I MUST be missing something. I was listening recently to an interview with Lynn Boylan, the Sinn Féin MEP, who confidently said she thought there would be a united Ireland in her lifetime. Not long before this Leo Varadkar, of all people, said the next Irish government should be putting in concrete plans for a united Ireland. What am I missing?
The arguments for a united Ireland? I completely agree with them. The truncated six county state makes no sense. An island this size should not have two jurisdictions. A united Ireland is both historically and ethically justified. It is democratically justified. So, yes, I agree completely with a united Ireland.
I may not see it as a priority in that I think justice and equality and fairness might best be pursued in other ways and take precedence over unification. But I think you’d be hard pressed to argue against the fundamental rightness of this island being united.
Yet, this only travels so far before coming up against the solidness of reality. The truth is that the six county corner of this country is a leftover of Empire.
The truth is, too, that the leftovers of Empire, both British and others, litter the globe. That is a simple fact. That is geopolitical actuality. That is not just historical. It has contemporary reality. The six county statelet exists because of British imperialism.
The first unravelling of that British Empire brought Northern Ireland in to being as the rest of this island fought off British rule. Sometimes it seems that those who espouse the imminence of a united Ireland have only recognised that fact.
And, yes, that fact is indisputable as, give or take an argument or too, is the historical justification for reversing it and reuniting this small corner of the earth. But there is another leftover of Empire, isn’t there? And I don’t mean leftover in a pejorative way. I mean directly as a result of, I mean directly linked to, I mean fundamentally as a result of. And that is not names, like Londonderry, it is not union jack painted kerbstones, it is not red postboxes, it is not flags. It is people.
Has everyone from Sinn Féin to Leo Varadkar, and that’s quite a political range, forgotten that?
A survey in 2022 by Queens University showed that 48 percent of respondents wished for Northern Ireland to remain part of the Union with Britain. Now, of course, this was hailed as, for the first time, a majority not being for the Union. But that 48 percent is still a helluva lot of people.
Not only that but, at the risk of being blunt, a small proportion of those people have a history of extreme violence when it comes to ‘maintaining’ the Union.
So the fundamental question remains for all those, from right wing Fine Gaelers to left leaning Republicans, what does this united Ireland do about that sizeable minority that doesn’t want it to happen. Of course, they are even more of a minority when the island is taken as a whole but that’s not the point, is it?
Northern Ireland may well be the result of historical injustice. It may well be a State actually formed on the basis of institutional injustice but that’s not the point either, is it? The point is that it does exist. The point is that it has existed for over a hundred years. The point is that there is a group of people who want it to stay that way. And so that one simple question remains.
What is a united Ireland going to do about thousands and thousands of people who do not want to be part of a united Ireland? Now, the way that others talk about this, talk about a united Ireland as if there is an eventuality about this, does make me think I’m missing something.
There must some crucial aspect that I’m just not seeing. If even somebody as far removed from republicanism as Leo Varadkar thinks we should be laying the groundwork for the unification of this island then what is it that I’m missing? What is so blindingly obvious that I’m not seeing. It must be there. Because I can’t get past that question? What is to be done about those living on this island fundamentally, even perhaps to the point of violence, opposed to the unification of this country?
Joe Horgan posts on X at @JoeHorganwriter
