(14) Reinforcing Powerlessness - CAIN - University of Ulster

“Defenders of the Cruthin myth...”When reviewing a new edition of Estyn Evan’s The Personality of Ireland, Jonathan Bellof the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum felt it necessary to add:Defenders of the Cruthin myth would not find comfort in Evans, however. He isdeterminedly against racist or ethnic explanations. He is a supporter of culturalexchange and enrichment. His views are in fact close to those espoused by manypeople working in the area of cultural traditions. Differences between north andsouth should be seen as “a potential source of enrichment through cross-fertilisation... To achieve this ... one should first look towards the renewal of regionalconsciousness in the old province of Ulster.” 13This is blatant misrepresentation. As Bell draws no distinction between those (Adamsonand myself) who have done most to promote popular awareness of the Cruthin, and thosewho have abused our efforts for sectarian interests, I can only assume that Adamson andI are considered among those “defenders of the Cruthin myth” whom Bell claims “wouldnot find comfort in Evans.” According to Bell, then, we are engaged in promoting a racisttheory, one which is opposed to cultural exchange and enrichment, and which denies thebenefits of cross-fertilisation. This type of pretend analysis and sweeping insinuation isthe type of approach we normally expect from the assortment of armchair intellectualswho care little of what we are really saying, but gleefully jump onto the anti-Cruthinbandwagon. Bell, on the other hand, should be familiar enough with our books to realisewhat it is we are promoting, and that we have actually quoted Evans in support of ourwork. Indeed, the quote from Evans which Bell singles out is also one we have usedapprovingly in our own material!Considerations of space do not permit me to counter such misrepresentation here.However, I feel it presents an ideal opportunity for readers to judge for themselves thequality of these ‘critiques’. Readers should read a copy of Adamson’s The UlsterPeople 14 or my pamphlet Ulster’s Shared Heritage 15 , and then decide whether what weare saying bears any relation to such claims that we are promoting racism and denyingcultural enrichment. Having done this, perhaps the reader might then spend a momentreflecting upon the motives of those who constantly endeavour to misrepresent our work.One curious aspect of Bell’s criticism was his mention of those “working in the areaof cultural traditions” by way of comparison, almost implying that they are a differentbreed of people from the so-called “defenders of the Cruthin”. This is to completelyignore the fact that Adamson and I were endeavouring to stimulate cross-communityawareness of our shared cultural traditions long before it became the flavour of themonth among our academic establishment, and certainly long before the appearance ofthe lucrative funding which finally dragged our academics down from their ivory towerswhere for so long they had managed to pretend that our communal tragedy was noconcern of theirs.“Quite wilfully annoying...”One tactic often employed when implying that Adamson and I are simply misrepresentinghistory is for our critics to feign exasperation at our ‘distortions’, such as Pádraig ÓSnodaigh does, when, referring to Ian Adamson’s contribution to a collection of essays26