Leo Varadkar is forty-two years old. He appears healthy, not to say fit, so it’s a reasonable prediction that he’ll be around for at least another forty and maybe even fifty years.
I mention the probable life-span of the Tánaiste because in today’s Irish Times, he says that he believes “in the unification of our island and I believe it can happen in my lifetime”. So Varadkar figures we could have a reunited Ireland by 2071 or even earlier.
Colum Eastwood, the leader of the SDLP, is thirty-eight years old. He seems healthy, although maybe not as fit as Varadkar. Still, it’s reasonable to suppose that he will still be around in another forty-five years. A few weeks ago he said he was “absolutely sure” there’d be a reunited Ireland inside his lifetime, so he offers us his word that there will be a reunited Ireland by 2065.
The Tánaiste goes on to say that “the views of unionists must be acknowledged, understood and respected but no one group can have a veto on Ireland’s future.” Encouraging words indeed. In contrast, he firmly rejects what he calls the “crude vision espoused by Sinn Féin”, which he sees as “a cold form of republicanism, socialist, narrow nationalism, protectionist, anti-British, euro-critical, ourselves alone, 50 per cent plus one and nobody else is needed”. And in support of his vision of a reunited Ireland sometime before 2071, he believes Fine Gael should establish a branch in the North.
You might be tempted to applaud the SDLP man’s firmer vision: he is “absolutely certain” that our country will be reunited, whereas the FG leader offers only a “belief”. Or cheer on the FG leader who has concrete plans for establishing a branch of his party in NEI/
You might on the other hand be tempted to say that they both have transformed the kicking of the can down the road into a high art form.
Does your blood surge at the fact that, in the final thirty years of this century, two politicians believe a reunited Ireland is possible/certain? Mine does, that they should talk in such pantomime terms. As for the Tánaiste’s accusations against Sinn Féin, the only thing he didn’t accuse the Shinners of was their being ten percentage points ahead of his party in the recent opinion poll.
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