Irish-American congressmen Richard Neal and Brendan Boyle have made headlines by saying talks should be held on preparing for a border poll. However, as long-term advocates of a united Ireland, it would only be news if they said something else.
More interesting were comments at a meeting last week in Washington between Boyle, the Sinn Féin and DUP leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, and US special economic envoy Joe Kennedy III.
The Sunday Times reported that at this meeting, held to discuss investment opportunities, “it was widely felt that a big roadblock to US investment in the north remained the segregation between its communities creating a volatile base for investors seeking stable partners”.
US congressman Brendan Boyle with his father Francis, a native of Glencolmcille, Co Donegal, at the White House to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. PICTURE: BRENDAN BOYLE/X
To see segregation in Northern Ireland referred to in a business context is something of a surprise, as it is rarely a connection we make in domestic politics.
Dear Michelle and Emma. You’ve done the PR. Now when are you going to tackle public services? – Patrick Murphy
Lay me down, in the hallowed ground, where my father waits...
Sectarian hiring and firing is considered a solved problem – when rare exceptions occur, they are universally condemned. There are equal numbers of Protestants and Catholics in the workforce, according to the Equality Commission. Neutral working environments are not just a legal requirement but a social norm. Any literal segregation in the workplace would be unthinkable.
Yet this undoubted success, achieved over decades, exists against a background of little or no progress on integration elsewhere.
So our message to overseas investors is not to worry about segregated schools, housing, public amenities, cultural practices and sectarian geography in general, because we almost never bring it into work.
- Report says £600,000 per day spent on educational segregation in NIOpens in new window
- https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2023/04/04/news/educ-3182111/Opens in new window
- Newton Emerson: Time for churches to break the deadlock on school segregationOpens in new window
Indeed, so good are we at blanking out these failures while enjoying our workplace truce that we feel no need to explain it to prospective investors. We leave them to figure it out for themselves and take it on trust that our societal divisions will not become their management burden, additional cost or reputational disaster.
Invest NI offers only bland assurances that “Northern Ireland is a great place to live, work, study, visit, invest and do business”. It has nothing to say in its published material on how we combine this with living apart.
Our school system tends to strike outsiders as an obvious division. It causes particular horror to Americans, who associate it with racial segregation in their recent past, as President Obama implied in a 2013 speech in Belfast. US investors must be further concerned by perceptions of schools turning out a segregated workforce. Gauche as it may seem, we should emphasise that our colleges and universities are integrated.
Northern Ireland still has a largely segregated school system, with integrated schools making up only a small part of the sector (Danny Lawson/PA)
US investors may need more reassurance as their own country suffers political polarisation. These deepening divisions, increasingly comparable to sectarianism, have manifested themselves prominently in business and the workplace. Companies, shareholders and staff from shop-floor to boardroom have found themselves on the front-line of culture war battles. Legal protection against political discrimination is underdeveloped; in the private sector it is often non-existent.
US firms wrestling with this at home, or fearful of it, can only feel less inclined to deal with a far more infamously divided society abroad.
First Minister Michelle O'Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly attending the Ireland Funds 32nd National Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. PICTURE: NIALL CARSON/PA (Niall Carson/Niall Carson/PA Wire)
The first and deputy first ministers made a positive impression in Washington last week with a welcome good news story about political progress, but hard-nosed investors want more than fine words and photo opportunities. If Stormont could demonstrate a serious plan to tackle segregation it would transform Northern Ireland’s economic attractiveness.
The executive’s 2013 policy to remove all peace walls in 10 years is an example of what needs to be done, although of course this was not delivered. At the very least, we should give potential investors an honest and detailed appraisal of what has been delivered.
Our message to overseas investors is not to worry about segregated schools, housing, public amenities, cultural practices and sectarian geography in general, because we almost never bring it into work
In a 2022 survey, 44 per cent of American employees said they had avoided a co-worker because of their political beliefs.
Having worked for a US company in the 1990s I have a sense of what a drastic and tragic change this represents. The American workplace culture I experienced was sociable, robust and tolerant. It is bizarre to imagine Northern Ireland might now be an improvement.
We should realise US investors might also find that very hard to believe.
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