By COLIN MURPHY [Le Monde Diplomatique] – Gary Mitchell was an unlikely playwright. Though “the Troubles” (as the Northern Irish conflict is known) has produced an extensive body of artistic work, none of it has come from where Mitchell comes from. That is an area north of Belfast called Rathcoole. In 1965, when he was born, Rathcoole was an area of mixed religion and social class. But by the mid 1970s the population had fallen by half, and it had become a garrison of working-class (and unemployed) loyalism, dominated by paramilitary organisations such as the Ulster Defence Association, or UDA.
Mitchell’s first encounter with the UDA came in 1974 when he attempted to cross a barricade set up at the entrance to Rathcoole, during the Loyalist Workers’ Strike, in order to visit some friends. “Outside Rathcoole are Taigs,” the UDA told him. “These Taigs will get you and they will hurt you, or worse.”
The “Taigs” were Catholics. Though Mitchell didn’t know any, and his parents held no bias, the Taigs became the bogeymen of his boyhood. And, gradually, “the fear of the bogeyman turned to hatred”.
“When I look back now, the journey is clear: to become a man in that culture, you cast off your fear of the Taig, and you start hating the Taig, and you start plotting against the Taig. The notion of not leaving Rathcoole because you were afraid is transformed into the intention to leave Rathcoole to hurt people, and then rush back into the safety of Rathcoole.”
He eventually tried to join the UDA, but his father, who had previously been a member (and had left, disillusioned by rising criminality), blocked him.
Continued at Le Monde Diplomatique | More Chronicle & Notices.
