Scripture in Stormont: Incidental reference to the Bible in Northern Irish politics

Abstract

The Bible has long permeated Northern Irish culture and politics and continues to play a role even today, as politicians appeal to the words of Scripture in reference to their position on social policy issues such as equal marriage and abortion. In this article, however, I will show that the Bible also appears incidentally in Northern Irish politics, employed in discourse to demean, console, or entertain, and not to direct policy decisions. I discuss examples of reference to the Bible in the Northern Ireland Assembly and show that by comparing others (or oneself) to characters from the Bible, members are mostly engaging in criticism or mild attack of political opponents, but not without a certain role for humor in what might be designated “biblical banter.” I thus illuminate one aspect of the cultural role played by the Bible in the everyday language of politics in Northern Ireland.