Border poll can’t happen without unionists on board: Irish senator
Fianna Fail’s NI spokesman calls for approach based on respect and inclusion
A referendum on a united Ireland cannot happen without unionists on board, a senior Fianna Fail politician has said.
Senator Niall Blaney said “we cannot impose a border poll that excludes the wishes and concern of the Protestant communities of this island”.
Mr Blaney — Fianna Fail’s spokesman on Northern Ireland, and party lead on the Irish Government’s Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement — said unionists should not be coerced into a united Ireland.
The Donegal politician was speaking in the wake of a presentation last week to the Committee by Professor Colin Harvey, of Queen’s University’s School of Law, and Northern Ireland barrister Mark Bassett BL, based on their 2019 report The EU and Irish Unity: Planning and Preparing for Constitutional Change.
Both strongly urged the Irish government to do more to prepare for a referendum on Irish unity, particularly in the new post-brexit context, but neither could confirm that they had engaged with unionists in the preparation of their report. No unionists attended the session.
Despite the report authors calling for increased dialogue over Ireland’s future, Mr Bassett said: “In terms of reconciliation and unionist engagement with this issue — they’re very important but they are not absolute prerequisites in the Good Friday Agreement to the triggering of these referendums.”
The only consideration is “an assumption” of whether a majority in Northern Ireland support a united Ireland, he argued.
Afterwards, Mr Blaney told the Belfast Telegraph: “I believe all our political parties need to pull back a bit and start a new approach based on respect and inclusion. We cannot impose a border poll that excludes the wishes and concern of the Protestant communities of this island.
“The only positive indication of progress on our past was achieved through agreeing the
Good Friday Agreement. We need to fully implement all elements of the Good Friday Agreement through the institutions, North and South.
“The less we try to push ideas by coercive means and without engagement, the quicker we will kickstart the process. Only then will we realise the extent of our shared future.
“Peace has been hard-won on this island and coercion will play no positive role in our future. On the other hand, patience, respect and openness will give us all a chance to create greater outcomes and standards on a shared island basis.”
This appears to be a reference to the Shared Island Unit, one of Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s flagship policies.
During the Oireachtas committee meeting, Mr Blaney argued the report advocating a border poll actually made achieving a united Ireland more difficult.
“We haven’t had the dialogue necessary to bring unionists with us and create trust,” he said.
“The idea of a shared island is to try and create that trust and start working with them.”
But the Northern Ireland Protocol had upset the relationship, he argued.
An effort comparable to that which led to the Good Friday Agreement is needed, but “the more we talk up a united Ireland, the less chance we have of getting unionists to the table”.
Believing a referendum is the solution to the creation of a united Ireland is “simplistic”, Mr Blaney said.
“There is much more dialogue that has to be held with unionist politicians, and without them on board, I don’t see this happening,” he said.
“My fear is that if there is a referendum tomorrow, it wouldn’t be won on either side of the border.
“So there’s an awful lot of work to be done here.”
‘Peace has been hard-won on this island and coercion will play no positive role in our future’
By perfect coincidence, a Mr Colin Pidgeon, briefing an online Stormont committee meeting this week, was interrupted when his cat deposited a live (we hope) pigeon at his feet.
Mr Pidgeon has been rightly applauded for his cool, calm rescue and release of the bird.
Could this sort of animal intrusion start a trend?
Can you imagine, for example, Nicola Sturgeon having to take time out from a meeting of the Scottish Assembly to deal with the unexpected intervention of a salmon?