How many of us think that unification is no longer a priority and don't really want unification ?

Yes, and the easiest way to do this is cast-iron promises that the future United Ireland will honour all existing pension commitments. You can't rely on an extra-jurisdictional guarantee that isn't enforceable in a local court.

So you trust the British when it comes to mutual agreement, and you expect pensioners to bet their livelihoods on the British keeping their promises?

Surprised to see that.

I admire your blind faith in British governments, not sure that the rest of the Irish people share that.

Where is the gain in Brexit, aside from some insiders keeping prying eyes away from their offshoring activities?

The EU is a pooling of nations to maintain a high standard of living in an era of rising competing trade blocs. Many UK minds thought that there was better options outside the EU, but they ended up just reducing their national trading leverage.

We're coming up on the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote and it's worth rereading this Danial Hannan piece from then and then match the reality with the fantasy he spouted.

If there's hostility in any relationship involving any EU nation and Britain the font of hostility is almost always from Britain. British exceptionalism does not have a reverse gear.

@gormdubhgorm

The loyalist threat was very real when they knew they had the protection of the British state. Thatcher started the process of offloading Britain's first planter colony and in the end it may be London that moves the UK border to the Irish Sea, just as it moved the CTA once without consulting Dublin, or Stormont.

Gavan Reilly Bluesky

European Movement Ireland’s annual poll, one striking finding elsewhere: residents of N Ireland are also surveyed, and 63% (!!??) would vote in favour of a United Ireland.

No mainstream poll has *ever* recorded a margin like this…

The notes for the poll (conducted by Amárach Research, online) say the margin of error is 2.2% and that samples in both jurisdictions have been weighted to reflect demographic breakdown within each.

Something seems … awry.

Poll apparently conducted using lucid talk respondents. Seems a bit hard to believe.

It appears NI's 'unique access' (a strong argument from Unionism and partitionists for it to remain in the UK) is not all it was cracked up to be.
Tallies with no visible improvements for ordinary people as I was saying earlier.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce90j23kdnyo

Yes, we believe you, and not the actual statistics.

It is what "Stumpy" from Belfast said in the video above if you watch it. That was who I was quoting. I did not come up with the comment myself!

Here is the part of the video where he says "The thing is a lot of the peace walls are kept up in Belfast, and especially the Shankhill and Falls, as tourist attractions"

On the flip side isn't great that the likes of yourself can dream about a UI, not really likely in our lifetimes, not a likely smooth transition either. But sure no harm done.

A UI will have all the challenges of any modern country.

If I have said someting different or ever said 'it would be grand' please point out where.

The most pertinent point from the podcast is that the united Ireland issue is a deadweight that is costing Sinn Fein votes.

I have no doubt that Sinn Fein could come close to 40% of the vote in an election if they dropped the nationalist rhetoric, if they dialled it down to talking about a border poll when the people of Northern Ireland in general are ready.

You are probably correct. But the problem for SF ROI doing that ,they would be alienating those in SF NI/border counties from the lack of emphasis on "the struggle".

I mean for example - I had to laugh at coverage of the recent SF Ard Fhéis. The delegates they interviewed all had Ulster accents, and it was staged in the Waterfront in Belfast. I always listen out for the very unique SF NI terminology.

There was one I didn't hear before. He refferred to the ROI governement as "The 26 Government". Obviously given his ideology he couldn't say the ROI Government - so he said that instead.

As always there is another way of looking at that and the recent loss of voters they didn't want (the anti immigrant vote) highlights it.
They are not going to be another FF FG and buy votes with rhetoric that doesn't mean anything or is a lie just to get a vote - like 'we will never coalesce with x and then turn around and coalesce with X and many other examples.
If you don't want a Border Poll don't vote SF.

The UK should cover some of the cost. The UK would make a massive saving getting rid of the north. Its just a money pit for them. There is way to many civil servants up there. The UK would hand that back tomorrow if they could 😆 thats why I think it could happen.

protecting our borders, moving away politically from the UK which we need to start doing and going further in with our EU partners.
the common travel area will be revised or even abolished as britain gets stricter on immigration and borders, it also doesn't really serve any purpose now as most people who emmigrate are going elsewhere.