In this file photo taken on October 1, 2019 a vehicle passes an anti-Brexit pro-Irish unity billboard seen from the Dublin road in Newry, Northern Ireland. AFP
In this file photo taken on October 1, 2019 a vehicle passes an anti-Brexit pro-Irish unity billboard seen from the Dublin road in Newry, Northern Ireland. AFP
In this file photo taken on October 1, 2019 a vehicle passes an anti-Brexit pro-Irish unity billboard seen from the Dublin road in Newry, Northern Ireland. AFP
Wednesday marked the 100th anniversary of the enactment of a British law that allowed the partition of Ireland, then under UK control, into two spheres – Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, with the latter eventually becoming the Irish Free State.
The 1920 Act, as it is commonly known, was introduced to provide for the "better government" of Ireland. It brought no such thing. It was eventually repealed in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, which put an end to the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland between the Unionists and Nationalists, and made way for a devolved system of government there.
Next year's planned centennial commemorations for Northern Ireland, which got its own parliament after the act, are likely to spur further division. In the context of Brexit, the distancing of Northern Ireland from the UK is newly set in train. An existential question of how the Protestant/Loyalist and the Catholic/Nationalist communities share the space moves into a new phase.
Seamus Heaney photographed in 1995, the year he won the Nobel Prize for literature.
On Thursday, the EU-UK trade deal confirmed Northern Ireland as a place apart. Yet, Thursday's outcome cannot be a settled set-up for its residents.
There has been plenty of attention given to the Scottish resentment of the pact and the threat to the integrity of the UK. However, it is Northern Ireland that has already entered an unprecedented hybrid status.
A careful read of the UK customs advice on future commerce with the EU reveals a new code for all transactions starting with the letters "GB" – or Great Britain – as opposed to "UK". As a whole, the UK encompasses Northern Ireland.
Letters matter. Northern Ireland trade remains in the EU’s Customs Union while also included in the UK economy.
A century on from the last big shift, Belfast is ripe for another historical upheaval. How the 100 years of the Northern Ireland campaign goes down in 2021 is crucial to the future, not just the past.
So far the signs are not good.
The government there is currently planning celebrations to mark the centenary of its establishment. The institutional dynamic of the celebrations is that there is something for everyone to be happy about. But Northern Ireland does anniversaries badly.
This is because its history is built on divisions. To give an example, Titanic Belfast – a monument to the city's maritime heritage on the site where the RMS Titanic was built – was launched in 2012 as a showcase for tourism. Events marking the centenary of the ship's commissioning and tragic sinking in 1912 centred on a new museum and sought to capitalise on the success of the eponymous Hollywood movie.
A 15-tonne steel sign is lowered into place in front of the Titanic building in Belfast. PA Wire/Press Association Images
However, many in the north did not share the view of the Titanic that was being whipped up by the marketeers. Catholics remembered that the liner was built in the East Belfast docks, a Protestant-majority area, and set sail amid "No Pope here" banners. This fact is even taught in Catholic schools. Titanic was a symbol of Unionist pride at the time of the Ulster Covenant, a landmark Protestant protest movement that laid the ground for the 1920 Act following the First World War.
For the 2021 campaign, the Northern Ireland Office – the Whitehall department that oversees the region – in tandem with the devolved, power-sharing government, has picked out notable Northern Irish figures. One of those chosen is Seamus Heaney, the poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
On one level he is an obvious choice. On another level the use of his portrait is attempted appropriation.
During his lifetime, Heaney was scrupulous to avoid direct political interventions. It was a tough choice. Both sides tried to entangle him. But Heaney refused – to the point of snubbing known gunmen. The Oxford University Press included him in an anthology of best British poets. But Heaney was having none of it.
The great Northern Irish footballer George Best, seen here in Manchester United colours, was either British or Irish depending on how he performed. Reuters
There is a common joke that when public figures such as George Best, Liam Neeson and Alex Higgins were winners, they were British. When they did something wrong, the headline writers made them Irish.
Heaney’s poetry grows out of the land, slow-changing traditions and the timeless myths that shaped him. The visitors' museum in his native village is tellingly named "Homeplace". That place is in Northern Ireland. But one of the state's founding fathers described it as a "Protestant Parliament and Protestant State". In other words, Heaney, a Catholic, had no part in it.
To the Oxford publishers in 1982, Heaney outlined his loyalties with a small bit of verse. “Be advised, my passport’s green/No glass of ours was ever raised/To toast the Queen”.
A Nationalist leader recycled the quote this month in protest against Heaney’s inclusion in the centenary campaign. Unionists were outraged. One leader pointed out that Heaney had toasted Queen Elizabeth at the state reception in Dublin Castle when she made a visit in 2011. In the context of the 1998 peace deal, Unionists see objections to the portrait of Heaney as contrary to the spirit of inclusiveness that it sought to foster.
A general view shows night falling on the city of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The country remains divided between Catholics and Protestants. Reuters
The Union is exposed in areas viewed as settled issues for the last quarter of its troubled 100 years
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set up the centenary commemorations after his first Brexit deal with Brussels undermined the Unionists. But his government is not neutral on the Union – a departure from the position of former prime ministers John Major, Tony Blair and David Cameron.
Theoretically, Northern Ireland could gain doubly from Mr Johnson’s successful effort to reposition the UK’s trading relationship with Europe. In contrast, the Union is also exposed in areas viewed as settled issues for the last quarter of its troubled 100 years.
Economic opportunities amount to just one of these issues. Culture is another. Loyalty is a third.
History is the ever-present factor. The binary choice that was offered a century ago has again been exposed as inadequate. The north and south are the products of that act. At some point, both will equally have to accept fundamental change in order to move on.
Damien McElroy is London bureau chief at The National
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Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
