I’ve just listened to a report on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. It dealt with politics here and for the umpteenth time I heard presenter and those vox pop-ed declare that they had no one to vote for, the old politics was sectarian, it was all about what religion you were. I think it’s time some bright young BBC journalist challenged this cliché that what is in fact the constitutional question is not a religious question, and that the two big parties do have different views on social issues such as austerity. Maybe some day.
Which brings me to a broader question that someone drew my attention to: the recent rapprochement between the US and Cuba, with the handshake between Barack Obama and Raoul Castro. It took fifty years to happen but it happened. So the question that was put to me was: in fifty years from now, what changes are likely that to us today seem impossible?
Two suggestions that were made to me: that the division between the Catholic Church and the various Protestant Churches would have vanished, and that the West’s economy would have been comprehensively surpassed by the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. I think those are distinct possibilities, as the Christian Churches come to see how much they have in common and the West’s time in the economic sun gradually comes to an end. Unfortunately, as some poster here will verify, I’m not very good with predictions. There is one notion about the future that I’m fairly confident about but I’ll hold onto that until I’ve heard from you: what things that seem unthinkable today will in fifty years’ time have become a reality? Thinking caps on and form a neat line please. It’d also be good if you could give a reason for the prediction you make.
Ok I will give it a lash.
The next fifty years will be tough very tough.
The United States will be allied with India in an on going cold struggle with China who will be allied with Pakistan no friend of India.
China will have a complete stranglehold over Africa and its resources after a bitter struggle with the Africans after the Africans had tried to massacre a large chunk of the Chinese community in Africa.
Europe will have declined much further than most people will have anticipated and become a much more undemocratic society.
As for Northern Ireland I still suspect it will still exist and SF will have become FF bloated with power and the DUP will still be banging the drum.
As for Jude Collins he wont have lived to see a united Ireland but on the plus side for him people will come to believe he was the new Samuel Pepys which would have caused him to wryly chuckle
Sorry Neill – I plan to live until I’m 130 minimum…
or die trying…..
You never know Jude, you could still be doing your blogging in 50 years time due to the advancement of medicine, the likes of cancer would have been cured a long time before and maybe old age will have too?…I’m sure the likes of Neill would still be one of your biggest fans…..
Or you could always have your head cut off and put onto another, younger, healthier body. The first operation on a human is planned for 2017….
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/sergio-canavero-head-transplant-man-undergoing-operation-could-experience-something-a-lot-worse-than-death-says-neurological-expert-31129884.html
And of course any of us – say, um, neill for example – could fall under a bus tomorrow…Or the next day…
only if you were driving it jude…….
“In their own way, problems can be blessings.
They can be the prod to get us out of our complacency and into action.”
I read this earlier today, as a thought for the day. I was struck by the word, “prod”. On reflection, there is evidence from quite a number of contributors to this blog to suggest that those of us who may be around in 50 years would wish to live in mutually acceptable systems of peaceful coexistence. Long distance holidays will entail space travel, into the future, not back into the past.
“Between 1989 and 1996, more that seventy wars occurred in sixty locations and involved more than one-third of all member states of the United Nations…almost two-thirds of the current armed conflicts involve the use of child soldiers under the age of fifteen” (Lederach:1997:4)
We can do better than this. We need to do better than this. “Camp David” type negotiations tend not to work. We all watch highly paid individuals jetting in and out of fortified centres in order to negotiate peace agreements. Armed peace keeping soldiers represent a failure of peace treaties. There is a challenge for us all to reconcile or accept our divided society without the need to resort to violence, the threat of violence or the use of pejorative language. That sentiment applies to governments and other politicians. I remain optimistic.
What was that John Lennon said about ‘Life is what happens to you when you’re making other plans’, Jude?.
The future is going to be the story of changing demographic.
In the North, demographic changes have already ended a Protestant state for a Protestant people. We currently live in a temporary period of parity between Catholic and Protestant populations. The two groups are almost exactly the same in size but next year, on an otherwise unremarkable day, a child is going to be born and that child will the make the Catholic population 1 bigger than the Protestant population.
People can only vote when they are 18 so beyond a happy family there will be no immediate consequence to this child’s birth. But each subsequent year there will be more Catholics born and more will reach adulthood, becoming eligible to vote, and that will effect change.
The demographic changes will alter the social landscape of north. Belfast will come a majority Catholic city. Protestant towns will slowly expand and in expanding incorporate more Catholics which will tilt their demographics. Lisburn will probably be the next city to change from Catholic to Protestant majority. Though I think county Antrim will become a super Protestant area as Protestants leave areas where their schools are closing for want of numbers.
With shifting populations will coming changing politics. There will be a SF first minister, North Belfast will go over to SF (though that cold happen in a month). A similar story with symbols. There will be a repeat of the removal of the union flag over Belfast city hall probably in Armagh, Banbridge, Craigavon council in about 20 years. Add in the usual nonsense about poppies on sale in municipal buildings and the Easter lily.
Parades that are now contentious will become settled either by compromise by the OO or an eternal protest camp at the top of a road. Parades that are now uncontentious will due to the shifting populations become contentious. Historians will be able to chart the steady diminution of the OO’s right to march on their terms – Obin Street, Drumcree, Ormeau Road, Ardoyne – but where will be next, and the next?
Economically, the North will continue to sink behind the Republic and Britain. No British cabinet is ever going to pump jobs into the North when they can redirect them to marginal seats in England that actually matter to them. The Republic with all the advantages of a sovereign nation will always be able to out compete the North for direct investment. So there will be a continuation of the North as the scrounger. Our politicians, mendicants in London begging for money for essential services. Money, which when it arrives will come begrudgingly and be too small to meet all the bills. Never the less there will always be someone willing to opine that the Union is great because it keeps the North afloat little realising that London allows the North to live on its knee while the Republic would help it stand on its feet.
As for partition who knows? It’s easy to draw the inference Catholics vote for SF and the SDLP, SF and the SDLP support a united Ireland therefore Catholics are voting for a united Ireland.
I am not so sure, I’ve never had a SF or SDLP canvasser tell me that my vote was going to bring about a united Ireland in the near future. Today, Catholics vote for SF and the SDLP for a more immediate reason; they don’t like the DUP or UUP and their support for Orangism.
Ending partition with all the associated uncertainty is a very different proposition and one that I don’t see an appetite for. The surveys on this are much maligned (because they give the wrong answer) but I’ve yet to see a survey that has support for a united Ireland at much more that about 20%.
So my prediction is – more Catholics – less Orangism – no united Ireland – rubbish economy.
PS
Scotland will become independent, obviously.
Hoverboards and jetpacks is all I’ve got. I find it best not to attempt to predict the future, for we never know what’s around the corner. ‘Man plans and God laughs’ as the fella said…
In Fifty years time the most important resource will be water. And many more of the world’s species will be extinct, including most of the bloggers on here. And every little thing we said, that we thought was so important, won’t mean Jack shit. And deo volente: my children and their children will be happy.
The World is getting smaller, but progress eludes us as our population concentrations are becoming more and more impacted by a Globally heating planet, fuelled by the macro “Economics” of short-term profiteering. I emphasize the usage of the word Economic, because the rampant model dominant, is anything but driven by Economy as ever decreasing finite recourses are squandered in the interests of the very, very few. Such myopic individuals either in Governments, or the Financial/Banking and Corporative elites, and the revolving door between them, are indictable as their children, and Children’s Children, if they have anyway, will reap the bitter fruits of this wilting harvest.
Fifty thousand souls evaporate prematurely each day from StarvatIon, Malnutrition and related conditions from these malaises’. As long as dirty water threatens infant mortality, river blindness and dysentery, then we have a problem collectively as humanity. Are these problems being resolved? Alas, the disparity between the Rich, and Uber Rich and, and the vast swathes of humanity disenfranchised from a Right to eat, and feed their children. Is increasing.
The prognosis is not a good one from a realists point of view methinks.
A mere four hundred souls perished in “Coffin ships” filled with families seeking to escape the sundry blights in the African Continent caused by increased desertification, and the tragic myriad of other problems caused by Global warming, Exploitation of resources and the desperation this causes leading families to make famished treks to an illusive haven,-many do not even glimpse the Sea, never mind the privilege of drowning in it…..Can we in Ireland relate to such a phenomenon in our not far history? Naturally we observe this from the far shore, and a certain compassion fatigue shepherds our own psyches’ emotionally becoming too involved in our responses.
The Century of resource Wars started off as expected. The US have control of the middle East with WMD in Israel/Palestine. NATO are trying to strangle Russia in a dangerous War Game which has seen State after State from the old USSR secede to Western(Nato,US) control, in contravention of treaties with Russia that they at best be kept neutral….How many “Cuban Missile Crises” will ensue? The hawks in the US Arms industry are not men of ethics, and their view dominates Government policy on Capitol hill. Regime change in Russia is not as easy for the US/Britain/NATO to effect. Lots of WMD, and we all could all as humanity easily be consumed by the inferno. A spark could set the tinder to flame.
Fifty years from now, the Earth will have lost most of its irreplaceable flora and fauna extant, and its lungs in the Amazonian basin may be gasping. Sea levels will have risen substantially displacing many thousands with the Worlds temperature ever warmer. Arctic Ice in the Summer is all but gone, a thing many thought a long way off, yet things are climatically moving faster. Two and a half degrees’ rise, would be enough to set of a plausible chain of heating which, taking in a momentum of it own, could wipe out the possibility of life in Earth.
I don’t normally pay much attention to overtly Religious people, being an Atheist, and anti-theist myself, but I was struck by the humane words of pope Francis, when, close in to his papal role he decried how the World(and media) could take the stock market rising or falling a couple of points more in Earnest, than a single homeless person dying from exposure. Well said him. The two are linked though. Macro “Economics”, and individual human tragedy. Are there oppositions to these destructive alignments? Yes, and we must wake up and ally ourselves to these oppositions to promote Social, Eco-economic, Political justice movements capable of contesting manifestations of injustice, in every forum. We leave no future otherwise.
Predictions can be dodgy things, best kept to oneself.perhaps, like one’s deranged maiden aunt who ended up an Earl Grey tea girl in The Unionist Times.
One has only to recall the Weird Sisters from the Scottish Play upon the side of whose bubbling cauldron was stenciled the phrase ‘ye terms and conditions applie’. That was the first recorded use of that term which has long since become a stock phrase in common use. The Queen’s English would surely be anorexic without The Great Shakes.
Since then, indeed, the H.T./ D.C. factor is a component part of every prediction’s DNA. (‘They win us with honest trifles to betray us in deepest consequence’). Perkie’s inner undergraduate seems to recall first coming across that forecast from the three witches in the legendary Collins Gem Literary Lecture Series.
But, one may be mistaken on this point for that was long ago, in a foreign country and besides, the lecturer is alive and well, brain-stroming like billy-oh.
You express a wish today, Esteemed Blogmeister, that the h. old cliche about the constitutional issue being a sectarian one would get the equivalent of ‘a kick up the transom’. (How Donnegan – whether Lonnie or Paddy, one is unsure at this remove which of them recorded the Sloop John B. – contributed greatly to the gaiety of our naval vocabulary).
One wishes for your wish fair winds and following seas, EB..
Down here in the Free Southern Stateen the egg-shaped political cliche is,like rugby, going through a Golden Era. And nowhere is that more apparent than in TUT (see above) in general, and in the cut above all other columns, in particular.
That of (gulp) Fintan O’Toole. The very egg-head who was included in the year of Our Queen, 2011 by the Guardian (nee Manchester) in the list of the Top 500 Intellectuals in, (gulp) , Britain. And would the angelic Guardian be economical with the truth on such a weighty matter?
Indeed if last Tuedsay’s column is anything to go by the wall one could make a strong case for its author’s inclusion in the top 5 itself. On this showing Carauntoole (for it is he !) would not only hold his own (a particular specialty of his, a trait he shares with those of the same surname) but indeed rub macro-chipped shoulders with fellow high attitude hacks like Ben Nevis, Lord Snowdon, Don Ard and not forgetting, Snafell Pike himself of the Angler’s Gazette.
Now Don Ard, known locally as Big Don, may well be considered a sleeveen in some hnd quarters but in other quarters, those which count, he is h. thought of on that score alone.
Like Tuesday’s child Tuesday’s column was full of grace notes of such a comically cliched nature that Big Brendan himself, in search of a script writer, might not have sniffed at it:
-Ireland’s main contribution to world politics, for good and ill, was the system of transactional politics – the creation of politics that could hold power by trading votes for favours on a massive scale- you give me your vote, I get you a public job, or a house or access to healthy care.
Transactional? (A daaarlin; word Joxer, a daaarlin’ word !)
As elegantly phrased a piece of tosh as one could hope to come across in a day’s perusal of the papers considered posh. But a piece, mo leithsceal, which will just not wash in even the most sophisticated of Bosch washing machines.. And the funny or not so funny thing is its awesomely-regarded author knows full well that it wouldn’t wash neither with any reader with even half a Mark Twain in his head.
Take the word ‘world’ alone. On waking up on Tuesday morning the same w. will surely have been surprised by that carved in stone proclamation. Regarding what they are indebted to Ireland for, on the political front, going forward, at both the end and the beginning of the day.
But of course, what Fintan’s Fine Mind did NOT opine is the essential point to grasp here.
In this he shows himself to belong firmly to the same tradition (see above) as the Wild and Weird Sisters Whether Forecasting Service ((www.eyeofnewt.com). It must not be forgotten either that Bravehearted Fintan stood firmly against the Better Togethers last year, donned his kilt, sporran, dirk and bagpipes and declared himself a wee braw, moonlicht Scottish Gnationalist, so he did.
And just as the advertising slogan of the Weird Sisters is ‘eye of newt and toe of frog/ wing of gnat and tongue of dog’ it must be recognised ( or else nothing good will come of this) that it was.not because he lacked a tongue like the dog in q. that Fintan of the Fine Mind, did not bark, In point of factoid it was precisely because he DID possess a tongue and did know about 1916 and its influence on the world that he chose to keep mum. Queen Mum, indeed.
Two examples at random will do:
From the invitation to the President of Sinn Fein ( who fears to speak of Fear na Feasoige?) to be an honrorary pallbearer at the funeral of Neslon Mandela to the adoption by the elephant-sized subcontinent of India of the Irish tricolour as their own national flag.
The latter as a tribute to the holy terrors of the GPO, the only difference being their’s is horizontal rather than vertical. This difference being offset, of course, by the inclusion of a spinning wheel on the white.This is an obvious tribute to Delia Murphy’s signature tune.
But to expect Fintan of the Fine Mind to admit to the obvious is somewhat akin to expecting a dog with no tongue to begin barking once the mellow moonlight to shine is beginning. Admit that 1916 was actually ……..a P for Politcial Act ? Gad-zooks !
Perkie’s prediciton: the golden age of the egg-shaped cliche to continue ad nauseam agus Nas na Ri.. Unless.
Terms and provisionals apply.
Their electoral prerogatives and even fingers to vote early, often and or/ late.
Fermanagh to win an Ulster title, Ireland to be United and we all live happily ever after and the thought, ” what the he’ll was that all about ‘ will remain the great unspoken……
Barry, a chara,
Finding that Fermanagh prediction fascinating for a few reasons. One of which concerns a Kerryman (no joke) who not only made his presence felt in Enniskillen at a ground-breaking count but also on Gaelic grounds in other counties.
To the fore as a footballing and bawling full back in his day he not only made it on to the Team of the Century or maybe it was the Millennium (whichever one took Finn McCool into consideration) but he also made perhaps the most celebrated prediction ever in the history of what the especially needy shoneens in the Free Southern Stateen sporting media delight in dissing as ‘bogball’.
In time indeed it was to become as acclaimed as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County itself.
As a holder of five Celtic Crosses (All-Ireland medals, m’lud) Joe Keohane (for it was he !) was approached on a specific occasion by a footballer from a Sam-starved county (not Calaveras) and asked what it was like to win an All-Ireland.
‘Yerra’, replied Joe who was not particularly loved by the Hill, ‘ there’s nothing easier. Just climb the steps up to the box in the Hogan Stand and receive the Sam Maguire from the Queen’.
A somewhat nonplussed questioner, stuttered: ‘Surely you mean Uachtaran na hEireann ?’.
‘Yerra, not at all. I meant what I said’.
‘But the Queen does not rule Ireland’.
‘Yerra, she will by the time your county wins the All-Ireland !’
Perkie’s senior,momentous memory does not recall specifically which county was in question but he would like to think it was (gulp) Mayo.
Any county which chose to unceremoniously ditch the spellbinding Super Mac from its panel deserves no other reply.
It is fashionable to describe 60 as the new 40 these days. Last week, on the occasion of his first ever TV interview at the age of, erm, 40, Super Mac came across as a sprightly young man of 20.
It turns out that Ciaran McDonald (for it is he !), of Crossmolina and of the two totally tatooed arms is still as fit as a Stradivarius and plying his trade as the best club footballer in Mayo, bar none. Indeed, two week ago, he effortlessly kicked over eleven points despite not having his hair dyed blonde or wearing his trademark white boots, a la Frank McGuigan (another similar shod necromancer).
He is still the sorcerer with the sleight of foot who might even have the mesmerising Messi e fein murmuring ‘yo no soy digno’,
Warbecks from way back when have always had a weakness for warlocks.
Now, regarding Fermanagh winning the Ulster title, with or without, erm, earning it.
Here’s a dodge leased from the local Dodge Showrooms.
As Rory Gallagher from Belleek (not to be confused with his non-Stadivarius playing namesake from down the road in Ballyshannon) is the current Bainisteoir in Bui for Donegal, and as Super Mac’s father hails from the other end of Dun na nGall, maybe Fermanagh could move smartly in and add Super Mac to their menu for success.
On a sorta non quid pro quid basis.
One could then confidently predict that Fermanagh will receive the Anglo-Celt cup from the darling of the West Brits, Mrs. Windsor in the park named in her honour. Sometime in the next twenty years as Super Mac is on course to hang up his boots on reaching the compulsory retirement age of 40 (ne 60).
Sin deireadh le teacsail reamhaisneise Perkie. / Here ends Perkie’s predictive texting.
Beir bua, Barry !
My predictions are, in 50 years time:
1. United Ireland will be have been formed a long time before, due to a nationalist majority and the UK, starting with Scotland, breaking down. I think we will see a Sinn Fein First Minister before then and a republican dominated (if that’s the right word to use) Northern Ireland, with SF being the biggest party and making gains with small “u” Unionist voters at elections. England, Scotland and Wales will be independent nations. England might even have broken up and regions like Yorkshire having their own independence (Yorkshire at the minute has a greater GDP and bigger population than Scotland and its people wants its own Assembly, so its not exactly far fetched, I believe there’s a “Yorkshire First” political party.). Other regions in England might break away too, such as Cornwall, where Cornish nationalism is getting stronger.
2. This might sound a bit gloomy but I believe there will be another “Cold War” and maybe even an actual War between the USA and China. China’s influence and power in places like Africa is not going to go unchecked by the USA, who are building closer and closer ties to countries like Australia and Japan, for reasons I think is obvious to everyone due to these countries close proximity with China. Will it be a nuclear war? I don’t think so, well I bloody hope not…..
3. Another gloomy prediction. I predict a civil war or a rise in the far right in Europe again. One thing that frightens people the most is: Change. The likes of London today has more foreign born residents or descendants of than native English. The most popular boys name in UK a few years back was Mohammed. This is happening all over Europe. It would be foolish to assume the status quo will continue. The gains made by the far right in France (National Front) and by the likes of UKIP in UK elections is proof of this. Even the bullish and bigoted BNP gained 2 MEP’s in 2009 (they have since lost their MEP’s but UKIP has continued to make gains in EU, local and Westminister elections). Also, expect more terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists on free speech (like in Paris), again that will play into the Far Right hands. I’m not saying Europe will spark off WW3 but I think the European Union will be radically different in 50 years time or it wont exist at all due to its current policies.
I just hope some of my predictions turn out to not be true. But I wouldn’t mind if the United Ireland prediction came true 🙂
There will be an united Ireland as there will not be an UK.
Scotland will go, and the English regions will be estranged from a bloated and increasingly foreign London.
A hot war or wars will take place between some of the major powers and climate change and migration will continue to be major sources of conflict.
The poor and oppressed will still be with us only there will be more of them.
Ideal scenario….Ireland is a thirty two county independent nation at last, with Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter united in a secular, progressive country. It is an inspiration to it` s neighbour England, as it tries to come to terms with losing Scotland and Wales, in advance of the Isle Of Man referendum. Nightmare scenario…..The new state of North Eastern Ireland is struggling on, it`s two and a third counties surviving on handouts from England. England is still ruled by a Protestant King, which naturally encourages the NEUDA and NEUVF to carry out hate crimes against the growing Catholic population.
couldn’t even predict the winner in the national never mind anything else important lol, but that’s us Jude, what about you?
OK . Thanks to everyone for your very thoughtful predictions – except neill, of course, who wished me dead…no, no, only kidding, neill. And I didn’t mean that about the bus either.
Actually my prediction has been proved inaccurate, which supports my original assertion that I’m lousy at predicting. My (inner) prediction was that the great majority of predictions would deal with our own dear tormented green corner of Ireland. I was of course totally wrong – people’s predictions went much further and more global. I thought they’d be local because I find there’s little appetite for blogs that aren’t about here: usually on those occasions when I write about some issue outside Ireland, people aren’t that interested. That was sort of confirmed, in that the traffic on the site wasn’t as heavy as some recent ones which did focus on the local – but it was still quite respectable, and it’s obvious that the people who post stuff here are possessed of minds that can see beyond the parish boundaries. Maith sibh – good on you.
I have to confess Jude that I am one of those who gets his kicks from our own particular, peculiar brand of politics, I enjoy all politics and World affairs and I would certainly classify myself as an internationalist, but nothing gets me going like this corner of Europe. Too late to change now I`m afraid.
Read this a while ago and found it almost creepy
“In 2015, continued voter apathy, particularly on the nationalist side, and a voting pact on the unionist side, saw gains for the DUP and UUP in East and South Belfast. The surprise of the night however was the joint candidate failing to win in Fermanagh, with Sinn Fein holding on with an increased majority. At Westminster itself, the DUP and UUP align with the Conservatives to support Camerons minority government, in conjunction with the 35 UKIP MPs, despite Labour being the biggest party following a Lib Dem wipe out.
In 2016 elections for the assembly unionist parties largely consolidate their gains from the previous year, following a bumper package from Westminster in return for their support. Nationalist vote does however being to rise, with reductions in the number of Departments and MLAs. In the south, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Sinn Fein top the polls, with a grand coalition of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael supported by independents coming to power. In Scotland the SNP win a 3rd term, with a massive majority on a promise to defend the NHS from the rumblings of privatisation from Westminster.
In 2018 Cameron, having failed to get his changes to the EU, leads a campaign to take Britain out of the EU. Despite a bizarre coalition between banks, businesses and unions to stay in, the UK narrowly votes to leave, racking up majorities in the south of England, with Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to stay in. At the same time, changes to Westminster to firm up English votes for English matters see the Unionist parties largely excluded.
With the UK out of Europe they largely miss out on the TTIP free trade agreement negotiated between the EU and USA. With its English speaking population, the Republic of Ireland becomes a net beneficiary, with many banks and financial institutions locating in Dublin to benefit from EU friendly government. The UK seeks to expand trade to the commonwealth, but stagnation and corruption lead to delays in the signing of deals, which causes a blow to the economy. To address this Cameron speeds ahead with further privatisation of the NHS in England and Wales.
The 2020 elections are a watershed moment for the UK – blaming immigrants and the EU for the economic slowdown, the Tories and UKIP win a majority in England and Wales. In Scotland the Scottish Labour Party, which broke from the main Labour Party in 2018, wins a majority of the seats over the SNP. In Northern Ireland, demographics have changed the picture drastically. North Belfast falls to a resurgent Sinn Fein, with the SDLP again picking up South Belfast. East Londonderry and Upper Bann remain in Unionist hands, but barely. The Protestant brain drain has continued apace, and with young liberal educated unionists alienated from their leaders they continue to move to Scotland. On the nationalist side more and more students move to the South, although they continue to be more likely to return home after their studies.
In 2021, after another year of Tory power propped up by UKIP, elections in Northern Ireland and Scotland feature 4 parties looking to break up the union. Nationalists in the North, after years of not voting come out in higher numbers than ever before and deliver Sinn Fein as the top party and SDLP as the third highest putting a majority of Departments under nationalist control. The SNP and Scottish Labour agree to share power, promising another referendum in 2024 as per their manifestos. Stormont sets this date for a border poll.
In 2022, Census figures are released which show that Catholics are now the largest block in Northern Ireland with 46.9% to 45.2%, with the rest other or none. At voting age, 16 and over, this is lower at 45%. The South continues to boom, attracting many from the north to travel down but live at home, while the UK has recovered by signing up to the EU Regulations similar to Switzerland and Norway, opening free trade with the USA.
In 2024 Scotland votes, this time with 55% for independence. Northern Ireland does the same, but the vote is closer with 51% voting to create a united Ireland.”