100 Years of Partition: Craigavon, Hauntology, and the Orange State

A few miles south of Lough Neagh lies a city that never existed. A loose collection of houses, shopping centres and public buildings mark the site of Craigavon. With construction beginning in 1965, Craigavon was intended to be the heart of a new linear city incorporating Lurgan and Portadown, a new metropolis for the Orange State. Named for the first Prime Minister of the northern statelet, James Craig, the man to whom the quote “A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People” is attributed, about half of what was planned was never built, and of what was built, some had to be demolished after becoming empty and derelict. In a way, it has become a metaphor for the six counties itself, an arbitrary geographical and political unit that does not work, haunted by the Orange State.

As we look back on over a hundred years of partition, we primarily see one hundred years of two failed states. In the North, the issues that directly led to the civil unrest of the 20th century, such as the sectarian nature of housing, are still as prevalent now as they were in 1969, with 20,000 homeless households, 82% of whom come from a nationalist background. The landscape of post-98 politics may have brought an end to the majority of armed violence, but the much vaunted Peace Process has enshrined the sectarian nature of the state into international law, codifying the unionist veto through the power sharing executive in Stormont. Meanwhile, the state maintains an armed and militarised police force with special powers provided by Section 21 of the Justice Security Act, as well as non-Jury Diplock Courts.

I would be remiss if I did not also mention the other partitionist state on this island, the Free State in the southern 26 counties. This model of a modern neo-liberal client-state is the darling of international capital, boasting core European values like 210,363 children living in poverty and more than 660,000 people in poverty in 2020, over 210,000 of whom are children. The continuing erosion of Irish neutrality by overtures to NATO, the persistent use of Shannon Airport by the US military to service its imperial interests, and the continued integration of the Defence Forces and An Garda Síochána into the European security state through PESCO all represent massive threats to our sovereignty, and our ability to chart our own course in the world in the face of rising geopolitical tensions.

It remains to be seen if provision for a border poll in the Good Friday Agreement will facilitate reunification. An airtight argument that it can bypass the so-called Imperialist Triple-Lock British, EU, US imperialism has yet to be presented, and the terms and ultimate settlement of any border poll provided by the GFA would ultimately be decided from London. However, not engaging in a campaign for a border poll could prove short-sighted given the momentum Sinn Féin have built up on both sides of the border.

Border poll or no border poll, what is certain is that without a mass mobilization and the creation of a broad social movement directed towards reunification and the smashing of the failed states on both sides of the border, the new Ireland will never come to pass, and we will continue to be at the mercy of the imperialists and robbers. While 62% of the population of this island would support reunification, the political establishment fears opening the door to new potentialities of reality and political economy.

Too often reunification is viewed through a lens distinctly lacking in imagination and vision, with the Free State simply absorbing the northern state, with Germany often stated as an example to follow by Irish analysts. This misses the opportunity re-unification provides to imagine a new Ireland, the smashing of the two failed states, new ways of politics, of running the economy, being able to imagine a future for ourselves and generations to come. We do not have to be under the boot of the Brits, European imposed austerity, or Yank imperialism. We can chart our own course into the future. We can build a socialist republic for the 21st century, and we can confine the Orange State to history, as a dusty curio, just like Craigavon.