Are you a real Trekkie? If so, you’ll know the answer to the following question: which was the only episode of Star Trek ever banned in Ireland and Britain – and why?
Star Trek is many things, but is it really so incendiary as to be worthy of censorship?
The twelfth episode in the third series of Star Trek: The Next Generation was banned in this part of the world and never shown on terrestrial television in Britain or Ireland. That’s because in that episode Commander Data, musing on terrorism in the year 2364, noted that Ireland had been reunited in 2024.
This episode was due to be aired here and in Britain in 1990 but was pulled by the censors in both jurisdictions.
The question is whether Commander Data’s time horizon is right? And if it is even out by a decade or two, could the Irish economy support the North?
I say “support” because the Northern economy is incapable of supporting itself. If Northern Ireland were asked to pay for itself tomorrow, its budget deficit would be close to 20 per cent of GDP simply to keep the lights on. It has become a type of concubine economy, living off the largesse of Westminster and the home counties.
The easiest way to assess the impact of the Union on the Northern economy is to compare the economies of the North and the South. In fact, the border gives us a lovely economic experiment. Take two systems in one country and examine the results; a bit like West Germany versus East Germany or, God forbid, North Korea versus South Korea.
A cursory glance at the performance of the Northern Irish economy since 1922 suggests that the Union has been an economic disaster for all the people of Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, Unionist and Nationalist. They’ve all been impoverished by the Union and this shows no sign of letting up.
If we go back to 1920, 80 per cent of the industrial output of the entire island of Ireland came from the three counties around Belfast. It was an industrial region with northern entrepreneurs and inventors at the forefront of industrial innovation.
By 1911, Belfast was the biggest city in Ireland, with a population of close to 400,000. In the 50 years up to the creation of Northern Ireland, Belfast was the fastest growing city in all of these islands. And in 1920 it was by far the richest part of the island.
In contrast, the rest of the Irish economy was agricultural and backward and the only manufacturing we had could be termed a ‘beer and biscuits economy’, dominated by the likes of Guinness and Jacobs.
Fast forward to now and we see the shocking collapse of the once-dynamic Northern economy versus that of the Republic. Having been a fraction of the North’s at independence, the Republic’s industrial output is now ten times greater than that of Northern Ireland. Exports from the Republic are €89 billion while from the North, exports are a paltry €6 billion. This obviously reflects multinationals, but it also underscores just how far ahead is the Republic’s industrial base.
Producing 15 times more exports underscores a vast difference in terms of the globalisation of business.
The total size of the Republic’s economy is now four times that of the North, even though the labour force is not even two-and-a-half times bigger.
In terms of income per head, the Republic is now almost twice as rich per person as the North. The average income per head in the Republic is €39,873, while it languishes at €23,700 up north.
While we will have to come up with new figures to get a true picture of national income, the end figure is likely to tell a similar story.
The differing fortunes of North and South can be easily seen in the fact that, having been smaller than Belfast at the time of partition, the population of the greater Dublin area is now almost three times bigger than the greater Belfast metropolitan region.
Obviously there are significant differences in terms of prices, access to public services and housing between the two parts of the island. But the fact remains that the Union has been an economic calamity for everyone in the North. Think about that figure of the North having to borrow 20 per cent of GDP every year just to maintain today’s living standards. If the North were asked to pay for itself tomorrow, living standards would plummet. In contrast, the Republic should have a balanced budget by 2018.
The comparison between both jurisdictions is made more significant by the fact that economically the North was, at one stage, so far ahead of the South. So where does that leave us?
Well, in the distant past, there was good reason to believe that the Union preserved living standards in the North, but this is a myth and has not been the case since 1990 – the year Star Trek was banned. Indeed, the end of the Troubles, which should have marked the resurgence of the relative performance of the North, has actually delivered the opposite.
Relative to the South, the Northern economy has fallen backwards since the guns were silenced. If there was an economic peace dividend, it went south.
All the while, the demographic forces are on the side of nationalism.
As I write, I am looking at demographics in Northern Ireland from the 2011 census.
The most interesting statistic shows the proportion of Catholics and Protestants in various age groups. Of the elderly, (those over 90) in the North, 64 per cent are Protestant and 25 per cent are Catholic. A total of 9 per cent had no declared religion.
But when you look at children born since 2008, the picture changes dramatically. This corresponding figure is 31 per cent Protestant and 44 per cent Catholic.
In one (admittedly very long) lifetime, the Catholic population in the youngest cohort has nearly doubled, while the Protestant cohort has more than halved.
The numbers don’t lie. The question is whether Ireland wants the North.
Conor Cruse O’Brien noted that the Unionists’ last battle will not be with Irish nationalists but will be with English nationalists.
Could it also be that the Northern nationalists’ last battle will not be with the British, but with Southern public opinion?
Wouldn’t it be strange if Commander Data was partially right after all? Then again, that was science fiction, wasn’t it?
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Best episode of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ is ‘The Inner Light’.
I disagree on one central point. NI has not been improvrished by union with Britain. If anything it has been continually kept from falling into the abyss. NI has been impovrished by sectarian conflict which drive intelligent people out, and that freezes in place a psychology that is plain stupid. There is more than merely a border seperating the 6 from the 26. There is a completely different mentality. Pragmatism is always secondary to pomposity. Apart from the ethnic divide (with religion painted on top to pretend that there is moral justification), NI is racked with an extremely divisive and… Read more »
By god they had it good for a long timer and the arrogance was something else.
In the seventies I remember trying to develop a product and couldn’t get supplies from a English company because they has a plant in Derry and those boys up there weren’t going to let us get off our knees.
Another, instance where components purchased from a English company but supplied form an NI plant were deliberately contaminated so as to fail in short time.
Oh! for globalization and the liberation it has given us – none of these companies exist today and good riddance.
The real power in the current Dail, lies with the liar who pretended to object to Ahernism, after Ahernism bankrupted Ireland – but who only found out that objected, after the people turned aggressively against Ahernism. In other words current FF don, Micheal Martin. The man who never knew the devleoper’s money was resting in the wife’s account. Therein lies a massive potential for policy making disaster. And the people did NOT vote for this. 80% of the voters did not vote for the brown envelope clique to be in charge of the country. But, by a rather frightening set… Read more »
In the midst of all of this, is a fearful, entrenched, often myopic Protestant (mostly Presbyterian) working class section, that is always closer to Scotland than either England or ther neighbours in Ireland. Weakened from within by a belief in the value of cheap food, and expensive motors, they are facing a definite crisis. The danger is that political big mouthing in Kildare Street, by politicians seeking to divert attention from their complicity in over-larding (no spelling mistake) the institional state, might be driven to do something negative and nasty. The orange family are facing serious problems that are mostly… Read more »
I think as time had moved on, with improving education and demographics in the Republic, there is a realisation that we do not want to unite with a dependent, backward economy and people like Northern Ireland.
I believe, and I may be wrong, but the majority of the electorate in the Republic are ‘ unionists ‘ now I.e. W dont want Ni back cos we can’t /don’t want to pay for it.
“If the north were asked to pay for itself tomorrow ” it would be sorted out very quickly indeed. We’d immediately find out who wants to live there. The answer is of course the Protestants.
Bring it on, the sooner the better.
Having returned from an almost mystically beautiful weekend in Cork City, I’ve been trying to process the whole trip: following in the footsteps of Michael Collins, reflecting on 1916, whilst juggling with Brexit debates as I traipsed the banks of the River Lee. Beneath the enjoyment of the summer sunshine I sensed real anxiety when chatting to the denizens of ‘rebel Cork’. They know something’s not right but they haven’t quite put their finger on it. Yet….. The English are NOT going to put up with all this nonsense from the Sturgeon, Kenny & Martin as they parade around Brussels… Read more »
The only other place besides the United States where anti-science “Christian” fundamentalism has a hold is NI. Not good. What kind of citizens would these fundamentalist make?
So the republic didn’t need that bail out?
If anyone can prove to me that the average citizen of ni is half as well off as the average southerner, I will very happily eat my hat.
Just as obviously, the north throughout the first seventy years was wealthier than the republic, so to say it’s been worse from the start is not true.
Hi David, I think when you used the word Union you meant to use the word partition. Belfast was flying it in 1920 and the Union was 119 years old at that stage. A northern Unionist might be forgiven for thinking if the South rejoined the UK the glory days might return but he would be mistaken. It’s not just the north that has seen its industrial heartland devastated (as the UK switched to services and banking) it’s basically anywhere outside the greater London area and this was most notably felt in the north. Eire is wealthier is it? Ask… Read more »
“Let that be your last battlefield”
The ST episode that says it all about NI.
The only thing NI has to fear from the South is that we are Not Interested.
It is ironic but the future of Northern Ireland is in the hands of Scottish voters. When the inevitable re-vote on Scotland’s membership of the UK occurs, an ‘’in’’ or ‘’out’’ vote will also determine whether the northern six counties of Ireland can remain in the UK or be forced to negotiate entry into the 26 county Irish Republic. I say that because it is difficult to see how the present Northern Ireland could remain in a union with England without Scotland, even if the English people wanted it, which cannot be discounted because of their long occupation of this… Read more »
Having Northern Ireland go cold turkey is simple not an option, either for a reunified Ireland or for the remaining UK. Ireland and the UK will have to work closely together in the decade after a vote for reunification. The UK will be moral obliged to provide assistance given the dire state of the economy in NI. But one must see opportunities also, even within the seemly bleak prospects David paints. For instance the 20% may not be reflective of the budgetary position of a reunified NI in the short term, in that while NI remains part of the UK… Read more »
At the end of the analysis, talk of a merger between the two state systems is an illusion. One lives off transfers from Westminster, and the other off endless borrowing. Both are currently unsustainable, over-extended, inefficient, ineffective operations. Merging them would trigger too many difficult questions of the public sector in the RoI, and the private sector in NI to the point of laying bare the level of pretence about both states. Neither the RoI or NI are capable of living within their means, or of exercising restraint. One produces a squeezed private sector. The other produces a labour training… Read more »
The cute hoor perspective on this. The South holds a plebiscite on a United Ireland and votes against it with a significant majority and a high turnout. This would make the people of NI realise that a United Ireland is not a given at their behest and that they need to find out why and take corrective. Anybody with a brain in their head up there should be planning now for a future united Ireland or at least the option. Were they to that they might discover that as a result of getting their house in order they don’t need… Read more »
David, you tells us ‘The question is whether Ireland wants the North’. Does this reflect your default view or are you being deliberately provocative? Ireland compromises the North, South, East and West – the above and the below – the past present and future.
Wherein you have a single state system on the island, you need a state system that can effectively function. Emotive button pressing, following the alure of bigness, engaging in guilt trips and rabble rousing will not make anything function better. And thereby it will not solve anything. In the context of an independent TD raising 115 issues in the Dail with the respect to admin and operational problems in the HSE, we seem to have a state system that is already badly focussed, and not very accountable to citizens. Ministers also perform a lot of the same tasks. The Taoiseach… Read more »
This endless debt and money printing scheme is in reality a solution in search of a problem. Or, perhaps if central bankers were a more honest bunch, they would tell you the BOJ is using the growth excuse to tackle the real issue: Japan’s tax base can no longer service its debt.
The debts can not be paid.
The welfare state can not be afforded
After people become dependent on handouts (subsidies for the cost of living) they become liabilities.
It applies all over the world not just to N.Ireland
http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/japan%E2%80%99s-lemming-syndrome
The northern Ireland economy has been destroyed along with all the western manufacturing centers as the production of “Things” moved east and the west went to a service economy and one relying upon financial assets. Or where the rich get richer and the rest stagnate. The central cause of this is the adoption since 1971 of unlimited paper/digital money supplied in ever increasing quantities, i.e. quantitative easing. This money is backed by nothing and issued as a debt. In the UK it resulted in the burgeoning of the financial center of London and the South East and the demise, economically,… Read more »
Well argued article David. As you said, the numbers don’t lie. Conor Cruise O’Brien (having stood as a Unionist MP in N. Ireland) concluded his foray into Northern Irish politics by saying that Unionism’s best hope was to negotiate a united Ireland from their current position of relative strength before demographics and English nationalism outflanked them.
The real problem for our electorate would be the almost total body politic being in the For camp.
Who will provide the counter arguments.
Someone should ask Suds which way should we vote.
Bertie, who is chomping at the bit to launch his presidential, would see it as manns from heaven. Warp factor 9.999999999 Uhooryah
here we go. A Not quite Brexit proposal. I hope the UK is not suckered.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/24/brexit-deal-free-movement-exemption-seven-years
Hi all,
I know I am off topic but I think something really weird is happening in the markets. Some of the indexes are making new highs in a momentum divergence reality. Gold is correcting down as is oil and silver. Dbank is still going down. I’s say something big is happening. Soros is short DB, long gold and short the indexes. Really scary stuff.
Michael.
The first thing to worry about is yourself. then contemplate the travails of Northern Ireland etc.
http://dailyreckoning.com/get-gold-wagon-10000/
The north is an economic basket case? But where isn’t. And so what? The economy is not as it is because of particular characteristics of the people who happen to live there. Let’s not forget that we, the average Joes, have been on the receiving end of decades of economic/class warfare, and that the north is no exception, despite its special historical circumstance and present day political complexity. We know that economic reportings are works of fiction and that their primary purpose is to maintain the status quo of enabling the maximizing of wealth and power to special interest groups… Read more »
Daithi7: you wrote above “A more likely scenario imho is that if Scotland vote to leave the UK, then the UK, NI and the EU would have to negotiate how NI migrates from being a dependent, unwanted and unloved part of the UK, to a likely dependent, unwanted and unloved state in the EU. That’s the likely outcome imho.” I must admit that that thought never occurred to me. You actually think that NI could become an independent state? Like Scotland? NI becoming such a separate independent state, eligible for EU membership, seems to me to be very unlikely for… Read more »
AlfieMoone: it is a matter of total indifference to me what name you call yourselves, or your island.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/06/09/germany-preparing-for-war-against-russia.html
https://hubertmoolman.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/silver-price-forecast-silver-is-insurance-against-the-worst-part-of-this-depression/
“”The worst part of the world’s ongoing financial crisis is still on the way: A crisis that has its roots in the debt- based monetary system. The debt-based monetary system has facilitated the growth of debt, to levels that will inevitably bring total collapse.””