Thirteen reasons for a new Ireland

Given the chasm between those favouring the union with Britain and those favouring a reunited Ireland – as shown on the Claire Byrne Show a couple of nights back – I decided to do some brain Spring-cleaning and clarify why It is I favour a reunited Ireland.

1.  On a personal level, I’m from Tyrone and my wife’s from Mayo. Never for an instant has either of us thought of the other as a foreigner.
2. In 1918 , the Irish people voted by a clear majority for an Irish parliament in Dublin. At gun-point and the threat of more terrible violence, Lloyd George told us to get lost and established an artificial state of six counties hewn out of Ulster.
3.  In 1920, 80% of Irish industrial output was based in and around Belfast. Today, the South’s economy is four times the size of that in NEI and its industrial output is ten times that of the North.
4. In the northern state we’ve had fifty years of one-party misrule, with gerrymander and discrimination riding high. The civil rights movement was met by the state’s batons and bullets, followed by thirty years of violent resistance, ending in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.
5. A key part of the GFA is a border poll  -if the North and the South want a reunited Ireland, it’s theirs for the taking.
6. Talk about 50% +1 being insufficient for constitutional change is nonsense; like a sprinter breasting the line a quarter second before others, a majority, however slim, is a majority.
7. No one, least of all Sinn Féin, is calling for a border poll to be held immediately. Before that, we need three, four, five years of discussion and planning. How would a new Ireland look in terms of education, health, living costs? And there are countless other considerations. The Brexit mistake of voting with your eyes closed is to be avoided at all costs.
8.  The South should bend all its efforts to producing a health service which is at least the equal and preferably superior to the NHS. The NHS is a glorious, wonderful thing, but if you’ve a family member working in it as I have, you’ll know that even before Covid-19 it was on its knees from under-funding. If the South could create a vibrant health system, the  argument for a reunited Ireland would be half-won.
9. The problem of Britain’s present subvention of £10 billion to NEI is a lie. This figure includes contributions to British defence forces, to paying off UK debt, to financing the royal family, and a range of other, outside-NEI matters.
10. Structures should immediately be established where, in citizens assemblies of one kind or another, matters such as the national flag, the national anthem, the place of the Orange Order in a new Ireland, the question of becoming a member of the British commonwealth – all these must be looked at, so that the unionist identify is protected in the new Ireland.
11. The possibility of a unionist/loyalist backlash could be avoided (i) by putting money and jobs into those areas from whence that backlash might come; (ii) by not over-estimating the threat – if the PSNI and MI5 haven’t penetrated the drug-dealing loyalist gangs by now, they’re not doing their job. In this case I believe they are.
12. The contribution of the EU and the US to the creation of this new Ireland is vital. Both entities should express a willingness to support the transition from two states to one state in Ireland.
13. Final thought: NEI unionist politicians are like a spouse in a marriage.  Their partner, Britain, is frankly embarrassed by NEI, has other fish to fry, and has for decades lied and lied again to its NEI spouse. Verbally at least, Britain has slapped NEI around. Meanwhile, next door, a friendly and increasingly prosperous neighbour has shown interest in forming a permanent relationship with the abused NEI. So how long is Stockholm syndrome going to keep NEI going back to her present partner, to be thumped around some more? And when will self-respect and awareness of the outward-looking, well-heeled neighbour next door embolden NEI to walk out of its present abusive relationship?