Settling with Sectarianism

Sectarianism, like the poor, is always with us. Cardinal O’Brien in Scotland on Sunday, called for an end to the Act of Settlement, a 300 year old piece of legislation that forbids heirs to the throne from marrying Catholics. He felt that its language was demeaning and insulting. James McMillan, on the other hand in the Scotsman, in an article headed ‘Healing Scotland’s Wounds’, issued a progress report on what effects his festival speech of seven years ago, ‘Scotland’s Shame – anti-Catholicism as a barrier to genuine pluralism.’ have produced, suggesting that perhaps a plateau had been reached. He quotes Bishop Tutu, who spoke of opening wounds to cleanse them. Links to these two articles are unavailable.

I have to confess that the indignities allegedly heaped upon me by the continued existence of the Act of Settlement leave me cold, particularly as any question not just of abolition but merely of nudging it into the oblivion it deserves is a London affair as the Cardinal correctly points out and nothing can be done about it. Perhaps an indicator of how deeply entrenched this act is emerged recently when a memo concerning the marriage of Prince Charles to Mrs Parker Bowles suggested that he was free to marry anyone he wished to, including presumably a Moslem or a Buddhist, as long as she was not a Catholic. I’ve been called all the names the Act of Settlement reserves for my beliefs. Sticks and stones. What I find of much more interest is James McMillan’s input into the matter of sectarianism.

He quotes a reaction he received at the beginning of his campaign to rid Scotland of sectarianism. ‘Cro-Magnon Catholics with neo-fascist tendencies, giving succour to the IRA.’ There’s an elegant touch to that, redolent of the spirit, referring to Irish immigration that produced the quote in James Handley’s seminal work, ‘The Irish in Modern Scotland’. ‘The finest manure makes no impact on concrete.’ It supports the findings McMillan recounts that suggest that the sectarianism our neanderthals practice is almost exclusively a matter of power and where possible, control. Libido dominandi is alive and well in our dear green places. I am not sure however that James McMillan has not weakened his case by bending before the wind of other academics he quotes who would shackle irrevocably religious sectarianism to anti-Irish racism. Irish equals Catholic equals Celtic Football Club plc, regardless of its atavistic redolence and attractiveness to some, is an equation that carries no solution with it.

Any progress report like James McMillan’s on such a lively subject as sectarianism does not wait long for reactions, which have proved ready and predictable. Magnus Linklater, journalistic and establishment figure extraordinaire, reported in The Times (August 7) that Cardinal O’Brien’s and McMillan’s arguments are puzzling, as the progress of secularising Scotland moves on unabated and unmoved by comments such as theirs. Published evidence is missing, he claimed, of any overt or even hidden sectarianism. What he does provide though is an excellent example of the St Thomas syndrome.

To deliver the coup de grace to any possible suggestion that the O’Brien/McMillan theses might have a point, Tim Luckhurst once again in The Times, (August 8) presents the case against Catholic schools under the banner, ‘The First Lessons in Bigotry,’ accusing them of entrenching sectarian loathing and describing Scotland’s refusal to get rid of them an act that makes it look barbaric. A good example of The Turntable Syndrome.

James McMillan is right to continue his campaign of stripping off the layers of sectarianism and bigotry that mar our society. In some respects he is a lonely voice, because it is not unknown within the Catholic community to accept the sectarian status quo and be content to wallow in it. Sometimes pulling off a plaster can be as difficult and as painful as lancing a boil. There’s a long hard road a-winding before we can say with Bishop Tutu, ‘We are made for friendliness, for togetherness.’