Mr. Chris Swain:

I have heard a lot and I am really impressed by Dr. Devlin's analysis. It is the first time I have heard the term "hybrid identity". Identity and understanding identity in Northern Ireland is the key to this. In my presentation I talked about language and its importance. I talked about the very genuine fear in my community, the unionist community, of a united Ireland. In my introduction I did not talk of this but I said that in understanding that fear, the clue is in the name. The unionist raison d'êtreis the union. Unionism will cease to exist in a united Ireland. That is why there is so much fear. Unionism is an identity but Britishness is a greater identity. It would be true to say every unionist is British but it not true to say that every British identity is a unionist. Here is one example: I am British, I am Irish. I think I live in the most fortunate part of the world because I can hold both those identities. Neither one eclipses or diminishes the other and my life is the richer for them both. Language is important and understanding Britishness as opposed to unionism. I did a little research before I made my submission. I went onto the UK Government website. There are 277,000 British people living in southern Ireland. That is greater than the DUP vote. Are they less British because they live in a place called Ireland? I do not think that they are. Then with the Irish people and Irish identity, the Irish diaspora is well known and understood but an Irishman living in Cork, Crossmaglen, Chicago or Coventry is Irish. As a British person, I can be British whether I am living in Belfast or Ballina. One of the things that I have observed when I have been talking to people from my community is when unionists get invitations to talk about a new Ireland, a shared Ireland and a future Ireland, a redness descends because they realise that conversation is about their extinction. If those conversations are directed to British people and to British identity, British identity is a global thing. When I am talking to my unionist friends I pose the question: will Nicola Sturgeon be any less British if Scotland achieves independence? She will not. That is the point that I would like to make.