Voters in the south in particular will have to rid themselves of a partitionist mindset Border poll talk is premature ... uniting the people of this island is more important than uniting land
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the civil conflict in Northern Ireland we euphemistically call ‘the Troubles’. This island as a whole paid a heavy price for the inability of the unionist government at Stormont to contemplate equal rights for the Catholic minority.
The collapse this week of the iconic Belfast shipyard is a painful reminder of the institutionalised sectarianism that marked Northern Ireland ever since partition. As early as the 1920s, Catholic workers were expelled from the site and it was long considered a bastion of Protestantism.
From the emergence of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, men like Ivan Cooper, John Hume and Seamus Mallon walked a thin line between denouncing discrimination and misrule while rejecting the violence of the Provos.
Against all the odds, people like the SDLP succeeded in convincing mainstream nationalist opinion that Northern Ireland could be reformed from within and that, with a fair crack of the whip, Catholics could make their peace with the state.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement effectively parked the constitutional status of Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein ministers joined others in merrily submitting legislation to Buckingham Palace for Royal Assent.
Then along came Brexit — an exercise in English nationalism rejected by voters in Northern Ireland in the referendum.
The DUP supported Brexit in the belief that it would never happen and is now stuck supporting it despite the misgivings of its grassroots and supportTalk
ers in industry and agriculture. While people like Sammy Wilson are angrily denouncing what they view as interference from Dublin in a way not seen since the 1980s, the irony is surely not lost on them that the UK’s exit from the European Union has put Irish unity firmly back on the agenda.
Five years ago, I never expected to see a united Ireland in my lifetime. Now, my feelings are that it is more an inevitability than a possibility.
But, nationalist Ireland needs to tread carefully and now is the time for an honest conversation about what a new agreed Ireland would look like. Veteran voices within unionism are already starting to engage with the conversation. Former DUP leader Peter Robinson has urged unionists to be part of the discussion from the beginning, while Eileen Paisley has said she’d find a united Ireland acceptable if freedom of religion was guaranteed.
Leo Varadkar was right this week when he told the Feile an Phobail in Belfast that a united Ireland would be a “different state” with a “new constitution”.
Much of the conversation south of the border has tended to view unity as a takeover of Northern Ireland, rather than the creation of a new entity. That’s why much of the focus has been on worries like “can we afford the north?” with no talk of the economic benefits of an all-Ireland economy.
A pathway towards unity will need to hear from diverse voices about hopes and aspirations for the future. A body something like the New Ireland Forum would provide a useful space for people to discuss what the new state would be and should be.
Are we serious about the vision of a republic espoused by the men and women of 1916? Or are we content to see poverty and social exclusion as inevitable facts of life?
No one has a right to define Irishness in an exclusive way and voters in the south, in particular, will have to rid themselves of a partitionist mindset that still sees people from Northern Ireland as “other”.
of a border poll at the moment is premature and anyone who thinks a united Ireland will be the result of a 50% plus one referendum hasn’t learnt from the mistakes of history.
Uniting people in their diversity is more important than uniting land and when we can articulate a vision of what a shared new Ireland would look like, then the job of persuading everyone that they can have a stake in creating a new homeland can begin.
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Michael Kelly is editor of The Irish Catholic