Six degrees of separation

Six degrees of separation

Six degrees of separation is the concept that all human beings are six or fewer social connections from each other. It remains one of those theories that is easier to say than it is to prove but there is no doubt that there are connections and ties which link people even when they don’t know about it. I discovered one recently when chatting to a friend.

When I was a skinny teenager and just taking my first steps into adulthood I got into two things which still bring me a lot of happiness; one was supporting Celtic Football Club, a lifelong passion which shows no sign of abating. The other was music and I’m still more likely to be listening to music than watching TV. In my youth music was the medium which spoke to me most about the lives ordinary, working class people lived. Rock against Racism was a movement which arranged concerts large and small in order to bring people together and offer a cultural and political alternative to the rising tide of far right hate groups at the time. This was an era when Eric Clapton foolishly said on stage to a rather astonished audience in Birmingham…

“Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so please put your hands up. So where are you/ well wherever you are I think you should all just leave. not just the hall, leave our country! Listen to me man, I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out, get the coons out, get out. Keep Britain white. The black wogs and the coons and Arabs and the fucking Jamaicans don't belong here, we don't want them here. this is England, this is a white country. We don't want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make that clear to them, they are not welcome. England is for the white people man. This is Great Britain, a white country. What is happening to us for fuck's sake!  Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!'

Musicians of all hues were dismayed at his words. Rock against racism later organised events supported by bands such as the Clash, the Specials, Elvis Costello, the Buzzcocks and Stiff Little fingers. Young people of all ethnicities enjoyed the music together and demonstrated that with the right attitude people can get along. Clapton later apologised for his words but the attitude he expressed in them lingers on in some sections of our society.

One band I enjoyed listening too back then was the Undertones. They hailed from Derry and played an exciting form of rock music with lyrics we could all relate to. In the context of the troubles in the north of Ireland, bands like the Undertones and the Miami Show Band offered young people from all communities a chance to congregate free from the shadow of the chaos and violence around them and just enjoy being young. The Undertones went on to huge chart success across the UK whereas the Miami Show Band was tragically shattered by an act of despicable violence perpetrated by evil men. I saw the Undertones in the old Apollo Theatre in Glasgow when I was 18 and they had the audience literally bouncing along to their songs, from ‘My Perfect Cousin’ to ‘Jimmy Jimmy’ and of course their anthem ‘Teenage Kicks.’ You left concerts like that soaked in sweat but absolutely buzzing.

I read recently some of the fine obituaries written John Hume, a man who lived through poverty, oppression, virtual civil war and yet still clung tenaciously to his belief that non-violence was the only way to mend a broken society. Like the Undertones, John hailed from Derry and saw the brutality of the RUC during the ‘battle of the Bogside.’  A report into that struggle stated that the Police were guilty of ‘assault and battery, malicious damage and use of provocative sectarian and political slogans.’ There seemed to be no hope of reform or compromise with a state which condoned a minister in the government who said things such as….

'There were a great number of Protestants and Orangemen who employed Roman Catholics. He felt he could speak freely on this subject as he had not a Roman Catholic about his own place (Cheers). He appreciated the great difficulty experienced by some of them in procuring suitable Protestant labour, but he would point out that the Roman Catholics were endeavouring to get in everywhere and were out with all their force and might to destroy the power and constitution of Ulster. ... He would appeal to loyalists, therefore, wherever possible to employ good Protestant lads and lassies.'

                                    Sir Basil Brooke, later Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

"I suppose I am about as high up in the Orange Institution as anybody else. I am very proud indeed to be Grand Master of the loyal County of Down. I have filled that office many years, and I prize that far more than I do being Prime Minister. I have always said I am an Orangeman first and a politician and Member of this Parliament second.
                                     

                                           Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland

That is the society John Hume was born into. In his home city the nationalist population outnumbered unionists almost 2-1 yet the city corporation was gerrymandered so that the unionists always had a majority of councillors. Discrimination in jobs, housing and of course in democracy itself led eventually to the civil rights movement being formed to demand change. Hume was of course involved in the civil rights movement and always argued that it should be non-violent. The wilder elements of loyalism, including some in the police, reacted violently to the civil rights marches and the simmering tensions rose. John Hume also saw the murderous actions of the British Army when they shot dead 14 and wounded many others on Bloody Sunday. When a senior British Officer apologised years later saying he accepted that all the dead were unarmed and innocent, Hume responded with the withering words, ‘then why were they shot?’

The descent into the abyss of violence which engulfed Northern Ireland seemed to sweep more moderate voices aside but Hume never stopped trying to facilitate talks between the warring factions and tried to be the voice of reason on some of the darkest days of the troubles. He and others like him prevailed in the end but only after a sickening toll of death and destruction. His passing is rightly marked with a host of obituaries praising a life well lived. As he said of himself, ‘I never thought in terms of being a leader, I thought very simply in terms of helping people.’

But what of the six degrees of separation I mentioned in the first sentences of this article? Well, John Hume grew up at a time when banks wouldn’t consider lending money to anyone in the impoverished community he grew up in so he and a few friends founded the Derry Credit Union to loan money to those who needed it to improve their life chances. They had under £9 between them at the start but the Derry credit union, the first in the six counties, grew till it had 30,000 members. He once said that founding the credit union gave him more pleasure than the Nobel Peace prize he received with David Trimble.

Among those who borrowed money from the Derry Credit Union was Billy Docherty a hopeful young drummer with a band initially called the Hot Rods. He borrowed £200 to buy a decent drum kit and keep the band going. Lead singer Feargal Sharkey suggested they change the band’s name to the Little Feat but eventually Billy Doherty suggested they settle on the name the Undertones. Had the Derry Credit Union not existed then Billy Doherty might not have got his drum kit and the Undertones might have fizzled out like so many other young hopefuls in the music industry. Had that happened I wouldn’t have had such a great night at the old Apollo all those years ago.It goes to show the inter-connectedness of human beings and all we seek to do.

John Hume’s lifetime saw some dramatic changes in his home city and his country. He knew one important truth though and that is that people need to learn to live together and accept differences in culture and outlook. He said…

‘Difference is the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be a source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies the most fundamental principle of peace; respect for diversity.’

That respect between the different cultures in Ireland is the key to a peaceful future. A generation has grown up free from the fear and turmoil of the past. There can be no return to the bad old days. John Hume’s greatest legacy is that he and others like him never gave up hope that peace was possible. He said as the Good Friday Agreement was formalised….

‘Let’s work together and build together, and as we do that the real solution will began. The real healing process will begin and we will erode the distrust of the past.’

Real unity has little to do with which flag is up the flag pole; rather it is the people from all communities working together for the common good.

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