https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/catholics-been-most-supportive-getting-31992154

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson has said that some of his biggest supporters in getting to the bar have been Catholics and people from the nationalist community, as he hit out at "middle-class protestants" whom he accused of "forgetting where they came from".

Mr Bryson was speaking on the BBC's Nolan Show after he was acquitted of charges of misconduct in public office yesterday alongside former Sinn Féin MLA Daithi McKay and Thomas O'Hara.

Speaking on the programme, Mr Bryson revealed that he has achieved a high enough grade to graduate with first class honours in his law degree from the Open University and that he will go on to study a masters in Law at Ulster University from September. He also said that he intends to sit the bar exam this December, having been prevented from doing so last year due to the case.

Jamie Bryson said that he hopes that by becoming a barrister, he will open doors for many young loyalists to do the same and to enter the legal profession

"I think young nationalists have done very well through the law, and I think there's a constant stream of young people, first generations of nationalist communities [entering the profession], but let me say this, I want to make this point, and again, I'm not going to get into personalities absolutely not, but, there's clearly quite a campaign to try and make sure that I don't get to the bar, and there's people who think, you know, an upstart like me shouldn't be there," he said.

"I'm not going to get into individuals, but what I'll say is this: do you know the people who are most opposed to that, middle-class Protestants, people from my own community.

"You know the people who are most supportive of me getting to the bar, Catholics or people from the nationalist community."

Mr Bryson recalled a story about a number of barristers from a protestant background who were discussing his future career prospects and how it was Joe Brolly, a person whom he venomously disagrees with, who stuck up for him.

"There was a conversation in and around the courts where a number of barristers from a Protestant background, a middle-class Protestant background, essentially said, we'll have to make sure that nobody will take him as a pupil to stop him getting in.

"Do you know who the one person who stood up and said, if you are going to get on like that, I'll take him, Joe Brolly. Joe Brolly, the person most politically opposed to me in the world, I don't agree with Joe Brolly, on what day it is, but he said, that's not right."

Mr Bryson took a swipe at what he termed "snobbishness" in unionism and said that people from "middle-class Protestant communities" are most hostile to him.

"We've all made mistakes, but there's a snobbishness in unionism and middle class Protestantism, you know, the latte drinkers who think they're better than everybody else.

"In the nationalist community, they don't have that. There's a real upward social mobility, and when people enter the professional class, and working-class nationalist backgrounds, they don't think they're better than everybody else. They remember where they came from.

"In unionist communities, once people get into the professional class, in general, not always, but in general, they forget where they came from. They become almost embarrassed of the underclass they came from, and they don't want to know them."

Jamie Bryson added that he has "total respect" for people from a nationalist background who have worked hard to enter the legal profession and finished by saying that the Lady Chief Justice, Siobhan Keegan, is "doing a very good job" of encouraging everybody in the community to pursue a career in law.

by Loyal4Ulster

25 comments

  2. My God….he is *soooo close* to getting it.

    Loyalism is all about maintaining the status quo. They don’t want upward social mobility, because otherwise once people are educated enough, who the fuck wants TUV/DUP/UVF in charge

  3. Jamie got an insight into the fact that the knuckledraggers who he sp vehemently supports are the same people who want zero progress

  4. my understanding is he needs to do a lot more that the bar exam before becoming a barrister

  5. I remember when I got my first class I was constantly posting about young nationalists, rangers, bands and writing about how there was a campaign to make sure I didn’t get my degree.

    But fuck you all, I did it.

    Expect a lot more posts on how I proved you all wrong.

    I did it for loyalism, now my software I write will strengthen the union by helping determine what goods can cross the Irish Sea border.

  6. He has good points on working class vs upper class loyalists that are very true. For what it’s worth, upper class republicans do a better job bringing the working class republicans along with them, and there is more social mobility on that side of the fence nowadays.

    Let’s hope Jamie lives up to these expectations after he passes the bar exam, and doesn’t fall into the same trap as so many newly upper class loyalists before him.

  7. Jamie has some character arc in the northern Ireland drama show.

  10. Translation, no unionist barrister will take him under his wing

  11. Fuck this guy, I love a fresh latte, and I’m definitely not middle class …or …

  12. Smart enough to get an OU degree, yet not smart enough to realise that it’s his own “side” most intent on keeping the Donaghadee legal eagle in his Ma’s attic.

    That he can’t grasp the problems facing working class PUL folk are driven by their own “betters” wanting to keep him and his ilk in their place?
    At the bottom of the PUL hierarchy and just above Catholics and dogs….

    Speaks volumes to the effectiveness of the themmuns mentality in holding back NI.

  13. Fair play to him. That was no mean feat.

    His biggest problem will be getting barrister to take him on, and he’s is own worst enemy cause he finds a platform and talks the biggest load of shite. In law, that’s a major liability.

  15. Actually spoke from what was written and I was taking the piss out of him another post as I thought when he said working class unionists he was excluding the nationalist side

    Fair play

  17. It’s almost, almost like he gets the real point of NI Unionism.
    We stay on top, you stay at the bottom.

  18. Genuinely hope the process of getting Higher Education has wised him the fuck up.

  19. Actually , fair play to him for awknowledging this publicly … and fair play to him for achieving this.

    Maybe the bar will give him a more balanced perspective. And he will finally see the big picture, as he is obviously intelligent. Just need to get rid of the bitterness Jamie ..

    Love, A Taig x

  23. I heard Brolly is taking him on.

    Edit: just saw that’s in the article.

  24. Can’t offer him any congratulations when he’s the most poisonous person in the North.

    Let’s not forget Jamie recently advocated using the discredited ICRIR, to flood the new system with investigations into the IRA, not as a means of actually helping people or families who have been victims of the IRA, but purely as a means of getting one up on families from nationalist backgrounds who have took the British state to task for the role in the death of their loved ones.

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/jamie-bryson-loyalists-should-flood-the-legacy-commission-with-demands-for-investigations-into-killings-by-the-ira-just-as-nationalists-have-done-with-regard-to-killings-by-the-state-and-loyalists-5278097

    I would be here all day describing the violent, hate-filled rhetoric this man is responsible for and for all of that I can’t offer him anything other than the hope his newly acquired education helps him realise how ludicrous and warped his own extreme beliefs are.

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