As we enter the unknown world of 2023, should we be pressing for a border poll on Irish reunification? Should we be preparing for Irish reunification? Or is Irish reunificationa pipe dream that will disintegrate on contact with the real world?
There you have it – three different angles from which Irish reunification can be and is approached. Let’s poke through each in turn.
Should we be pressing for a border poll on Irish reunification? If we believe figures from an opinion poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft in 2019, there are 51% of people in NEI who would favour a reunited Ireland tomorrow. Pretty stunning that, considering the opinion poll doesn’t appear to have explained what a reunited Ireland would look like. These people are so eager for Irish unity, they don’t much care what form it comes in. Just two years ago, in January 2021, a Sunday Times opinion poll found that while 42% of people in NEI wanted Irish unity, 47% wanted to stay in the union with GB; however, when asked if they’d like a border poll on Irish reunification inside the next five years, 51% said they would and 44% were opposed to it.
Should we be preparing for a border poll? Most definitely. And there are signs that we actually are. Apart from Micheál Martin’s supine Shared Island initiative, we’ve had two big Ireland’s Future meetings in the North and one even bigger in Dublin’s 3 Arena. It’s interesting that Sinn Féin have now placed themselves if not front and centre then clearly and candidly visible in this stirring movement.
All of which would suggest that a reunited Ireland has moved from a pipe dream to a practical and achievable reality. Certainly looking at the numbers who attend these rallies does suggest that something of massive importance is happening.
One word of caution: big crowds of people drawn to a cause may make the heart surge but it isn’t necessarily worth a damn. Remember the MASSIVE unionist crowd which assembled at Belfast City Hall to voice protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement and hear Paisley’s more-than-emphatic ‘NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER!’? Despite all the blood and thunder, things went from bad to worse with unionism and Paisley said “Well, er, maybe, oh OK then”. So let’s not cod ourselves – we’re not there yet.
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