Some things were not on my bingo card for yesterday. One was that I would agree with Donald Trump.
During his visit to Ireland, he sat next to the Taoiseach and suggested that the time had come for Irish reunification, and then reiterated the point when he answered questions at the US embassy in Dublin.
I agree with Donald Trump. I did not expect to say that, but he is right. There is now a growing Catholic majority in the north of Ireland, and it is no longer reasonable that they elect a government headed by a party that wishes for reunification, but that possibility is denied by the UK when the division only exists because of the former Protestant majority in the six counties that make up the north.
The division of Ireland in 1922 was a mistake, and a very costly one. I am not saying that unity would have been easy at the time. I am not suggesting there will not be some stress if it were to happen now. But leaving the Catholic majority in the north without what they want, when the Good Friday Agreement provides that a border poll should happen if it is apparent that the majority of the population might vote for reunification, is wrong.
It is now time for the UK to honour that agreement and, for once, Trump was right to call this out.
I should make full disclosure: I am an Irish citizen.
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Yes, ironically, Trump is right. However, his motivation may be more to do with embarrassing the British government rather than liberating part of Ireland from the being a remnant of the British imperialist empire.
The Good Friday agreement does have a provision for reunification.
All national boundaries are arbitrary, imaginary, and nonsensical. We should be organising into bioregions instead:
https://www.bioregion.org.uk/bioregioning
If the majority of residents of Northern Ireland support and vote for parties that support reunification of the island, then the demand for a border poll in the north will become irresistible. As far as I can see, the nationalist parties currently get about 40% of the vote, unionists get about 40%, the Alliance gets around 15%, and smaller parties get the rest. The demographics point in one direction but we are not there yet, I would suggest.
Like the position of the Falklands and Gibraltar, it won’t change without clear consent of the populace. 52/48 is no basis for a change of this magnitude.
It will still need the support in the south, which should not be taken for granted given the difficulties in the north, but I expect that will be difficult for any government to deny if the north votes for it.
Why isn’t a majority allowed?
Who said?
I do not get this. It is all about resistance to change and the denial of the possibility of it happening.
Majorities are staggeringly rare in politics. If there is one, why can’t we accept it?
Richard, I take your point about a majority, however small, being effective, but have to say that a better majority than 52/48 is needed to outface the likely disruption that would rssolt from reunification on such a small margin.
When reunification comes, as it will, I’d hope any vote would be clearer than that, to forestall any backpedalling from disgruntled Unionists. Ireland, the whole of Ireland, deserves the peace and prosperity that should have been hers a century ago.
Agreed on the narrowness of 52/48 on such a major issue as Irish reunification, pausing only to note it was the same result that took the UK out of the EU, which is at least as significant – many would say a more significant – a geopolitical change as Irish reunification.
Cameron really let us down: he should have stayed and fought, but instead cut and ran, thereby passing judgement on his Premiership.
I was teaching in Aldershot when the IRA bombed the Officer’s mess of the Parachute Regt. The bomb was mistimed so when it went off it killed a Catholic Padre, and four cleaners and gardeners. One of the cleaners was the mother of a first year pupil. at our school. The bombing was a retaliation for the shooting of civilians in NI.
Over the years I tried to understand the forces driving the conflict. The troops who had been sent to keep order in NI were welcomed to start with but what looked like colonial style policies meant the welcome didn’t last long.
It took a generation and 3,000 lives to get to the Good Friday Agreement. It is now a different world. My friend’s granddaughters were brought up in the ROI and told him ‘we are getting Irish passports as you can do more with them than a British passport”. ( As an EU citizen they can live, travel, work and study in other countries much more easily) The Republic is now more prosperous than the north- and more liberal.
OTOH the UK subsidy to NI is similar to the payment we used to make to the EU in the region of £10 billion. Would the ROI want to pick this up? Some of the figure relates to UK wide obligations so the real figure could be lower.
It seems it costs 80 euros to visit the doctor. They don’t have an NHS.
And would they want to absorb a minority like the more extreme Unionists?
But most English people do not want to hang onto NI – it is their choice.
The younger generation want a different future. I think it is a matter of time-Ireland will be unified. I hope so.
This is long over due. I’ve been reading about Irish Railways and understand that operatively, NR and CIE have an excellent working relationship despite division.
I love the place to be honest and think it right that we English ‘come home’ and let them be. There has been a lot on investment over the years but I noted on my last visit that even that was beginning to look a little tired.
However, having spent a lot of time in Southern Island over the years, I do not like their governing parties who seem worse than ours. And from what people living there have told me, Dublin is seen as an ivory tower, out of touch like Westminster. So, if they are to be united I hope the Irish get some courageous politicians to govern them when they are free. It’s also a pity they have the euro. I worry that the simmering issues between Catholics and Protestants (plus immigrants) might flare up if the needs of the people are not met because of euro-ordo-liberalism.
United or not, Ireland is like many other places, it needs investment, either to look after what it has got or to renew. Uniting the country is hard enough, but doing so when there is a pretense of a shortage of money will make it even more risky and give its recent history more say in what happens. That would be rather sad indeed.