There’s an old quote from the Godfather films that “your enemies get strong on what you leave behind”, and I would agree with that generally speaking. We have a situation where Mr Johnston (God bless him – for this at least) has perhaps unintentionally “reunified” Ireland “economically” (in Jamie Bryson’s apparent view, given his legal action). It shows, just like with Edward Heath in the 70’s and John Major and Theresa May, that Nationalists in the North benefit from successive Conservative Prime Ministers betraying their so called “friends and allies” within Unionism. Even Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Arlene Foster arguably knew this more than anyone and it served as the driving factor to restoring the Assembly to give Unionists some say over what is happening – when they know fine rightly all Republicans have to do is go to Downing Street, the White House or Brussels and demand the enforcement of the peace agreements terms and conditions, to get what they want. One unionist more or less said before that the British government will pander to Sinn Fein in order to “keep guns off the streets”, saving the British exchequer money avoiding even more destruction – (which I am not encouraging). As my late grandmother once opined, Perfidious Albion works in all manner of ways, dear boy.
But now that the Unionists are weakened it’s time to strike the knock-out political blow. John Finucane is doing sterling work in harnessing American support and intervention – after all, we seek only what they and many other colonies once achieved; a Republic free from the tyranny of British rule. Mr Washington and company, reviled by the British press and ruling clique, obtained it by force of arms and composed a secular constitution which clearly outlined that no church would have any monopoly on the democracy of the country. We must do exactly that to ensure Protestants (who invented republicanism, by the way in 1798) are protected and cherished in a New Ireland.
What needs to happen is for a number of “progressive” MLA’s in the Assembly to work as a voluntary “shadow” committee to start discussing potential plans for reunification alongside a Dail “shadow” committee that oversees same. Perhaps with the Junior Minister in OFMDFM liaising with a potential Southern counterpart in a new Southern government after the election – given the polls I think it might be difficult for either of the main Establishment parties to exclude Sinn Fein, unless they form some sort of “grand coalition” – confirming that there isn’t much difference between them ideologically. Which would make Sinn Fein the official Opposition (and that’s a big risk for them).
However, the biggest obstacle to the reunification of this country is the inaction of Southern governments, who seem to think that we are a “foreign” state and people who need to be “managed” but not integrated with their lot. This is preposterous – we have always been one ethnic, geographical unit in Ireland and when the British ruled the whole country they did so as a single political, social and economic entity. Our attitude to that hasn’t changed, even if theirs has due to a diet of revisionism (including this latest attempt to commemorate British State mercenaries sent here to terrorise and kill the likes of you and me).
The biggest danger is that we end up with a 32 country Irish Free State instead of a Republic, where our economic and fiscal policies are determined by outside forces which we do not elect and cannot remove. Now, I believe in the sovereignty of each person to make their own decisions in life, and they can make their mistakes and sink or swim on that basis. But it’s their right to make mistakes or achieve glory in this life. This surely applies to the fate of nations, and we have no shortage of able men and women to steer us through those storms. Make no mistake about it, this island possesses the most educated, skilled and informed young people within the continent of Europe. We don’t need people from London or anywhere else telling us how to govern our affairs – we are good enough to be “Ourselves”.
The point I am getting at is that this whole Brexit fiasco has worked to our advantage, almost as if guided by the hand of God. If Mr Johnston wishes to govern as an “English nationalist”, then surely he will have no qualms if the people of this country seek to be governed by an “Irish nationalist”. The Unionists can change their tone but a leopard can’t change its spots – they are on borrowed time and realise that huge global forces, over which they have no control, are getting behind the drive for Irish reunification – in Europe, in America and abroad. It’s now time to harness this here on this island. So often local people have shouted and protested on the streets for revolution across the world; it’s time now for them to take to the streets and shout loudly for a real political and economic revolution at home in Ireland.
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