reunification

Northern Ireland economic sovereignty must come before unification…

| Readers 4350

With the change in demographics in Northern Ireland, as well as the rise of Sinn Fein in the Republic, Irish Unification increasingly looks to be a matter of when rather than if. While there are both obvious historical and political reasons to move towards Irish unification, I don’t think it can be done without dramatic economic change in Northern Ireland. Currently, Northern Ireland runs at an annual deficit of £9.5 billion. This is an enormous bill to place in the …

Read more…

Peter Robinson was Right: Unionism Needs a Plan B…

| Readers 8253

Former DUP leader Peter Robinson warned Unionists in 2018 that they should be preparing for a United Ireland. He used the analogy of one’s house burning and having insurance in place in case it does, commenting “I don’t expect my own house to burn down but I still insure it because it could happen”. Indeed, he doesn’t want his house to burn down, but prepares for the possibility of doing so, and is therefore prepared if it does. Peter Robinson’s analogy is telling because it demonstrates …

Read more…

Any New Ireland Would Need to Accommodate Unionists…

| Readers 10478

Over twenty years since the Good Friday Agreement and we haven’t had an Assembly for over two years, and Brexit threatens to fundamentally reshape the tone of the entire political landscape on this island for at least a generation. Talk of a border poll is once again in the news as Boris Johnson makes a spectacle of the UK, and his Government, during the ongoing Brexit saga. The idea that somehow the NI Assembly will be responsible for agreeing to …

Read more…

Bill Clinton and George Mitchell some of the big names backing an ambitious plan to finance the cost of Irish reunification…

| Readers 10210

The FT is reporting on an ambitious plan by billionaire Irish American hedge fund manager Ronan O’Shaughnessy to finance the cost of Irish reunification. With Brexit there have been increasing demands for a border poll on reunification. One of the major issues for debate is how the Republic will pay for an all Ireland. But Mr O’Shaughnessy believes he has a solution: Our economic appraisal of the situation is that reunification will cost in the region of  6billion euro per …

Read more…

What lessons can we learn from the making of modern Switzerland?

| Readers 1987

Andrew Gallagher recently wrote an op-ed for Slugger (here) on the mechanics of Irish re-unification. This has become very topical following the UK’s Brexit referendum, with a feeling that ‘the harder the Brexit, the more likely is a border poll and reunification’. While readers of Slugger will have been only too aware of the potential problems that Brexit would bring, there was a very considerable lack of understanding in Britain, and particularly in England; there it was a ‘remote’ issue. …

Read more…

#IrelandsFuture: an awakened Nationalism…

| Readers 8711

I shared the scepticism of others about the #IrelandsFuture event, that it seemed a bit pointless having an event were everyone agreed with each other. But I went along to check it out and I was glad I did. The turnout was astonishing. The hall in the Waterfront conference centre has a capacity of 2000, and it was full. We are happy when we get 100 in the Dark Horse for our Slugger events so to see so many people …

Read more…

‘A New Ireland: a ten year plan?’ Book launch…

| Readers 4157

‘A New Ireland: a ten year plan?’ is being launched at events in Dublin and Belfast tomorrow (7th December). The book considers the prospect for Irish reunification in the context of the impact of Brexit and demographic changes in Northern Ireland, alongside the economic strength and increasing social liberalism of the Irish Republic.  Things are changing in Ireland, north and south. But the problems associated with the Brexit referendum result demonstrate the danger of having a yes/no vote without considering …

Read more…