Ballycarry in an appeal to Haass

Ballycarry and District community Association made a submission to Mr Haass while he was chairing talks on the past, on flags and parades.

After the close of the initiative, the group has made public extracts from its submission, which expressed the view that unionist communities felt disillusioned at “the current outworkings of the political process”.

The association’s view was that a starting point for moving to the future was “the acceptance of the democratically expressed will of the people that Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom, and that different cultural identities should be respected within the context of a pluralist society”.

Pointing out that the Ballycarry community was 92 per cent single identity, the submission added: “We believe that, as we can contentedly espouse our Ulster Scots identity within Northern Ireland and also accept that we are an integral part of the United Kingdom, other communities such as those who feel a strong Irish cultural identity, should be encouraged to do the same as part of a pluralist society which respects diversity”.

However, they warned: “As a group we would wish to reflect that there is a strong sense within our community of disillusionment with the current outworkings of the political process.

“While only a small portion of people in Ballycarry have taken part in flag protests in the village and surrounding area, there is a much higher proportion who believe that there is an attack on our culture and identity through issues such as the flag vote on Belfast City Council, the republican commemorations in Castlederg and relating to the Shankill bomb, and other similar activity.”

The Ballycarry group told Richard Haass: “We strongly believe that our culture and identity is not being taken sufficient notice of, and that east-west links being developed would be symbolic and a meaningful cultural signal to communities such as ours.

“The frustrations of finding no support from Government for east-west links will continue to, we believe, cause resentment and alienation from the present political process and this in turn will hinder a shared future and indeed has the potential to provide a tipping balance against it.”

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More from the Ballycarry submission It suggested a number of means to encourage Ulster Scots communities in the submission, including through funding streams and development of an Ulster Scots Academy.

“We have no issue with support for Irish language and culture, but we genuinely and sincerely believe that there has been a reluctance at all levels to encourage the development of our Ulster Scots identity in Northern Ireland, something of which we are keenly aware of as one of the early Scottish settlements in 17th century Ulster,” the Association said.

“The past has the potential to be debilitating as we move forward to the future and we believe that the entire community should accept our constitutional position. There is adequate opportunity to safeguard and promote culture within the framework of the United Kingdom. An acceptance of this by everyone will help ensure the future is a positive one for us all,” the submission concluded.