Ireland may not be perfect but it is on right path to be free and prosperous

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

 17 May, 2023.

 

“Ireland unfree shall never be at peace” were the climactic closing words of the graveside oration of Patrick Pearse at the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa on August 1 1915. These seven words, however, have now very different connotations in the contexts of the north of Ireland today.

With the definitive end of the Troubles, of the peace process that came from the St Andrews Agreement in October 2006 and the assembly elections in March 2007, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin formed a government. These parties represent people who have been divided for generations, split by the religious and political lines that fuelled the decades-long conflict since partition. While basic everyday needs are common to both, what they can’t have is one section of the community having cultural supremacy over the other. The peace process is fragile and, like the Good Friday political agreement, must be protected. The Brexit negotiations have shown the United Kingdom political parties have miserably failed the north of Ireland. With the current protocol plans incorporating the Windsor Framework agreement, a solution will be found not on the basis of victory for either, but on the basis of agreement and a partnership between both for the betterment of Ireland.

Sinn Féin’s rise is shaking up Ireland’s politics. There are increasingly loud calls to prepare for a border poll under the terms of the GFA. One outcome of which might be the unification of Ireland, free from partition and free from UK sovereignty over the north of Ireland. Rooted in the military campaign for a united Ireland, Sinn Féin was long an outsider in politics due to its political association with the Irish Republican Army. With the conflict in the north largely over since the 1998 peace deal, the movement has reinvented itself to appeal to a new generation of voters. Now, in a historic shift, it has become the biggest party in the north and also leads opinion polls in the south. That makes its demand for a referendum on unification harder to ignore. Unionists could demand a border poll to show confidence in unionism. The UK and Irish government could actively, on the back of the Good Friday Agreement, encourage the DUP more forcefully, set out a vision for unity and call a border poll to put the issue to bed. A prerequisite to the referendum is for the Irish government to form a citizens’ assembly and then publish a White Paper informed by its recommendations, setting out plans for Irish unity which will form the basis of debate during the unity referendum. The aim would be to develop a range of options about the future structure of Irish unity and how it would operate. It would allow people to have a clear idea of what they are voting for. It would be an important preparatory work to ensure that reunification is a success and begins with certainty. Unionists must be challenged to do likewise. Ireland may not be perfect but it is on the right path, to be free and prosperous to build for an all-Ireland future anchored to the EU.

With many thanks to the: Irish News and James G Barry, Templeogue, Dublin for the original letter published in the Irish News today.

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