Future Ireland

Future Ireland / Children of the Ceasefire / 1

Soapbox on January 12, 2019, 8:24 am

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This is one of three winning articles for the Future Ireland series. The articles were submitted together – by three friends who met at college – a northern Catholic, a east Belfast Protestant, and a Dublin man. We liked the nuanced content of the pieces, the sense of identities in flux, and the fact that each tried to understand the perspectives of the others. Also how being children of the ceasefires weaves throughout their pieces. By Matthew Redmond – hailing …

Future Ireland / Children of the Ceasefire / 2

Soapbox on January 12, 2019, 8:23 am

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Future Ireland / Children of the Ceasefire / 3

Soapbox on January 12, 2019, 8:22 am

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Future Ireland / How will the PUL be accommodated in a United Ireland?

Soapbox on January 11, 2019, 8:30 am

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This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. By ‘Danny Boy’. According to the demographics, there could be a nationalist majority within Northern Ireland in the not-too distant future, which some think will automatically lead to the re-unification of this island. So what will happen to all those people living within Northern Ireland who class themselves as being from the PUL …

Future Ireland from a Southern Perspective

Soapbox on January 10, 2019, 10:42 am

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This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. Éamonn Toland is a business leader and writer from Dublin. Just over a decade ago, before the crash, the then Irish Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, called for the IFA and FAI to form an all-Ireland soccer team, so that the island could “punch its full weight internationally, something that real sports people have …

Future Ireland / Building an Ireland of Communities

Soapbox on January 9, 2019, 9:10 am

| Readers 1365

This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. By T.R. Neill. Nationalism is an increasingly confident movement on the island of Ireland. As a nationalist myself, I see this as a good thing. However, I have always viewed nationalism’s challenge in the terms elucidated by John Hume, that we must not just remove the physical borders on this island but also …

Future Ireland / Why Include Ulster Protestants in a New Ireland?

Soapbox on January 8, 2019, 10:02 am

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This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. By Dilcy, a nationalist living in Belfast. Why Include Ulster Protestants in a New Ireland? Answer 1 They’re here already and may as well stay. Answer 2 We say stay, but we really hope they will eventually leave. Answer 3 They are really Irish anyway. Answer 4 We really need their help to …

Future Ireland / What Unionists Should Strive For

Soapbox on January 7, 2019, 11:52 am

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This week, we’re featuring submissions from readers on the theme of ‘Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union’. Competition winners will be published on Saturday. Alan Robinson is an Orangeman hailing from Carrickfergus. I’m an Orangeman, play in a flute band and support the Northern Ireland football team. If you only knew those three things about me, the stereotype of a loyalist skinhead would probably be conjured from the subconscious. Dig a little deeper and see what you find: …

Future Ireland: Uniting people is the starting point

David Honeyford on November 10, 2018, 9:01 am

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I was in a cafe recently when the owner, who I know from being a regular, came over and asked me, “David, clear something up between me and the Missus – was that you on the TV we saw the other night … [puzzled look] … you were part of a panel … Mike Nesbitt was there too.” To which I answered – ‘Yes, guilty! Was me!’ After a little discussion about how he didn’t realise I was interested in …

Future Ireland / Nation-States Are Yesterday’s Politics – Let’s Review Our Terms and Conditions

Donal O'Hanlon on October 20, 2018, 8:32 am

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Global trends indicate that we are graduating from ideological party politics to voting based on personal priorities such as financial security. Trump’s America is the prime example. But, like their hurricanes, everything from the US eventually crosses the water and laps our shores. Unstoppable cultural homogeneity adds to this. With lightning speed our young people adopt the same fashion, music and patois globally. The extent to which this is manipulated by media giants, arms of government and lizard overlords is …

Future Ireland: Writing Competition

Claire Mitchell on September 16, 2018, 9:00 am

| Readers 1417

This is an open call for submissions on our current featured topic – Future Ireland: Alternative Conversations about Unity and the Union You can read a little more about the aims of the project here, and the types of contributions that we’re seeking. Here are some examples. But we suspect that you might have some even better ideas. So we’re putting out an open call for articles on this topic. The best three articles will win a prize (tbc – …