‘British Unionists in Ireland are á la carte democrats’ by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair

Brexit has ignited a fresh debate on what constitutes ‘democratic decisions’ on the island of Ireland.

British Unionists are increasingly suggesting, if the Irish nation on the island of Ireland want to reunite our nation, we must convince a majority of them to agree. Wrong. In our 1998 GFA peace deal, Unionists agreed to the principle of consent. That means, 50.1% of the population of N Ireland is all that’s required to approve reunification of Ireland.

The Irish nation was undemocratically partitioned at gunpoint in 1921, and if Unionists think they can again switch the goalposts they truly are utterly deluded.

British Unionism as a community are proven á la carte democrats, who must be obliged to now take stock of their moral foundations and specifically acknowledge three plain but fundamentally important historical facts.

Firstly, no foreign state or crown had any moral or legal right to occupy Ireland and usurp native Irish citizens personal land and property rights as enshrined in Ireland’s ancient Brehon laws (which egalitarian Irish laws considerably pre-dated Britain’s much-lauded Magna Carta of 1215).

Secondly, the 1800 Act of Union imposed upon Ireland was not endorsed by the Irish nation and consequently a foreign occupying British state lacked any moral or legitimate legal mandate to impose that colonial Union.

Thirdly, Ireland’s electoral majority made clear in 1918 its desire to end that undemocratically imposed colonial Union.

Basic moral codes of right versus wrong are timeless, as are the rules of natural justice that determine fair consideration of one’s case. These are the core tenets of a civilised society and must always be our barometer when seeking to evaluate any behaviour whether past or present. Moral democrats will readily agree, foreign British laws have never had any moral basis upon which to run writ anywhere in Ireland: that foreign state’s presence is founded upon immoral conquest, the usurping of Ireland’s native laws and denial of the expressed democratic will of the Irish nation.

Who gave foreign British supremacists their presumed right to decide what constitutes legitimate laws in Ireland i.e our ancient egalitarian Brehon laws?

Who gave foreign British supremacists their presumed right to ignore the 1918 expressed will of the majority of Irish voters to exit the United Kingdom Union?

Did a foreign British state have any moral or legitimate legal right to undemocratically partition Ireland at gunpoint in 1921? No. It had no right whatsoever to divide the Irish nation in Ireland, and that ongoing injustice must end.

In the June 2016 Brexit referendum, the desire of a majority of Northern Ireland aka Ulster was to remain part of the European Union. However, NI Unionist politicians insist that the will of the Westminster parliament is supreme and thus must prevail: it approved this referendum and formally endorsed the result. Given this stance, political Unionism must explain how it can sensibly contend that the will of the people of Ulster (be it the 9 or 6 county version) was supreme over Westminster’s will in 1912 but not supreme in 2016?

Notably, these Unionist á la carte democrats include the pro-UK Unionist-lite Alliance Party. Like their fellow British Unionists in the DUP, Alliance demonise as ‘divisive’ and ‘sectarian green’ any Irish politician who dares invite them to democratically engage in debating the reunification of Ireland.