Irish unity – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

This cannot simply be a numbers game. Unity will only occur peacefully through dialogue and co-operation with both nationalists and unionists

Soapbox on March 15, 2018, 3:06 pm

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Cathal Haughey is Dublin Organizer of Ógra Fianna Fáil and committee member of DCU4UNITY From the 7th-9th of March, Dublin City University students voted overwhelmingly in favor (76%) for their Students’ Union to support Irish reunification. The campaign was run by ‘DCU4Unity’ and had cross-party support from the DCU branches of Ógra Fhianna Fáil, Ógra Shinn Féin and Labour Youth. I was delighted to be appointed to the committee of the campaign as chair of the DCU Ógra Fhianna Fail. …

Poll records another jump in support for Irish Unity

David McCann on December 28, 2017, 10:28 am

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A new poll out today conducted by Ireland Thinks for the Irish Daily Mail has recorded a jump in support in voters in the South f0r Irish Unity. Ireland Thinks interviewed a random sample of 1,144 adults aged 18+ by telephone between Thursday 14th December and Friday 22nd December 2017. This group carried out a similar poll in March this year. Respondents were asked the following question; If it cost the Irish government €9 billion per annum for Northern Ireland …

Lucid Talk poll shows support for special status & strong support for the DUP & Sinn Fein

David McCann on December 7, 2017, 4:13 pm

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Lucid Talk released a poll today (commissioned by the GUE/NGL group in the EU Parliament). They have some really interesting findings. Broken down into those who identify as Unionist or Nationalists; Another interesting statistic from the poll is the current levels of party support in Northern Ireland (Good news for the DUP & Sinn Fein); Some Thoughts Obviously it’s one poll and the usual caveats apply about a simple snap shot in time. The level of support for Irish reunification …

Report examining Brexit and a United Ireland launched

David McCann on August 2, 2017, 5:07 pm

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The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement launched a report today entitled Brexit and the Future of Ireland Uniting Ireland & Its People in Peace & Prosperity. The report examines issues around Brexit and the a United Ireland and is a lengthy document. Here are some of the key recommendations from the committee; On Brexit The Irish government must negotiate for Northern Ireland to be designated with special status within the EU and for the whole …

Time for unity among those advocating Unity

Soapbox on June 14, 2017, 6:30 pm

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Matt Carthy is a Sinn Fein MEP for the Ireland Midlands-North West constituency Something big is happening. Brexit has simply accelerated a debate on Irish Unity that was inevitably going to happen anyway. Irish Unity featured during the recent Westminster election campaign in a way in which it hasn’t in living memory. That is simply a reflection of what is occurring in communities, within civic society and among members and supporters of all the main political parties North & South …

A response to Sinn Fein’s “Towards a United Ireland” document

David McCann on November 29, 2016, 8:46 am

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Sinn Fein have launched a discussion paper titled “Towards a United Ireland” The document is available in both English and Irish with each translation coming to roughly 28 pages each. If you want to read it for yourself, here is the full version. In this post, I want to highlight some of the key passages and how I feel they could be improved in creating a more coherent offering for a United Ireland that has been lacking within mainstream Nationalism …

A time to press for Irish unity or a time to stay cool?

Brian Walker on September 14, 2016, 12:18 pm

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In contrast with Chris Donnelly’s reasoned case and the speculation that Fianna Fail may at last organise in the North, herewith Newton Emerson’s latest in the Irish Times The Troubles generation was marked by an almost total collapse in the unionist sense of Irishness, which is usually explained as a reaction to republican violence. However, I do not believe this alone can account for the extent to which I do not feel Irish in the slightest. I think it is …

Kenny tells EU to prepare for prospect of a Border Poll

David McCann on July 18, 2016, 8:02 pm

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Just in from the Irish Independent; #BREAKING Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the Government and the EU must prepare seriously for the prospect of a border poll. More to follow — Independent.ie (@Independent_ie) July 18, 2016 Quotes from Enda; The discussion and negotiations that take place over the next period should take into account the possibility, however far out it might be, that the clause in the Good Friday Agreement might be triggered and that if there is a clear …

Eastwood: The inevitability of reconciled political unity is no more.

David McCann on June 21, 2016, 4:45 pm

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Colum Eastwood spoke at the SDLP Youth Conference last Saturday with some interesting comments about Nationalism and Irish unity. I have bolded some of the more noteworthy references. Beginning by referencing the poor Nationalist result last month he said; The recent election also threw up questions beyond, what can at times, be the bubble of life at Stormont. The decline of the Nationalist turnout by 5% must be a source of considerable concern to those of us who profess to …

Unionist parties reject Modeling Irish Unification Report

David McCann on March 23, 2016, 1:18 pm

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No real surprise here, but worth noting the response of the two main Unionist parties to the launch of the Modeling Irish Unification. The report was launched this morning at The MAC in Belfast with Sinn Fein, SDLP MLAs and economists in the audience. This report argues that Irish unity could potentially bring a €35.6 billion boost in GDP for the island in the first eight years. Responding for the UUP, Steve Aiken argues that the reports main conclusions are …

McWilliams on EU economic re-alignment driving a possible United Ireland

David McCann on August 2, 2015, 9:18 pm

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David McWilliams has an interesting column in today’s Sunday Business Post which muses on whether a United Ireland may not be that far away. The essential premise of McWilliams argument is that looking through history we have seen rapid changes, some of them very unexpected. Even in our own history, McWilliams points out the seemingly clear run that the Irish Parliamentary Party had in 1915 which would be abruptly destoryed in 1918 by the Sinn Fein sweep. Furthermore, he points …

In the gloom of Summer a debate about Irish unity has begun

David McCann on July 30, 2015, 10:49 am

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Brian noted a piece written by Aaron McKenna on The Journal.ie about why Irish unity is a fundamentally bad idea. Responding to his piece, Sinn Fein’s Matt Carthy sets out his view about why unity is a good idea. Regardless of your views on either, I am personally half way between them on this issue, I think the debate is a really good one to have; here is where Matt attempts to set out some the nuts and bolts of …

Republicanism cannot have any no go areas.

David McCann on May 2, 2015, 3:20 pm

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There has been a small Twitter row over a recent election leaflet put out by Sinn Fein’s North Belfast candidate, Gerry Kelly displaying the number of Catholics and Protestants in the constituency. The debates about the rights and wrongs of the leaflet have been argued out on Mick’s thread on the topic and I don’t propose to cover that here, but it did get me thinking about the future direction of republicanism/nationalism. I write (or ramble) about republicanism and in …

Some thoughts on the Economics of Unity.

David McCann on April 24, 2014, 5:41 pm

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Within Republicanism I am definitely on what I call the Diana Ross wing of thinking which says ‘you can’t hurry love’ That is why I have consistently opposed Sinn Fein’s move for a border poll right now, as I have always thought Republicanism needs to move off the notion of territorial lines on a map and simply quoting events that happened a century ago. It has long been a criticism of Irish nationalism that we lack a coherent economic argument …

Anna Lo- A United Ireland would be better placed economically, socially and politically

David McCann on March 20, 2014, 8:05 am

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Expect more things like this from Anna Lo-she is full of surprises and her interview with John Manley in today’s Irish News is no exception to this rule as she speaks about her position on Irish unity. In the piece she tells Manley; I’m an honest person…I think it is such a small place…To divide it up and the corner of Ireland to be part of the United Kingdom… it’s very artificial. Lo stated her belief that …

Whatever you do, don’t stand out from the crowd.

David McCann on February 14, 2014, 9:24 pm

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In an interview with Barton Creeth, the SDLP council candidate for Balmoral, Justin Cartwright made the following statement which caused a bit of a brew ha ha when he said this about whether he was campaigning for Irish unity No I’m not. I’m an economic unionist. Increasing numbers of nationalist voters are moving away from this idea of a united Ireland. There’s a reason for that, because people aren’t economically illiterate. They look at the the economy of the Republic of Ireland and they …

McCann meets… Phil Flanagan MLA

David McCann on September 19, 2013, 6:41 pm

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Many of you know that I put out a call on twitter for suggestions on which politicians they would like to see interviewed for Slugger. Today I bring you the first interview with Stormont’s No.1 tweeter, Sinn Fein MLA, Phil Flanagan. This was aired earlier on Lisburns 98FM. I met Phil on Tuesday in Stormont and we conducted this 40 minute interview. We covered a broad range of subjects from his background to his recent twitter war with Tom Elliott. …

Healy-Rae: “…it should make decent Irish people – however innocent – cringe with refracted embarrassment.”

Mick Fealty on July 2, 2011, 10:57 am

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There’s a nicely understated piece of writing in the Irish Times this morning, by displaced northerner Donald Clark, who probably thinks about these things more than many of his neighbours. Clark whimsically probes some of the possible reasons that may be making northerners of all stripes think twice about what we once un-self consciously called the Free State. It starts and ends with the Healy-Raes’ use of Oireachtas resources (ie, not less than €2,600 of phone calls) to ‘help Michael, …

One small region, slightly damaged, several careless owners…

John Ó Néill on September 2, 2010, 6:20 pm

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Mary Dejevsky has written a piece for the Belfast Telegraph that will go down well in some quarters and not so well in others. She is suggesting that it is time that the British government off-load Northern Ireland by one of several routes: including independence, secession or to offer to sell it to the Republic of Ireland. Her objection handling is quite interesting, for what it ignores as much as what she deals with, like religion. There is no mention …