Irish-language dispute is just an excuse not to talk to the other side

A tribe derives its identity not just from its own culture, but from opposing the culture of the other, writes Fergus Finlay 

OF COURSE, I want a powersharing government re-formed in Northern Ireland. But has anything ever really changed? Scratch a nationalist in Northern Ireland and green blood flows. Scratch a unionist, and orange does. The tribal divisions are as deep as ever.

David Ervine, an ardent and committed loyalist, once said to me that he completely respected my pride in being Irish and feeling Irish. But, he added, “if the price of that is that I’m supposed to feel less British, that’s a price I’m not prepared to pay”.