DUP.
This is not to say that Paisley did not take advantage of every
opportunity to further his party; it is just to get away from the simplistic notion that Paisley is a massively cunning and Machiavellian manipula tor. What comes across strongly is Paisley as a man driven by a few simple
imperatives?saving the last stronghold of the evangelical faith, Protes
tant Ulster, from the clutches of Rome aka the Republic aka the IRA?
rather than an elaborated political ideology. A man reacting, often with
little deliberation, to the circumstances which arose around him.
For readers with a general interest in the history of Ulster politics, this
is a satisfying and informative book. For scholars with a deeper interest
in explaining Paisley's success, there is a problem. Smyth draws briefly on Max Weber's famous description of three types of authority. 'Ra
tional-legal' authority follows from a set of rules. It is the sort of authority senior figures in bureaucracies possess, or which is invoked when people are persuaded to act in one way rather than another because 'the rules say so' or 'that is the most efficient thing to do'. Modern societies are knee
deep in rational-legal authority. Then there is 'traditional' authority: we
act in this way because that is how we have always done things. Finally, there is the 'charismatic' authority of the leader who claims no grounds for his leadership other than that he possesses supernatural or other
extraordinary qualities. The charismatic leader sets himself against the
tradition: 'It was written... and you have been taught... but I say unto you
Smyth rightly appreciates that Paisley is not a rational-legal authority
figure. He has always been a maverick, outside bureaucratic structures,
and he is never judged on the likelihood of his politics working. The author
makes the point neatly in his discussion of the 1977 loyalist strike.
Following the success of the 1974 Ulster Workers' Council stoppage in
destroying the power-sharing executive, Paisley tried it again three years later and failed miserably. This time the government stood firm, the power
workers stayed at work and the effort to force the government to return
devolved government to Northern Ireland fizzled out. But, far from losing
support, the DUP increased its vote at the subsequent local government elections. The explanation is that, although the strike achieved nothing, unionists could see that 'the Big Man tried to do something', that his heart
was in the right place. Where Smyth is misleading is in explaining Paisley's success by
describing him as a charismatic figure. Paisley is certainly a good orator,
works tremendously hard and has a striking personality which commands
great loyalty, but these are qualities of successful representatives of each
of the three types of authority. He owes his political and religious success
not to any innovation but to his clear articulation of what his followers
believe to be the tradition of Ulster Protestant unionism.
Paisley sells his audience a version of the past: a history of great successes when the people were true to the faith, and disasters when they turned away from God?usually misled by treacherous leaders. After
listing the trials of the past, he describes the dangers of the present and tells
___________________Hp^^____________i ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^KmM?<
- ]*?!____________________________________ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^P^k-- '">'V - '_l_l__n_i^_______________________________________i
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^iii__iiiif^^^^^^^^H^_^t ^C-^ l^P ___________ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^KlflBPfHI^^^^^^^^^HPiiF^' &J? ^___________H
^H_________________t^i_ik 13h_____________I
_____________________________________________ii_nHHiiii^^______^^ _________________
_______________________________________________________K7 ^_______B
_______________________________________________________F'- f____^B
____________________________________ >': \*^'- .Hi
___________________________________________________________________________Pl/ ? _?^?M_iM?M,^^^^__________-iii
^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^ iiK^ v<''^^^H^^H_______-Bc_: ____________________________________________________________________!_________! ?__________________HB____B|-L|
ffini^@H|^^B|n|^H^^H|HHHp ?: ^___________________l^ B_M^^^_^___B^^^^^^B^^MI^^Br I_i___tl______W_^__?<
HH9^__^l^^^___H^^^^^^H9HHSHBHH^IflH0 __Hfl__________________________________________________________________^
From generation to generation?Paisley's
granddaughter receives the political faith
his audience to pray that God raise up a great leader for this time of crisis.
He doesn't need to send in his application for the job: if they have bought the history they also endorse Paisley as the man for the hour. Paisley's
appeal is traditional. Unlike the O'Neillites, he does not say 'Our fathers
said ... but I think we should do something different.' Paisley says 'Our
fathers said ... and I say exactly the same thing, so support me as you
supported them.'
Although Smyth wants to explain Paisley's success as resulting from
something other than just an articulation of a popular tradition, he is too
well acquainted with DUP supporters to make the error of Pollak and
Moloney of blaming Ian Paisley for the Ulster crisis. Pollak and Moloney want to believe that things could have been very different and that, had
Paisley shown more Christian courage and virtue, he could have led his
people in a very different direction. They want a villain. Although he
wants to criticise Paisley, Smyth realises that the Big Man is not so much
a leader as a representative?someone who has come to the fore because
he embodies and exemplifies a set of beliefs which are widely shared
amongst Protestants in Ulster. On the odd occasions when he has seemed
to depart from the narrow ground, his followers have called him back.
Other candidates for the voice of Ulster who have failed to heed such
calls?Bill Craig being the most obvious example?have been ditched.
Overall, what is most satisfying about Smyth's book is that, although he has moved some way in both politics and religion from his Paisleyite days, he does not take cheap shots. He is prepared to accept that Paisley does actually believe his evangelical preaching, that he does feel driven to political action by that faith, and that a lot of his support comes from
people who really do believe these things.
Understanding will not of itself produce political progress. It may well
be that nothing which would be counted as progress by all sides is
possible. But the conspicuous failure to understand Paisley and his people shown by British politicians over the last 20 years will not help anybody.
For that reason Smyth's book should be compulsory reading for the
British and Dublin governments and for the British civil service.
Fortnight May 21
This content downloaded from 185.31.195.178 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 13:28:14 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions