A prominent republican once told me that the main barrier to a reunited Ireland could well be people in the south rather than unionists in the North. In general I disagree with him on that, but the Letters Page of the Irish Times two days ago suggests he’s maybe right.
The heading is ‘Voting on programme for new government’ and the people writing to the paper are indignant with the Green Party:
”Sir, – We elect TDs to make decisions regarding our country. Why then must they revert to their party members for ratification of these decisions? I did not vote for any of these party members, some of whom it is reported do not even live in this State. Surely this is undemocratic!”
“If 90 per cent of the membership in the Republic were to vote in favour, but 90 per cent of the Northern Irish members were to vote against, the proposed programme for government of this country would not reach the two-thirds majority required by the Green Party.”
I’m assuming that these correspondents are rational beings but that may be a mistake. Both letters object to the notion that Green Party members in the north should be allowed vote on something affecting only the south.
Taken literally, they’re right: by definition Green party members in the north live in a different state from those in the south. However, the Green Party, like Sinn Féin, is an all-Ireland party. Given this, the injustice would be if the party members allowed to vote were confined to those living in the south.
At the heart of this matter is the failure of both correspondents to see the north as having any right to interfere with politics in the south. There are a considerable number of us who think that the injustice lies with the fact that voters in the north – or their representatives – are unable to vote on every matter affecting the people who live in this 32-county place called Ireland. Or put another way, partition is an injustice that was foisted on the Irish people with the threat of terrible war if they did not agree to it.
So the time for pussy-footing is over. Everyone on this island should be given a chance to say whether people in the north, and south, and east, and west, should together decide on all matters affecting the Irish people. And maybe that chance could be created by all political parties, north and south, coming out unambiguously and telling us if they approve of partition or not.
A Yes or a No will do. The time for ducking and diving on the constitutional question is over.
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