SF gears up for big push to have vote for Irish president extended to diaspora

Sean McNally:

“And it is also quite possible that, faced with a flood of those they privately call ‘Nordies’ being bussed in their thousands to argue for extending the franchise to them, the inhabitants of the Republic might think twice about backing the idea.” This is one inhabitant of the Republic that has no problem with ‘Nordies’ voting. Maybe you should change your social circles, Ruth Dudley Edwards, as no one I know refers to people in NI as ‘Nordies’ — privately or otherwise. Irish citizens are born and live in NI and should have every right to vote in the presidential election.

John:

Funnily enough, the only people I’ve ever met that think they’re known as ‘Nordies’ in the Republic of Ireland are unionists. They seem to like the term and class it as endearing, but it does appear to be self-invented.

Ena Davison:

People that are born in Northern Ireland are British, no matter what they call themselves.

Sean McNally:

People of NI have dual nationality, , Ena. They can call themselves British, or Irish, or both.

Ena Davison:

Sean McNally, why do they hate the British so much, then, when they get British benefits?

Sean:

Ena Davison, what’s hatred got to do with it? People born in NI have dual nationality.

Gerry McDermott:

Unionism is in total denial of its very weak (and rapidly getting weaker) position. Only for the Brexit diversion, they’d have very little to cling to.

Alex Hill:

To coin a phrase, ‘no representation without taxation’. So, if you choose not to live in the Republic, then why should you have a say in who runs it?

Michael Phylan:

I am happy with Michael D Higgins.

Charles Williams:

If SF now subscribes to extending the vote to the wider Irish diaspora, they have come to it very late in the day.

Thomas Ronald:

I presume then that everyone who ever owned an Irish wolfhound, or every Boston Irish bar with a shillelagh and a tricolour on the wall, gets to vote?