Why few of us would ever sign up to troubled, blood-soaked united Ireland

We cannot progress to a peaceful, united Ireland without letting go of nationalist sentiment in the south, writes Dr Ciara Kelly

‘We are all about protecting minorities these days — unionists will become that’

SO the Wolfe Tones are No1 in the UK iTunes charts with Come out ye Black and Tans in the wake of the aborted commemoration of the Royal Irish Constabulary due to happen at Dublin Castle on Friday. And what a PR disaster for the Government that turned out to be.

Indeed, for a Government as concerned with PR as this one — it is mildly surprising how many PR gaffes they seem to incur — perhaps they should reconsider that specialist communications unit they were hoping to launch last year? Oops! Perhaps not.

And I think you would be hard-pressed to disagree that deferring, or even cancelling the RIC commemoration, was the right thing to do. It had become incredibly divisive and inflammatory.

Certainly the RIC and the Black and Tans — who it should be pointed out were not one and the same, but nonetheless were closely associated with each other (the ‘Tans’ were sent here by the British government to augment the RIC) — continue to be viewed with intense dislike in this country, to this day.

But there’s a debate that needs to be had here, because there’s a paradox at the heart of all this that those who most passionately want a united Ireland are probably those who will push the likelihood of one further away.

I’ve said it before — I’m ambivalent enough about the four green fields. If pushed, I would say that, on balance, a united Ireland is a nice idea but I would only want one if it could be achieved at no great cost to myself or my family — or indeed the society we live in here in the 26 counties.

And I suspect that few enough of us would want a united

Ireland where there is a return to violence on this island.

Would any of us sign up to a united Ireland that meant loyalist paramilitaries (they haven’t gone away either you know) brought a campaign of terrorism to the streets of Belfast, or indeed Dublin? I have no problem with a united Ireland that is peaceful and prosperous, but one that sees a recurrence of ‘The Troubles’ — albeit in a different way — is not something I’d relish.

And if we don’t want that and if we are — as is very likely — moving towards a united Ireland then don’t we need to reassure in some way our fellow

Protestant, unionist, loyalist citizens north of the border that they aren’t viewed as ‘other’ here? That they are accepted and indeed welcome?

Do we not need to move beyond sectarianism here in the south, too, and accept that there are many who live on this island, who are from different backgrounds but are also Irish? And if this island is united — they will be citizens of this State with a right to our consideration and respect. We are all about protecting minorities here these days — unionists will become exactly that.

The Government has said that the expert advisory group, on the decade of commemoration planned by the State, advised there should be a commemoration of the RIC, which is why one was organised. Historian Professor Diarmaid Ferriter from that group, has said the Government is using them as a ‘mudguard’ for cover on this issue — he said they never advised a State commemoration — but what was in their mind was more an academic one.

However, I’m quoting the group when I say what they said was “consideration should be given to the organisation of specific initiatives to commemorate the RIC and acknowledge their place in history”. So it seems to me there’s more than the Government running for cover on this issue and what was ‘in the mind’ of the group seems academic to me if that was their advice.

But it is clear that everyone is running away from this idea now because the commemoration plan is hugely unpopular here. And it seems that most of us in the south still view the unionist perspective with as much, if not more, distaste as northern nationalists do — when push comes to shove. Perhaps, because we’ve had the luxury of not having to live cheek by jowl with unionism up until now, here in the Republic.

There is a question of whether or not we should be commemorating any of the elements of our violent and wartorn past.

This Republic was born out of bloodshed, revisiting that time and celebrating only one aspect of it — however well that sits with most of us — will be seen as triumphalism by some. One hundred years — it would appear is not so long that those wounds are fully healed and stirring up sectarianism and nationalist sentiment in the south where it had largely died — is the opening of Pandora’s box.

I, too, did not like the idea of a commemoration of the RIC. I was raised in a household that referred to our family background as ‘anti-treaty’.

But I recognise that we cannot progress to a peaceful, united Ireland without letting go of those kinds of sentiments. Ironically, it is people like me who are less invested in a united Ireland — and therefore less likely to protest about RIC commemorations, who are more likely to facilitate that happening.