I tried checking it out on ChatGPT and couldn’t find it, but I am pretty sure that somewhere in the files of the Derry Journal, there is a quote where the DUP MP for East Derry, Gregory Campbell, told a journalist – might even have been me – in the most trenchant of terms that no way was he Irish, not under any circumstances. 

He was British. No discussion. 

In recent coverage of his somewhat public set-to with President Catherine Connolly during her first official visit to Derry, he stated “you’re in our country” and later chided her for not using the term Londonderry.

And, as if to emphasise further his British identity, he added that Northern Ireland would not be leaving the UK now or in the future. 

Denis Bradley: Thank you John Taylor for transforming the Irish unity debate

Rather than get into a verbal spat, Connolly responded quietly that she was there to listen. But Gregory’s outburst was very telling in its own way. 

It is hardly groundbreaking for me to state that this need for a rather strident emphasis on identity is at the very heart of unionism’s collective anxiety.

It can often manifest itself as unnecessarily aggressive – union flags everywhere, footpaths painted red, white and blue, the frequent need for unionist politicians or pundits to proclaim that while they are on the island of Ireland, they are not of it, not Irish. 

It’s a hard sell.

Most of my in-laws........

© The Irish News