Only the immediate return of power-sharing can douse the passion for Irish reunification
Belfast Lord Mayor John Finucane was left red-faced this week when he had to admit he was spoken to by the police after being caught short in the city during the summer.
His critics are arguing that the revelation of his public urination means he is unfit for high office. In truth, while the behaviour is distasteful, it’s hardly the end of the world.
The fact it is a story at all reflects the reality that it is a welcome distraction in a cripplingly dull election campaign.
While Northern Ireland will be more affected by Brexit than any other region in these islands, the bigger contest between Boris and Jeremy is capturing all the attention in both Dublin and London.
That’s a pity. And as a northerner living in Dublin, I do understand the fatigue that many people feel about the region, but the stability and prosperity of the North should be a cause of concern for everyone.
When I was growing up in Tyrone in the 1990s, there was a certain inevitability that the violence was just part of life. Then, almost out of the blue, the peace process happened.
People like John Hume were always prophetic, but looking back now it’s hard to remember just how lonely a voice he was.
It’s a measure of the success of the peace process that we now take it for granted. If anything, talk of Northern Ireland in the Republic is met with a combination of eye-rolls and gentle shakes of the head.
The election in the North is proving to be one of the most divisive in decades.
The DUP, which found itself in the invidious position of supporting Brexit in the belief it would never happen, is on the back foot. An unlikely anti-Brexit coalition of Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance and the Green Party has seen a wave of moves to stand a single candidate against the
DUP. For its part, Arlene Foster’s party is protesting that it delivered for Northern Ireland with its confidence and supply deal with the Tories.
And, while there is huge opposition to Brexit, people know that it will go ahead and they want it to do so with the least disruption possible.
This election — while dominated by Brexit — is still very much an Orange and Green race. And that suits the main players, the DUP and Sinn Fein, because it deflects attention from their inability to cut a deal to re-open Stormont.
A poll released this week shows that, two weeks out, the Conservative Party is on course to win a 68-seat majority, Labour will lose seats and gains for the Liberal Democrats will be negligible.
If the polls are correct, Boris Johnson will bid the DUP an au revoir and London’s newfound interest in unionism will vanish as quickly as it emerged.
When the dust settles, the Irish government will have to act quickly and put pressure on London to bring the parties in the North to the talks table.
A newly humbled DUP — no longer drunk on the mirage of influence in London — should also see that it is in its interest to show that Northern Ireland can work.
In the absence of Stormont, the DUP has found itself snookered, trying to argue that the best future for the North is within the United Kingdom while people look with incredulity at the absence of a government.
The truth is that the peace process created an environment where most people — nationalist and unionist — contented themselves with the status quo.
Many people now see a reunified Ireland as inevitable.
In embracing Brexit, the DUP has imperilled the union it claims to serve.
The only thing that will calm passion for a united Ireland is an immediate return to a functioning government.
It will not mean that nationalists will suddenly become British, but it will reassure them the region can be run in the best interests of everyone.
It will also show a prosperous and thriving Northern Ireland can be a stepping-stone that they can use to convince unionists that joining in the creation of a new Ireland can sow the seeds of a brighter future for everyone.
Michael Kelly is editor of The Irish Catholic