Making Sense of a United Ireland: Should it happen? How might it happen?

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Although he presents himself as a nonpartisan figure, in ideological terms O’Leary would fit snugly into the now moribund Irish Labour Party — swimming along with the tides of progressive neoliberalism, content with a sort of Fabian incrementalism. It is not that Making Sense offers an ideological roadmap for any reunification project or campaign. Indeed, it is the claim to be without ideology that is likely to presage the tenor of the debate. Pacific Dispositions A recent Irish Times poll found a majority of voters in the South favor a united Ireland in the long term, but oppose some of the measures that could be necessary to facilitate it, such as a new national anthem or increased public sector spending.

Unionism as a whole is going to have to change the way it does things and become more centrist in many, many ways,” said Mr Beattie, who admitted that he does not know how long he will remain UUP leader after two disappointing election results. Sinn Féin’s success frightens Unionists O’Leary and his colleague John McGarry went on to publish two influential works on the Northern Irish conflict, The Politics of Antagonism (1993) and Explaining Northern Ireland(1995). The first was a narrative history of one of Europe’s most intractable conflicts from its origins to the present day, while the second was a critical survey of theoretical perspectives on that conflict.

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The most famous Ulster unionist slogan is “no surrender,” still cried at the annual August and December parades of the Apprentice Boys over Derry’s walls—or Londonderry’s. The “boys” are nowadays mostly somewhat-matured men. The slogan means no surrender either to Irish Catholics or to illegitimate British power. Northern Irish citizens are allowed to apply for Irish passports and, if the UK Government agreed, that Good Friday Agreement arrangement could be adapted for those wanting British passports. If Irish Republicanism, which is by nature a non-forgiving animal, had that ultimate upper hand, I think they couldn’t help themselves but settle scores,” he said. Ulster unionists had made a solemn covenant on “Ulster Day” in September 1912. In it they pledged loyalty to their brothers and sisters throughout Ulster. The covenant was signed by more than 235,000 men, with a matching declaration signed by nearly the same number of women. The three counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, however, had large Catholic and nationalist majorities. A nine-county Ulster would have meant, according to the census of 1911, a Protestant-to-Catholic ratio of 57 to 43 rather than the 66-to-34 ratio of what became Northern Ireland.

Shane Ross, a former Irish politician and author of Mary Lou McDonald, a new biography of the Sinn Féin leader, shares the foreboding. “A united Ireland is a kind of nirvana that is very dangerous. It’ll resurrect all the ghosts of the past.” The six counties of Northern Ireland could not, would not, and should not fit into the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. Monarchist, Protestant, English-speaking people could not live in the Republican, Catholic and Gaelic nation-state. The statement was a slogan—a word derived from the Irish for “war cry.” It proclaimed an “impossibility.”Voters in the Republic of Ireland would support unification by a majority of four to one, an Ipsos poll for the Irish Times revealed in December.

Gavin Robinson, the DUP deputy leader, accused nationalists of trying “to manipulate the politics” and use “totemic” issues like Brexit. The King’s Counsel barrister quit the DUP for the second time in 2007 over the party’s decision to enter power-sharing with Sinn Féin and founded the TUV. The mediation and resolution of current difficulties will require great vision and present many challenges. The undergraduate placements would otherwise have been lost to the unpopular budget cuts imposed by London during the DUP’s boycott of Stormont. A ‘yes’ vote - a vote for the EUinto 26 won’t go! I saw that painted on a Belfast gable wall when I was a boy. Being a competitive little lad I thought the graffiti author didn’t understand fractions. After all six goes into 26 “four and a third times”. Of course, the statement was not about division, where it may have been correct according to certain schoolteachers, but about partition.