United Ireland debate is back on the agenda
Posted By: August 26, 2016
“Unionists have in the main failed to acknowledge the potential game-changer Brexit is, how it has changed the very nature, the metaphysical character of the United Kingdom, and its profound implications for the current settlement in Northern Ireland which has been predicated on EU membership and a growing all-Ireland economy within the context of an invisible border and a path towards eventual unity if North and South consent.”
United Ireland debate is back on the agenda
Martin O’Brien .Irish News (Belfast). Friday, August 26, 2016
What might a united Ireland look like? An incendiary question for many unionists. And for some nationalists, who feel better the devil you know in a United Kingdom under the Good Friday Agreement with its provisions for equality of treatment however imperfect.
The question of reunification is also profoundly challenging for many in the South whose inclination is to keep the aspiration of unity by consent – which is enshrined in the constitution – while sort of knowing that the State couldn’t afford it and that the unionists and some Catholics would always say No.
But now, post the Brexit vote, a United Ireland is beginning to be discussed again and you can expect polling organisations to be gauging opinion in the coming period and increased debate on the issue in the media.
The hope must be that in this post-conflict context people on all sides will be able to listen and show an openness to new thinking that would not have been possible in a theatre of bloodshed.
Two former prime ministers, John Major and Tony Blair, who played critical roles in delivering our peace settlement, did warn of the consequences of Brexit for us, with Major, a strong unionist, memorably warning that it would throw the pieces of the peace process jigsaw into the air without anyone knowing where they would land.
So it is perfectly possible that out of the current uncertainty which may continue for years a United Ireland in some form, a greater Ireland, the “agreed Ireland” long spoken of by John Hume, may become an idea whose time has come.
And certainly, if it becomes clear that Northern Ireland’s future lies in growing partnership with the rest of Ireland within the EU rather than as part of a diminished UK, post Scottish independence.
Just as we don’t know what Brexit is until it is negotiated we have no way of knowing what a United Ireland would look like, what arrangements, structures, and associations would be negotiated to reflect the unique relationships within these islands in the context of a changing Europe, in an increasingly globalized world and the reality that the present Republic of Ireland and the current constituent parts of Great Britain will never be foreign countries to each other.
Unionists have in the main failed to acknowledge the potential game-changer Brexit is, how it has changed the very nature, the metaphysical character of the United Kingdom, and its profound implications for the current settlement in Northern Ireland which has been predicated on EU membership and a growing all-Ireland economy within the context of an invisible border and a path towards eventual unity if North and South consent.
North and South may not yet consent to unity but they do consent to our island remaining firmly within the EU.
The only person to make the critical point about how the union has been fundamentally changed was Nicola Sturgeon who vowed to keep Scotland within the EU and to trigger another referendum on Scottish independence in order to maintain EU membership if that became necessary.
Enda Kenny, Taoiseach and ipso facto leader of nationalist Ireland, with the support of Fianna Fáil and others, should tell Mrs May that consent works both ways and that Northern Ireland must not be ejected from the EU against its will.
Kenny should put the case to all 27 other EU countries that the “reverse Greenland” option should be sought to keep the six north eastern counties of Ireland in the EU and the same argument should be advanced to keep Scotland in the EU opening up the possibility of exciting developments between Scotland and Ireland.
This is too critically important a time for Kenny to be thinking about retirement and in the national interest Fine Gael TDs should give him the time, space and the support he needs.
I started by talking about a united Ireland but we must not get carried away, not yet anyway.
Whatever Theresa May says, Brexit is not yet a given.
The people may have spoken but Britain is ultimately a parliamentary democracy. Parliament, not the people, is sovereign.
Some time next year, with Article 50 still not triggered, the various Brexit models may look so unpalatable, an impending recession may look so worrying, scientific research in British universities look so threatened that Mrs. May might welcome the fig leaf of parliamentary sovereignty to get both her and an electorate with growing second thoughts off the hook.
But before then the courts may have forced her hand anyway.
United Ireland debate is back on the agenda
Martin O’Brien .Irish News (Belfast). Friday, August 26, 2016
What might a united Ireland look like? An incendiary question for many unionists. And for some nationalists, who feel better the devil you know in a United Kingdom under the Good Friday Agreement with its provisions for equality of treatment however imperfect.
The question of reunification is also profoundly challenging for many in the South whose inclination is to keep the aspiration of unity by consent – which is enshrined in the constitution – while sort of knowing that the State couldn’t afford it and that the unionists and some Catholics would always say No.
But now, post the Brexit vote, a United Ireland is beginning to be discussed again and you can expect polling organisations to be gauging opinion in the coming period and increased debate on the issue in the media.
The hope must be that in this post-conflict context people on all sides will be able to listen and show an openness to new thinking that would not have been possible in a theatre of bloodshed.
Two former prime ministers, John Major and Tony Blair, who played critical roles in delivering our peace settlement, did warn of the consequences of Brexit for us, with Major, a strong unionist, memorably warning that it would throw the pieces of the peace process jigsaw into the air without anyone knowing where they would land.
So it is perfectly possible that out of the current uncertainty which may continue for years a United Ireland in some form, a greater Ireland, the “agreed Ireland” long spoken of by John Hume, may become an idea whose time has come.
And certainly, if it becomes clear that Northern Ireland’s future lies in growing partnership with the rest of Ireland within the EU rather than as part of a diminished UK, post Scottish independence.
Just as we don’t know what Brexit is until it is negotiated we have no way of knowing what a United Ireland would look like, what arrangements, structures, and associations would be negotiated to reflect the unique relationships within these islands in the context of a changing Europe, in an increasingly globalized world and the reality that the present Republic of Ireland and the current constituent parts of Great Britain will never be foreign countries to each other.
Unionists have in the main failed to acknowledge the potential game-changer Brexit is, how it has changed the very nature, the metaphysical character of the United Kingdom, and its profound implications for the current settlement in Northern Ireland which has been predicated on EU membership and a growing all-Ireland economy within the context of an invisible border and a path towards eventual unity if North and South consent.
North and South may not yet consent to unity but they do consent to our island remaining firmly within the EU.
The only person to make the critical point about how the union has been fundamentally changed was Nicola Sturgeon who vowed to keep Scotland within the EU and to trigger another referendum on Scottish independence in order to maintain EU membership if that became necessary.
Enda Kenny, Taoiseach and ipso facto leader of nationalist Ireland, with the support of Fianna Fáil and others, should tell Mrs May that consent works both ways and that Northern Ireland must not be ejected from the EU against its will.
Kenny should put the case to all 27 other EU countries that the “reverse Greenland” option should be sought to keep the six north eastern counties of Ireland in the EU and the same argument should be advanced to keep Scotland in the EU opening up the possibility of exciting developments between Scotland and Ireland.
This is too critically important a time for Kenny to be thinking about retirement and in the national interest Fine Gael TDs should give him the time, space and the support he needs.
I started by talking about a united Ireland but we must not get carried away, not yet anyway.
Whatever Theresa May says, Brexit is not yet a given.
The people may have spoken but Britain is ultimately a parliamentary democracy. Parliament, not the people, is sovereign.
Some time next year, with Article 50 still not triggered, the various Brexit models may look so unpalatable, an impending recession may look so worrying, scientific research in British universities look so threatened that Mrs. May might welcome the fig leaf of parliamentary sovereignty to get both her and an electorate with growing second thoughts off the hook.
But before then the courts may have forced her hand anyway.
