“You just don’t get it!” -Gregory Campbell. Yes we do, dear Gregory

There is one core problem with creating a reunited Ireland: those people who don’t want to be part of it. They’re called unionists.  So what is it that unionists believe they would lose if a majority in Ireland voted for a unified Ireland?

1.  The no-brainer: unionists would lose political union. Why do unionists value political union with Westminster? That’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand. Martin McGuinness repeatedly told how Ian Paisley, in the early days of power-sharing, said “We can govern ourselves better than any of these people coming over here from Westminster”.  There can be little doubt that Britain does not return the love to unionists: they treat unionist politicians as political cannon fodder and, as we’ve seen with Boris Johnson, they tell them bare-faced lies. There are, I suspect, quite a few unionists who don’t like being kicked around by Tories. And has been often pointed out, in a reunited Ireland, they’d form a formidable 20% in the Dáil or whatever was its new incarnation.
2. Unionists would lose their culture. So what is that culture? My dictionary tells me that culture is  “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society”.  I find it difficult to see how a reunited Ireland could rob unionists of their “ideas”. If by ideas we mean a customary way of thinking, we all have ideas which we adjust in the light of changing circumstances. For example, my thoughts about education or religion or sport are all different than they were thirty years ago. A mind that doesn’t reorder its ideas on a regular basis is a waste of good grey matter.  As to customs, one thinks of Orange parades. I have my own thoughts on the Orange Order, but it is indisputable that there are Orange marches held south of the border, in places like Donegal and Monaghan,  and none of the non-Orange Order people in these areas seem to have any problem with them. So if that’s a custom unionist people want to continue, there should be no impediment.

Social behaviour would fall under a similar heading. If unionists wished to continue having royal garden parties at Hillsborough, for example, with a nominated royal in attendance to dispense OBEs or such, who would want to deny them that?

3. Flags, emblems etc. Well, under present arrangements, there are restrictions on the display of flags and emblems, which by and large seem to work. The same at least could be guaranteed in a reunified Ireland.

4. Sports. Soccer football and one other sport which I can’t remember  right now are the only sports played with different North and South teams.  As for clubs with a fiercely unionist identity like Linfield, they would be able to play on an enlarged stage and would add excitement and maybe even quality to soccer games throughout the island.

So really, the things which unionists cherish should find room with little difficulty in a new Ireland. And yes, there might still be those like Gregory Campbell who would say “You just don’t get it, do you? We’re unionists – we don’t want a united Ireland”: just two points, Gregory.

 One, the reasons for wanting to avoid a united Ireland have been listed above and the fears embedded in them have been shown to be paper tigers. Two, and more than a little important: there is a thing called democracy, where the majority of the people make the major decisions. Sooner than Gregory and those like him might think, unionists will be in a minority in the North and are at present a minority, albeit a substantial minority,  in Ireland. Are we saying that those who believe in democracy must exist in a state of paralysis because a minority wants to call the shots?