The unionist community is showing signs of suspicion, aggression, and withdrawal, a psychologist working in Belfast explains to Róisín Ingle
As a member of an ethnic minority in Northern Ireland, the psychology of people who feel themselves excluded has always interested Dr Raman Kapur, chief executive of the mental health charity Threshold.
Dr Kapur, who was born in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, to Indian parents, says that altering the besieged mindset of the Protestant community is vital. Fear of extinction among the unionist community spawned the school protest in the Ardoyne Road, he believes.
"When a group feels its very survival is threatened, that is very serious," he says. "When they think their time is up they feel cornered and then they retaliate. The Glenbryn residents were sending out a signal. They might regret they did it, but they weren't just speaking for the working class. Their protest articulated what a lot of unionists are feeling at the moment."
It was, he continues, a clumsy way of saying, "we are frightened of extinction, we are frightened of losing our territory.
"Generally, the loyalist communities were reflecting the fears and anxieties in the middle-class unionist community that the security of the past is going to be taken away." Dr Kapur also believes unionists harbour a fear that the sins of the past will come back to haunt them.
"They know they did not use power wisely; they didn't treat Catholics well and now that some of those people they abused are in positions of power they fear they will not be treated well by them and that their sins of the past will be repaid.
"The security of the past for Protestants meant money and jobs earmarked for people without any equality or merit system. The newly-introduced systems which provide such equality are scaring the pants off the unionist community. There is a fear, not that it will be a cold house, but that it will be a freezer."
Three psychology traits can be found in the unionist community, according to Dr Kapur. They are high levels of suspicion; aggression and hostility, and withdrawal into a state of extinction.
"The only way these problems can be alleviated among a group which perceives itself to be an endangered species is by giving these people a "good experience", he says.
"But the problem with that is, because they are suspicious, when you try to do that they will think it is a con or a trick. To them, the peace process was a trick, some kind of articulate game-plan drawn up to shaft the Protestant community.
'We need to create a climate where people are less suspicious, more trusting and less withdrawn. The critical thing is to talk to the leaders. We have to set up situations where they are helped to articulate their views.
"For some in that community, dialogue is a sign of being weak but then they look at nationalists being so articulate and there is a fear from the unionist side of losing the argument."
Threshold has been successfully piloting "encounter groups" where people from both sides of the community come to talk face-to-face about their problems. This kind of activity, says Dr Kapur, is crucial if inclusion is to be achieved. He believes the British government has been piecemeal in its approach to improving community relations.
"Even after 30 years of this there has never been an infrastructure set up such as the one we have for cancer services, for example. This is a psychological cancer; we need to get into the nitty gritty language of Paddy saying to Billy: 'Why should I show you any understanding, you never showed me any. I had to fight for everything?' And Billy saying to Paddy: 'So, does that mean my time is up and you are going to get rid of me now'?"
He adds: "It will take a lot of intensive work to give people the positive experience that these groups can produce. There is no point being surprised when something like Glenbryn erupts because these are the day-to-day relations in Northern Ireland. We don't know how to include people, we never have, but we are going to have to learn."