Renegotiating loyalism and Irishness in post-Brexit, post-Covid Belfast: Rosemary Jenkinson’s Billy Boy

Post-conflict Northern Ireland is fragmented on multiple levels, with intersections between them marked by barriers, symbols and celebrations. Rosemary Jenkinson’s play Billy Boy (2021) reflects the complexity of this society whose emblems have mutated in meaning and relevance in recent years. In the play, a group of young Protestants from a working-class neighbourhood face the dilution of old social, ethnic and national identities in post-Brexit, post-Covid Belfast. Jenkinson’s choice of such a recognisable and contested symbol as the 12 July bonfires is both bold and controversial. Although the playwright claims that her intention was to challenge negative representations of this social group, the fact is that the performance of this ritual, an annual object of sectarian contention, places the audience in an uncomfortable position. While the play succeeds in creating empathy with this disoriented generation, it also encourages deep reflection on what lies behind these celebrations and their potential for division. Jenkinson gives voice to those who believe that the emblems of loyalism should remain as part of Northern Irish folklore. However, the play also opens the door to the adoption of a new inclusive national identity, one in which Britishness gives way to an acceptance of their own Irishness.