Are Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for or against a reunited Ireland?

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said several things about a border poll.  On 3 July 2022 he said such a poll would “not be appropriate or right at this time”. On 27 October 2023  he said a united Ireland was “quite distant” and that a border poll would be “fraught with risk”. On 26 September 2024, as he prepared to leave politics, he said that Irish unity should be an objective and not just an aspiration.

On October 1, 2022,Michéal Martin said he had “no regrets” after not attending a massive Ireland’s Future forum in Dublin. Michéal heads up a Shared Ireland  initiative, which some see as being the opposite to a united Ireland drive.

Some Irish politicians fear that even talk of a border poll could upset unionism and loyalism, risk sparking political violence. None of them say they fear a united Ireland as it would totally recast political life and political parties in Ireland, end the FF-FG century-old game of footsie.

Maybe that’s why there was absolutely no questioning and no talk about a border poll during the recent election campaign in the south.

Many people living in the south have begun to refer to the twenty-six counties as ‘Ireland’. All nationalists and republicans in the six counties believe they live in Ireland, but they obviously wouldn’t qualify if Ireland has just twenty-six counties.

With considerable success, the southern media have succeeded in portraying anyone who puts a reunited Ireland at the top of their political agenda as being out of touch, a dreamer, maybe a slightly deranged Shinner.

Of course bread on the table, a job, a health service, the state’s infrastructure  (note I don’t refer to the twenty-six counties as a country, and anyone who does is clearly encouraging continued partition in Ireland) – these things matter. But do you think that if Spain overshadowed Portugal as the UK overshadows Ireland, or if Britain occupied a sizeable chunk of France, or if Trump really attempted to annex Canada – do you think national sovereignty wouldn’t be at the top of everyone’s agenda?

You can piss and whistle at the same time; likewise you can take care of domestic issues while addressing the sole issue that has divided Ireland and Britain for centuries. The mechanism for national unity is provided by the Good Friday Agreement – all that remains is to use it.

It’s time we crawled out from under the colonial-cringe blanket and said loudly “To hell with your concessions, we want our country back”.