WATCH: How To Lose A Referendum #imaginebelfast

The Referendum is an attractive democratic tool – ‘let the people decide!’ – however, the practice can often differ from the theory, as the world has witnessed in recent years – the 1973 Border Poll, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement vote in 1998, the Alternative Vote outing in 2011, Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the EU poll in 2016 and the Brexit aftermath, and many in the Republic of Ireland (Lisbon, Nice, families and care, divorce, abortion, equal marriage et al) – should these give us pause for thought?

With the possibility of another Border Ballot / Reunification Poll across this island, what are the issues surrounding this device – the people have spoken?

It is easy to demand that the people’s voice be heard – but harder to implement successfully: most referendums are lost; many intensify division; only some settle the argument.

At the recent Imagine! Festival, after a quiz (not filmed) that explored the audience’s pre-existing knowledge of referendums, Mark Devenport chaired a panel discussion to explore the dynamics and explain the pitfalls with Aaron Callan (Causeway Coast and Glens Councillor and Parliamentary Researcher for Gregory Campbell), Emma DeSouza (journalist, campaigner, and peace activist who changed UK law in a landmark human rights case relating to the Good Friday Agreement), and Quintin Oliver (NGO activist and political lobbyist, who ran the successful “YES” Campaign in the 1998 referendum on the Belfast Agreement and now runs the political consultancy Stratagem International)

A number of other events from this year’s festival (and previous years) are available to watch on-demand.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)

Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.

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