One thing that the twin forms of nationalism on this island have in common is that both eschew a sense of identity with nonhuman nature.
On a walk through Loyalist communities before this year’s 12th of July celebrations I was struck by the extent to which the murals and many of the flags are of a militarist nature and embrace Britain’s colonial past in particular the wars it fought not only in defence of the British Isles but of its empire. Nowhere did I see any indication that the Loyalist / Unionist identity encompassed a love of nonhuman nature.
Military victories and perceived military triumphs are celebrated in word and image but no homages are paid to nature as in depictions of woodlands, lakes, rivers and the animals we share the island with. I saw no reference to the four seasons that affect the annual cycle of our lives or even to the food we produce. These it seems don’t have a place in the sense of what it means to be a Loyalist / Unionist.
As in Loyalists communities the murals and flags in Irish nationalist communities are overwhelming militarist with a notable absence of depictions that express an affinity with the greater nature we are an integral part of. In the broader field of communal identity none of the main political parties, both North and South, other than the Green Party, have shown any interest in the welfare of the natural world until very recently.
Further, when ecological issues are on the agenda be it the decline of biodiversity, water pollution or the warming of the planet, one thing the main political parties agree on is that nothing must get in the way of economic growth as measured by GDP. This is their most sacred of sacred cows.
If this were otherwise we would not have had the Northern Ireland Assembly’s 2014 ‘Going For Growth Strategy’ in regard to the Agri-Food industry which has played a pivotal role in the blue-green algae that has devastated marine life on Lough Neagh, Lough Erne and other bodies of water.
If the national identity of people in Northern Ireland encompassed the biological reality that we are the very essence of what constitutes nature, and that nonhuman nature has intrinsic moral worth, the N.I. Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) would not have had to issue a report in mid-June informing us that in the past five years over 50,000 fish were killed as a result of 65 reported pollution incidents.
The DAERA figures for fish kills in Northern Ireland over the past five years are as follows. Farming accounts for 43% of fish kill incidents, 16% of pollution incidents are classified as other, 10% are attributed to industrial and chemical incidents, 4% to domestic incidents and 3% to Northern Ireland Water. The biological condition of waterways in the South of Ireland differs little from that in the North as illustrated by the case that in the 1980s, 500 rivers in the Republic were classified as pristine compared with 20 today.
These figures suggest that while some sectors of society are more responsible for the pollution of our waterways than others we all have a part to play in ensuring rivers, lakes and loughs are free from pollution by not dropping litter, not flushing sanitary products down the toilet, not pouring oils and paints into drains and not using toxic chemicals on pets as flea treatments.
If our sense of identity were as embracing of nature as that of Christ in Saint Patrick’s Breastplate Prayer (of ancient origin) then it is almost certain that the enormity of our ecological problems would be much less than what they are. Replacing the word ‘Christ’ with the word ‘Nature’ the prayer reads:
“Nature with me. Nature before me. Nature behind me. Nature beneath me. Nature above me. Nature on my Right. Nature on my left. Nature when I lie down. Nature when I sit down. Nature when I arise.”
Nature is all encompassing. It includes the estimated 38 trillion microbes that live on our skin to the entire cosmos. The minerals which compose the human body were formed on the occasion of the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago. The moisture in our bodies, we are 70% water, originates on the Earth. Some of the clouds you once gazed at could be in your veins having fallen as rain into a river or lough from where you draw your drinking water.
If a significant number of people lived life in the full knowledge that humans are nature then legislation rooted in this view would likely come into effect. We would be inclined to design the type of social and physical infrastructure that enables us to live rewarding useful lives in an ecologically sustainable way. Aware that all life-forms have interests, live in community and like us have an invested interest in the health of our shared, complex and vibrant ecosystem, we world likely treat all life with respect on all occasions.
It is apt when taking stock of our situation in this summer of extremely high temperatures, devastating forest fires, water-use restrictions and the large number of deaths attributed to the high temperatures to examine the mosaic of features that make up our sense of national identity. There would be no greater legacy if nationalists of every hue ditched the militarist component of their identity and internalised our defining feature which is that we are Nature.
Internalising this sense of ourselves would provide us with a life-affirming perspective from which to challenge the orthodoxy that economic growth triumphs over the integrity of ecological systems and social justice. If we don’t come to realise our sense of place in the larger picture and re-engineer the fundamentals of how we live we will inevitably discover that the biosphere can’t indefinitely satisfy our appetite for more and more things and that valuing military prowess over caring for the biosphere is utterly futile.
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