Does the Belfast Agreement offer the Protestant community in this State an opportunity to reinvent itself as a vibrant political and social force in the life of the nation? That was one of the issues up for discussion at a conference held in Monaghan last weekend. It was organised by the Border Minority Group, which was formed earlier this year to bring together two Protestant associations based in Cavan and Monaghan.
The funding came from the Ulster Scots Agency, the Northern Ireland wing of the cross-Border language body set up under the Belfast Agreement, and from the Department of the Taoiseach.
There was a strong presence from Northern Ireland, although one of best received speeches came from Donal Barrington, chairman of the new Human Rights Commission in this State. Among other things, Judge Barrington alluded to David Trimble's Nobel Peace Prize speech, and wondered whether this part of the island might be described as having been a cold house for Protestants.
A number of the delegates spoke from their own experience of living as members of a small minority along the Border. In some ways, the experience seemed similar to that of Catholics living on the other side of the Border. After Partition, these Protestants felt that they had been cut off from their natural hinterland and abandoned by their co-religionists. They also felt that their Catholic neighbours held them responsible for the fact that the country had been divided.
These emotional ties to the rest of Ulster are still very strong and have been complicated in a number of ways by the Troubles of the past 30 years. At the most obvious level, many Border Protestants felt that they were blamed for the violence in the North, particularly if this came from the British army or the RUC.
This had the effect of making them increasingly isolated from their neighbours and often frightened as well, given the level of local support for the IRA. One man told me how much it had meant to him when a close neighbour, a farmer like himself, called to express his sympathy for the attack on the congregation in an evangelical hall in Darkley.
For the most part, it just seemed sensible to keep one's head down and say nothing. Most of the speakers were careful to emphasise that they have not experienced institutional discrimination in this State. But there is also a perception that, at least in the past, Protestants were denied a fair share of jobs and other resources because they were, inevitably, outside the political loop which is so important in Ireland.
What came across strongly, particularly when the conference broke up into workshops, was how excluded they feel, politically and socially. Not surprisingly, one of the issues that most concerns them is the reluctance and/or real obstacles that lie in the way of Protestants becoming involved in local and national politics.
This means that these Protestants feel they have no structures through which to express their grievances or, as important, to access the resources which could enable them to develop confidence as a community.
Here are just a very few of the issues about which they expressed concern: the lack of representation on vocational school boards and other bodies; a history curriculum which does not recognise the Irish Protestant experience, unless it happens to fit neatly into a nationalist perspective; ditto the virtual exclusion of artefacts from the broad Protestant community in the various national museums; the difficulty of getting funds for organisations which reflect their traditions, for example the many and various bands that abound in the Border areas.
"We've no leadership" was a cry that went up several times. "Nonsense, you are the leadership of this community, that's why you're here. It's time to face up to your responsibilities," the leader of our workshop, who came from Belfast, said briskly. He could have pointed to Derry and Raphoe Action as evidence of what can be done by a Protestant community on this side of the Border.
The group was set up by Dr Mehaffy, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry, whose diocese spans both sides of the Border. The chairman of the group, a Donegal man, Jim Devenney, has talked to small Protestant congregations in Derry and Tyrone and has been shocked by their sense of alienation and very real fears about their future, particularly if this turns out to be within a united Ireland.
Jim Devenney believes passionately that the Belfast Agreement, under which the Irish Government pledges itself to nurture respect for the different traditions on the island, offers an important opportunity. But he goes much further in his desire to build on the strong ties that have always existed between those living in the Border counties and their co-religionists in the rest of Ulster.
He told me: "The Government should use us as a bridge to the unionists. If they were able to see a prosperous and politically confident Protestant community in Donegal and Monaghan, it would go a long way towards reassuring them about the future."