How can we integrate Unionism into a possible United Ireland?

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564135#Comment_118564135

Such a sad post, but so true.

The damage that Irish people in the form of republicans did to their fellow human beings and their own community was immense.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118559563#Comment_118559563

copying Francie what? Look, if you havent got a point, just say so. no need to start waffling about things I never mentioned

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118559565#Comment_118559565

yeah - Im sure when the shinners get into power you'll pretend you never posted that

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564454#Comment_118564454

Francie / Happyman42 tried that Pol Pot / Year Zero nonsense already.

If taxes increase in a United Ireland from this countries current levels then it is a cost.

Apologies for the long read.

I was brought up in a moderate unionist household in a staunchly unionist town. That background obviously colours a lot of my thinking. A lot of what Max001 says above is the same stuff I would have repeated years ago myself. What has changed ? A gradual realisation that I genuinely do have more in common with those from ROI than I do with those in GB. There were a few major points along the way : holidays in a fair few of the coastal counties in ROI first of all - when I was a lad the notion of crossing the border to holiday was alien. Then Brexit showed me how much the average Englishman dislikes anyone who isn't, and then when I subsequently got my Irish passport I had a mental shift in thinking, here was a country that acknowledged me even though it didn't have to. As a result of a long road I am now in favour of a UI and thus fairly unique. For that decision though I am treated as a traitor by some of those I grew up with and by suspicion by some of those who are nationalist. C'est la vie.

When you ask how to accommodate unionists, the first thing is to realise that unionists are not a large mass of like minded people. Too often there are comments such as "unionists are <insert thing Jamie Bryson says here>". I think sometimes they are viewed by posters on here as a Star Wars clone army, but with orange sashes. It's not true, there are those who are staunch and loud, there are those who are moderate and quiet, there are those who really don't care but who have grown up amongst others who are friends and so they nod and agree with that particular mindset because to do anything else is to be outcast. You as a country need to try to reach the moderates and the don't cares. The first step would be a simple acknowledgment from ROI leaders that unionists would be welcome in a UI. Thats why I was so let down (though I understood his reasoning) by Michael Higgins not appearing in Armagh, what a positive statement that would have been. Everyone wants to be wanted, and that simple "we'd love to have you lot in a UI" would be a huge start. Also something to convince that a UI won't be taken as a opportunity to persecute the communities that were unionist. And a promise that those who identify as British can continue to do so, in much the same way as those in NI who currently identify as Irish can do so.

The second thing is to realise that, from a unionist perspective, the one thing that put back Irish unity was 30 years of the troubles. We were a terrorised community, don't underestimate the effect that has on minds. I grew up knowing friends who's fathers were blown up. Or one day I'd walk down the town centre and the next day the town centre was gone. Frequently in the middle of doing normal life things you'd hear the low rumble of a bomb and know that something or someone nearby that you knew had gone. Or have to run after an announcement to get out of the shopping centre you were in before a bomb went off. Searched every time you went into a large shop. Walls and hate and rioting between communities. To listen to the news was a daily death toll. For goodness sake never let us go back to those dark days. At this point usually there is a flood of whataboutery re the brits / loyalists / etc. I'm not going to deny that community their horrible experiences too, but equally lets not deny how terrible life was for 30 years as a unionist too.

The third thing is to remember that people are a product of their environment. Take a staunch republican from Derry, and instead imagine he was born in Larne to hardline DUP supporters. Chances are the that he goes to the local bonfires every July. Choices like that largely follow from the community you are in.

As for practicalities I'm not so sure. I am honestly very surprised by how many don't want anything to do with the North, I (maybe naively) thought it would be huge majority in favour. However I would say to those who don't want a UI because it will cost - when do you think it won't cost ? There will never be a point where it will be easy and cheap. To deny a UI now is to effectively say that you never want a UI, and Ireland really should be united. Do you not feel some sort of historical moment at this time ? I'd like to think that there will be a joint financial operation here - a handover payment for a number of years (a dowry if you will) from the UK, yes a burden on Irish taxpayers too, a lot of free stuff from the EU. Changes to anthem / flag / etc, all the detail, that needs to be worked out in a framework before a referendum - not all detail coloured in, but certainly broad statements of intent, eg "noone will lose any pension as part of a UI", that sort of thing. What would the ROI get in return as a positive ? I think tourism to the newly united island would get a major boost, and also don't forget the huge IT sector in NI with many blue chip clients. Theres a couple of things anyway.

(At this point theres usually a flood of anger from a select few, so this is advance warning that I'm going to ignore it as someone advised me too a few pages ago.)

saabsaab

There would be large financial aids from the EU to assist the process. Also perhaps financial help from the US and the UK for a time.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564522#Comment_118564522

where in gods name did i mentioedn pol pot and year zero *whatever the **** that is)?

Seriously - I had breakfast already. No more waffle for me thanks. I dont know if you just like to hear yourself typing or what, but it would help if you made the odd bit of sense.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564602#Comment_118564602

well posted. there needs to be a lot of discussion, before anything else - the idea needs to be discussed as whatever a UI ends up being will be a lot different than the versions that are being put forward presently (imo)

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564602#Comment_118564602

Personally, cost is the number 1 factor for me. The Northern Irish economy is so bad that it could mean the entire island becoming worse off. It's not like sectarianism would disappear in a UI we could all just end up poorer with nothing in return. The subvention protects NI. That protection would be gone in a UI.

Given it was an aim of the IRA to destroy the economy in my opinion the onus is on SF to fix it. If they can improve it so that the cost was reduced to say only a 5% increase in income tax then i probably would vote for it.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564712#Comment_118564712

what are you basing your costs of? I ask because we dont even know what kind of way the place will be set up, so we are nowhere near the time to be able to say how much anything will cost or how much anything will generate as far as money is concerned. the basics have to be discussed and debated yet.

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564748#Comment_118564748

What's the point in discussing this if you believe in the Pol Pot approach and nothing existed prior to unification 🤣?

In my opinion harmonization of SW and PS pay and pensions will cost significantly more than the potential GDP increase of 10% over 8 years.

Fitzgerald predicts a budget adjustments of 20/30bn to fund NI as it is without harmonization! Equivalent to budget adjustments seen during the worst of the last recession.

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564118#Comment_118564118

at the risk of discussing another poster i should point out that harry is a pure fantasist , in another thread he claimef to be a dea member involve on frug interdiction flights off the USA, 😁😁

nothing he says should or can be taken as having any real value

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564460#Comment_118564460

Why would I pretend?

At present, though SF might have the best polling numbers, two thirds of the country would not vote for them. So as long as the other two parties continue to cooperate with each other, only a coup or an extraordinary increase in popularity would bring SF to power.

And even if the did get there, it would be monumentally stupid to hold a referendum on unification, as a loss would send SF into a spiral of rejection and decline that it may never recover. Imagine the Irish people rejecting the core policy on which SF operates, the leadership would have to have to have an IQ in single digits to risk that without years of being in power and having a track record of improving the lives of the electorate, something they appear not to have in the North if things are as bad as some would have us believe.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564657#Comment_118564657

What money from the EU? Why would a relatively poor country like Romania or Bulgaria hand over part of the EU budget to a relatively richer country like a united Ireland?

The notion of large financial aid for a united Ireland was a possiblity in the 1970s when Ireland was relatively poor, it is a non-runner today.

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118563494#Comment_118563494

What do you mean bothered with it? Obviously Sinn Fein took the most interest in the study, that's not surprising.

I realise now you are in denial and nothings going to change that as you want the idea of unification to be disastrous because you don't want it to happen, I'm not saying this study is the be all end all, I'm just saying the study is by far the best we have, it was a study taken by some of the greatest experts around the world from impartial countries like Germany, Canada and England, these people have experience in similar studies on the unification of Germany and Korea.

The study was reported on by all the major media outlets, from the Irish examiner to the Belfast Telegraph to the BBC, none of which felt any need to criticise it apart from a single article by the Irish times and a blogger who goes by the name of Slugger O'Toole.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564940#Comment_118564940

No matter how many times you repeat the same lines, it doesn’t make it so. The coverage was about the release of a study, not the study itself. The coverage seems to have tanked since that day judging by a google search.

Harry, are you really a pilot?

blanch152

https://sluggerotoole.com/2022/01/31/legacy-there-are-others-who-live-with-not-knowing-whilst-hoping-for-something-else/#more-139081

As an insight into what is required to integrate unionism and unionists, this is the sort of article that republicans should be reflecting on.

"There is a deeply held view that some representatives who call loudest for transparency, inclusivity and truth are loathe to make the same call of former combatants with whom they share common purpose and aspirations."

There is an onus on republicanism to acknowledge the wrongs done by those it supported and nurtured. Unionists will not feel welcome in any united Ireland that votes in large measure for Sinn Fein, that is an unavoidable fact.

https://irishpeaceprocess.blog/2021/04/13/__trashed/

This is a chilling and well-researched account of the callous murder by the IRA of a young woman who was only trying to earn a bit of extra money for her family.

Later in the article, speaking about another murder of a young woman, Martin McGuinness, a hero to some posters, said "they brought it on themselves. The people in the Bogside and the Creggan didn't give a damn about Alice Purvis and the proof of that is that only 100 people turned up to her funeral".

Just imagine a mentality that judges people by the number who turn up to her funeral. Try and get yourself inside the head of someone like that, it is almost inhuman. Fair play to the 100 people who did turn up, who were brave enough to defy the PIRA within that terrorised community. The PIRA were not heroes, Sinn Fein are not nice cuddly blokes who could be your favourite uncle (in a number of cases they were the "uncle" that many young children feared coming into their bedroom at night).

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564995#Comment_118564995

Complete scum, McGuiness. Don't believe he was redeemed in any way just knew he was beaten and it was easier to facilitate British Rule in NI himself and take his cut.

Sleepy

@Kaiden Happy Mouthpiece just in relation to this part of your post:

"I am honestly very surprised by how many don't want anything to do with the North, I (maybe naively) thought it would be huge majority in favour. However I would say to those who don't want a UI because it will cost - when do you think it won't cost ? There will never be a point where it will be easy and cheap. To deny a UI now is to effectively say that you never want a UI, and Ireland really should be united. Do you not feel some sort of historical moment at this time ?"

Even if there were no financial cost, I'd be against a United Ireland TBH. It may have been a nice fairytale when my grandfather was sold the idea in his teens and joined up to "do his bit" and torch the Custom House but after a century of partition we have distinctly different cultures in the Republic and the North.

To be fair, in my experience, there's probably 70% of those in Northern Ireland who just want the same as those of us in the Republic: the chance to raise our children in peace and prosperity. The issue is the other 30%. I don't want religious extremists of any kind in our government. The hard liners on both sides of the divide in the North can't be reasoned with: they've drunk the kool-aid and like Harryd are only capable of repeating the rhetoric of the idiots they follow and turning to violence when they don't get their way. So, all apologies to the majority of NI residents but as long as a significant minority of your population are religious nutjobs, political extremists or violent thugs, the Republic will be far better off without you.

Maybe in time, as the bible bashing bigots die off and the memories of the crimes committed by both sides fade away, the headcases might become a small enough number that they wouldn't cause serious problems post unification and the issue could be revisited. Until then, any attempt to unify the countries will be a predictable, and no doubt bloody, mess.

El Tarangu

I think it's very telling that the solution of the most enthusiastic supporters for reunification for the unionist population in NI is: "well, they'll learn to live with it after a while".

Ireland was "unified" with Britain for (depending on how you measure it) 400-800 years, and yet people in pre-independence Ireland, and now still in Northern Ireland, still hold on to their national identity - why would it be any different for the people of a unionist persuasion whom we share this island with?

Like, I imagine, many other people, I like the idea of an independent and united Ireland, but if you asked me if I liked it enough to pay an extra few thousand in tax every year for several decades to fulfil this dream, I would probably say 'no'.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565040#Comment_118565040

Fair enough. I'm not sure the "bloody mess" is a foregone conclusion though. If the moderates and dont cares of the unionist community can be persuaded, the hardliners have very little community to fall back on, and any kind of terrorism requires the protection and silence of their community. But it's one of those things that I don't think we'll know for sure until it happens, unfortunately.

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564995#Comment_118564995

I always found the killing of Joanne Mathers very suspicious, the killing happened at the time of the hunger strikes when the IRA had announced a cessation of activities in support of the hunger strike by Bobby Sands, they hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the hunger strike began, then all of a sudden two days before the election of Bobby Sands they decided to kill a young woman and then went through the effort of adamantly denying involvement immediately afterwards, strange to say the least.

saabsaab

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565845#Comment_118565845

What is strange about it?

The background is clear in the article linked.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565491#Comment_118565491

How can the moderates and dont cares of the unionist community be persuaded if they are faced with the reality of Sinn Fein in government without the protections of the GFA?

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565876#Comment_118565876

It's just strange the IRA who had ceased all activities for the hunger strike and hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the hunger strike began, then all of a sudden, out of the blue they decide to kill a young woman two days before the election of Bobby Sands, almost ruining bobby's election completely.

They then went into adamant denial immediately afterwards claiming they were not responsible, just seems a strange thing to do is all I'm saying.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565936#Comment_118565936

I have given up trying to understand the horrific mentality of those who ran Sinn Fein and the PIRA in those years. Allowing their own people to die on hunger strike, facilitating beatings and rapes of members of their own community, kidnapping and killing innocent women of their own community, in that context, the murder of Joanne Mathers isn't at all strange. Easy target, easy victim, a typically cowardly PIRA murder.

El Tarangu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565936#Comment_118565936

We know: you think that the IRA are a great bunch of lads, but are happy enough to try and muddy the waters in regards to responsibility for their most heinous acts (murdering 10 working men at the side of the road purely on the basis of their religion, or murdering a sociology student purely on the basis of her job).

"You can be [SF/IRA's] wingman any time, M̶a̶v̶e̶r̶i̶c̶k̶ Harry"

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564878#Comment_118564878

They have and still do there is no reason that they won't in the future. The region (Ulster) would be a disadvantaged area for some time.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/102/northern-ireland-peace-programme

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566179#Comment_118566179

We got just over €100m a year across the whole country in the last round of EU funding. Even doubling that to €200m a year would be a drop in the ocean of the bill for a united Ireland, and there is no chance of us getting anything like another €100m a year.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564602#Comment_118564602

Great post and a good read. It is clear to me that a UI would be a new entity and it won't be business as usual in the 26 with 6 'added on'. A change from 'Dublin rule' would be welcome across the country.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566211#Comment_118566211

'Peace and cash

When addressing Northern Ireland, the European Commission usually focuses on the question of peace. The EU put the protection of peace at the forefront in Brexit negotiations, and there is a sense of responsibility for maintaining it following years of EU funding for border and community peace projects over the years.

In a budget agreement this summer, €120 million was set aside to continue such funding, irrespective of Brexit. If any vote were to arise, the reaction across the EU would depend upon the circumstances.

If a referendum occurred according to the Belfast Agreement, with consent on all sides and decisive results, there would likely be cheers across the continent. Many continental observers are unconvinced that even Conservative politicians in England remain unionist in regards to Northern Ireland, and a successful referendum would be likely to be broadly seen as a tidy resolution of history.

But until support for the idea is broad and formally declared, Brussels will likely hedge its bets.

“I think the EU would probably opt for a position of benevolent neutrality, set up the position that this is a matter for the island, but if Northern Ireland opts for integration in the EU in Ireland, the EU will not stand in the way,” Dr Clarkson said.

“I presume that they will smother Northern Ireland in EU cash to try to keep things quiet. A tried and tested EU method. And Northern Ireland’s integration into the EU system would be expedited. I don’t think that would be a difficult position to arrive at.”

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566317#Comment_118566317

“I presume that they will smother Northern Ireland in EU cash to try to keep things quiet. A tried and tested EU method. And Northern Ireland’s integration into the EU system would be expedited. I don’t think that would be a difficult position to arrive at.”

The Spanish economy is in serious trouble, as is the Italian economy. Both nations have been struggling for decades, but a lot of the newer projections show a serious risk of collapse. Then, there's the EU commitments to Eastern Europe, and the more recent need to develop a military in response to the Russia/Ukraine situation. Even without those commitments and dangers, the EU has been struggling itself in recent years.

And you really think the EU are going to smother NI in cash when they have so many other places requiring funding? The Republic, as a relatively successful economy and high wealth (on paper) will be expected to pick up the bill for most things related to NI.

The eurozone economy was therefore needing life support even before the pandemic – indeed, many of the ECB’s other unconventional support measures were in place throughout. Tellingly, the ECB’s only new measure during the pandemic has been a new form of cheaper refinancing for banks. It raises the prospect of the ECB running out of the ammunition needed to keep stimulating the eurozone’s sickly economy.

https://theconversation.com/four-reasons-why-eu-is-staring-down-the-barrel-of-a-second-lost-decade-165509

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118565985#Comment_118565985

Yes two days before the election of Bobby sands the IRA decided to try and sabotage his election by killing an innocent woman, even though they had declared a cessation to violence and hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the election began, then after killing her start frantically trying to deny they were involved.

Although there is a logical explanation that a young IRA member naive to the political effects and damage this would have caused the IRA and hunger strikers, acted alone and killed her, which according to your logic on the British army, would mean the IRA were not responsible?

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566360#Comment_118566360

The opinion wasn't mine but a quote from an Irish Times article not exactly a bastion of Irish Republicanism.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566640#Comment_118566640

You provided it.. I assume you agree with/stand by the claim...

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566426#Comment_118566426

a naive young man ?

thats your explanation ? thats all you bothered to come up with ?

thats weak, even for a shinnerbot.

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566807#Comment_118566807

I'm not coming up with anything I have a couple of theories on what happened and I'm saying that's one of the most likely.

I say naive as in he may have been stupid enough to not see how killing her could have sabotaged Bobby Sands election and damaged the IRA who ceased activities in support of the hunger strikesto prevent civilian deaths from draining international and local support for the hunger strikers,or else he was just a scumbag who didn't care and got blood thirsty, it's just very suspicious it happened two days before the election of Bobby Sands.

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566234#Comment_118566234

Why wouldn't it be business as usual and 6 being added to the 26? The 26 is the largest cohort and will have the greatest say in the logistics of a UI. Opinion polls have shown no appetite to change the flag or anthem for example.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566833#Comment_118566833

Killing her was “naive”, is there no end to the wretchedness of your posts?

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566987#Comment_118566987

Killing her was naive and wrong, disgusting.

Whoever killed her was no Republican, not just for intentionally killing an innocent person but for doing it two days before the election of Bobby Sands, which came close to sabotaging his election people were certain after that killing he was going to lose the vote in the mainly moderate Catholic middle class area of Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567100#Comment_118567100

It was a politically inconvenient murder? This really is stomach churning.

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567147#Comment_118567147

I'm disagreeing with a killing that happened during a conflict and saying it was wrong, what exactly do you find so stomach churning? Your stomach must churn quite easily, probably churns everyday at the sight of dog **** on your way to the shops.

Max001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564602#Comment_118564602

I'm responding to Kaiden Happy Mouthpiece because he wrote the most and the most thoughtful follow on comment, after mine. Thanks to Blanch152 for your support for what I wrote. I think I could quite happily sit down with both of you and have a very enjoyable discussion on lots of topics, over some quality alcohol :)

I also grew up in a very moderate unionist household. However, I was lucky enough to grow up in one of the safest parts of the Province if you were a civilian and that was the North Coast. However, there were still murders and bombings by PIRA that everyone remembers and the town centre was effectively destroyed by a massive bomb in 1992. There was an active service unit of the IRA within the University of Ulster during The Troubles that helped with targeting of local police officers and as I said previously, that targeting right across the Province has never stopped. As a child I only ever went across the border, as part of a sports team and on those few occasions, it felt like an entirely alien place. The money (punts) looked weird and often I couldn't understand what people were talking about. My sense of the Republic as a child, was that it was the source of all the problems that existed in Northern Ireland.

In my previous post, I was trying to illustrate that Republicans have reaped what they sowed. They are the reason for the widespread antipathy that exists towards them, right across the island. When they attempt to whitewash their personal histories and the history of their movement, it infuriates me no end.

I absolutely loved living in Cork and I hugely enjoyed living in Dublin at a later date. When I first arrived in Cork city in the early naughties, I used to wonder why the place was so empty during summer weekends and why people were unreachable on their cell phones. I quickly discovered that everybody who could, decamped to West Cork every weekend and when I discovered West Cork and Kerry, I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. When I moved to the Cork coast, I was the happiest I've ever been.

I was never more proud of my adopted home, when the Queen received a hugely warm welcome when she visited Cork in 2011. She walked around the English Market, a place I used to regard as my local supermarket, because it was the closest source of food, to where I lived. I knew many of the traders who met the Queen and I was so moved to tears, I had to pull over and park on the hard shoulder of the N7, because I was moving to Dublin that day.

I can appreciate the viewpoint of those for whom a united Ireland is an anathema. I am extremely proud of my own Scots-Irish ancestry and use the label Ulsterman or Ulster Scot to describe myself. Simply because I feel that its the most accurate. But having lived and worked in the Republic, both pre and post housing bubble, I can honestly say that its a place that I've grown to love.

Northern Ireland is a failed state. It needn't have been this way, but the blame lies squarely with Republicans. At the same time as The Republic was thriving on unimaginable amounts of inward investment by foreign companies, who were mostly looking for a tax haven. Northern Ireland suffered from sixty percent unemployment in working class estates all across the Province and in all of the border areas. Both Protestant and Catholic. The EU sank hundreds of billions of so-called Peace 1 and Peace 2 grants into N.I. over decades and the general assessment of it's effects are that it was largely wasted. Politics is conducted through an artificial construction. Not real democracy.

There is no more money, to help pay for Irish reunification. Ireland has had it's time at the EU trough and that time will never come again. Ireland has been a net contributor to EU coffers since 2019 and given the relative debt mountains of France, Germany, Greece and others, Ireland will be a net contributor for at least a generation to come. The U.S. has done it's heavy lifting. Mainly politically. Its going to be focused like a laser on China for the next generation. The UK has it's own economic woes. 30% child poverty. Huge inequalities across the countries and across ethnic groups. North Sea oil, that bankrolled the country since the 1970's, will only remain productive with massive investment and restructuring. So, there will be no dowry. Ireland will have to shoulder the burdens of reunification itself. Any intelligent Irish people that I have the reunification conversation with, just laugh. The consensus is, 'Thanks but no thanks.' The current Irish political leadership did itself no favours in Stormont or Westminster by letting no opportunity pass by, without putting the boot into the Brexit process and Northern Ireland's place within it. That sort of behaviour will not be forgotten, when the U.K. helped bail out Irish Banks. It sometimes seems like no good deed goes unpunished. If I was U.K. Prime Minister, I would show only cold, hard real politik towards Ireland, until Coveney either learns to think before he speaks, or is long departed.

I seriously doubt that any increase in tourism would add anything significant to GDP. Ireland is probably at capacity and Northern Ireland hasn't the infrastructure. Nor is high tech the answer. We have a poor history of turning research into jobs and the tech start-up niche is woefully under funded and hugely risk averse.

I'm not familiar with whatever happened or didn't happen in Armagh. I mostly ignore local politics. Politics is still viewed as a zero sum game here. For me to win. You must lose. We're still arguing over rights. We have not reached a place of shared interests. Apparently, there are more peace walls up now than during the height of The Troubles. Until we can make peace with each other here in Northern Ireland, don't expect any movement whatsoever towards unity on the island of Ireland. Because we'll have to pay for unity ourselves, both British and Irish, it will push unification even further into the future. Probably for at least another generation.

Slan Go Foill

(the first of the very few Irish phrases I learnt, because its painted on every road, leading out of every village and town) 🤣

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566694#Comment_118566694

I do. Shows I'm not alone.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566857#Comment_118566857

Hoe could it? A new political situation possibly new parties. A new flag, new anthem a new Capital probably.. The 26 won't as as one entity anymore.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567227#Comment_118567227

New capital?

Harryd225

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567177#Comment_118567177

What's with all the Unionists on this thread? I do have to say though I give props to you and the other posters who are openly admitting they are from Unionist backgrounds, many posters on this thread refuse to admit their Unionist backgrounds and are operating under the guise of being from the Republic to spread fear of economic disaster and loyalist violence in their pathetic attempts to drain support for unification.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564878#Comment_118564878

EU Regional Development Fund etc. EU has donated billions to Kosovo and it's not even in the EU.

Even though the UK was a nett contributor to the EU places like Cornwall still got EU funding. The UK still hasn't replaced that funding.

jh79

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118567227#Comment_118567227

Why won't it be just adding the 6, maybe that's what the majority want?

The majority down here want to keep the flag and anthem according to opinion polls.