Border poll

Sinn Fein does not expect to win a border poll but would relish the opportunity for a public conversation…

Mick Fealty on March 15, 2012, 7:29 pm

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listen to ‘Martina Anderson says republicans don’t believe a border poll now will bring about a united Ireland’ on Audioboo UUC Journalism student David Thompson interviewed Derry based Sinn Fein MLA Martina Anderson yesterday and got some very interesting and candid thoughts about the party’s position on the kind of border poll Gerry Adams called for at Gulladuff last weekend… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and …

“We cannot impose; this has to come from within Northern Ireland.”

Pete Baker on March 10, 2012, 7:05 pm

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Nothing in politics, nor in life, is “inevitable” [except death and taxes! – Ed] Indeed. That includes a “border poll” – despite the protestations of the former International Representative for West Belfast, then temporary Crown Steward, now Louth TD, and Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams. The Irish Times reports his latest outburst “A border poll is inevitable. Mr Patterson knows this. It is only a matter of timing,” said the Sinn Fein leader. “By definition that will come when the people of …

Case for unification: “I sense that republicans don’t actually know the answer themselves”

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2012, 11:00 am

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On the subject of polls, I’d blogged Owen Paterson’s thoughts before Alex Kane’s column came online: My own view is that this is the perfect time for a referendum. Bring it on, in fact! In 1973 we never got the chance to have a proper debate about the realities, consequences and ramifications of Irish unity. As is so often the case the nationalists ran away from it. In one sense, of course, you can’t blame them for not wanting a …

Owen Paterson: No popular demand for a border poll…

Mick Fealty on February 13, 2012, 7:09 am

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Owen Paterson, it seems, is not exactly inundated with letters, phone calls and emails looking for a border poll of the type Martin McGuinness was musing on a few weeks back… Last year, 73 per cent of respondents to an opinion poll in Northern Ireland said they wanted the region to remain a part of the UK. The Life and Times survey published in June 2011 found 52 per cent of Catholics living in Northern Ireland wanted the union to …