The reality is unionists will never accept a united Ireland, even if they are outvoted in a border poll

ACCORDING to Lord Empey “The whole core of the Good Friday Agreement was the partnership between the two sections of the community”.

It wasn’t a partnership of equals, and we are not simply two sections of the community.

In his opus, The Foundation of Northern Ireland, David Trimble stated that the underlying social reality of Northern Ireland is the existence of an Ulster Protestant British people, a people separate and distinct from “the Irish Catholic nation”.

He says in Northern Ireland there are two equally legitimate peoples in terms of national identity and allegiance. He also said that nationalists regarded a majority for Home Rule as justifying “the coercion of the minority”.

But, geographically speaking, there were two Irelands which had each exercised their right to self-determination in different and irreconcilable ways.

In Northern Ireland, of course, a unionist ‘majority’ justifies the coercion of the Irish ‘minority’.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald states that unionists would retain their British citizenship in the event of a united Ireland. Better still, unionists want no part of a united Ireland in any shape or form, even if they were outvoted in a border poll.

According to Ms McDonald: “The truth is that, since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the British Government is obliged to act on the vote of the people in a unity referendum. If the people choose unity, then the government is obliged to legislate for it.”

Whatever way it is dressed up, a Sinn Fein leader is calling on a British government to coerce unionists into a united Ireland. Ultimately, two wrongs don’t make a right. What’s the point of inviting unionists to engage in talks when there is only one outcome?

MALACHY SCOTT Belfast