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

I don't think the 'Northern Ireland' identity is a real one. It's a holding place for those disgruntled with Unionist or Republican politics.
Regardless of what I or you think, all identities will have to negotiate and persuade.

That's a proper functioning democracy.
We have seen what artificially protecting ONE identity can do.

That is a prejudicial and condescending post, telling people what identity they are allowed hold as a real one. It is a bigoted position to deny people their identity. I have met enough of people to know that their Northern Irish identity is real.

Telling people their identity is not real, do you realise how bigoted and condescending that is?

There is a place called Northern Ireland, there are people that come from there who call themselves Northern Irish, and you want to decree that isn't real?

I didn't tell a soul anything.
I said I don't believe the Northern Irish identity is a real one. I am open to persuasion and can change my mind.

If it is, then those with that identity have the same rights as anyone else to look for that identity to be protected.

Same as those with an Irish identity have had to fight tooth and nail since partition to have their identity recognised and given the same esteem as other identitiies.

I won't be taking any lectures from someone who has never advocated for that identity either and who routinely dismisses what it wants.

Nobody is going to make the case for  federal or confederal approaches, except those who want them or think they are good ideas.

Nobody with any political weight is.

Who is making the case for the Northern Ireland identity to be enshrined in either the existing jurisdiction or a UI?

If you can point me to reasoned arguments I'm more than willing to take a look.

Is a Northern Ireland identity different to a Belfast identity or a Derry identity?

I Ireland we seem to be able to accommodate a Kerry identity, a Galway identity, a Dublin identity etc. all in a single state. What is special about a Northern Irish identity that needs to be enshrined in law.

It is the identity of the State of Northern Ireland. We have a Northern Ireland Assembly, last I checked we didn't have a Kerry assembly, ditto many many other Northern Irish institutions.

Tell Rory McIlroy he isn't Northern Irish, that it is only a sham. He is not the only one.

You need to broaden your circle.

That there is momentum and pressure to act on the ruling parties can really no longer be denied.

FG to deliver a 'blueprint on Irish Unity' by November.

It will be interesting to see what the level of detail is and there was zero surprise hearing Neal Richmond say on Morning Ireland that of course it would be detailing a United Ireland and that all parties and stakeholders will have to come together to create a Plan/Green Paper, that was the only way it could happen.

In other words, a Northern Irish identity is still ultimately founded on a sense of a British Northern Ireland or an Irish Northern Ireland. I myself am from the North and I certainly have a sense of a "Northern" / Ulster identity, but that sits within my sense of Irishness as opposed to any sense of Britishness.

Exactly this.

But that doesn't change anything — there is no such thing as a separate Northern Ireland regardless of whether someone feels strongly on its constitutional status or is entirely disinterested. Northern Ireland has only two futures: one remaining in the UK or one unified with the Republic. There is no third option at present and it's unlikely there ever will be.

Yes, there are those who don't care either way. But to not care either way is paradoxical to the existence of a Northern Irish identity in the first place. Because if you don't care about its fundamental constitutional status it's hard to argue that you feel strongly about being Northern Irish as a distinct national identity. The people you speak of who are detached from any preference as to NI being British or Irish are essentially the "go-with-the-flow" types who will accept either outcome without strong view (or so they say, ultimately they will weigh up what they think is better for them) — but that means they don't have a strong observable identity as regards Northern Ireland itself in the first place. If Northern Ireland were unified with the Republic tomorrow, thus ending its existence, they would simply go along with that. That doesn't strike me as being a core fundamental identity on their part.

Which leads me back to the original point. Those who declare their identity as purely Northern Irish will in my view likely lean in favour of a certain context within which that identity exists - British or Irish. And if they don't care either way then that strikes me as an expression of not feeling strongly about the identity at all.

Most fans of the Northern Ireland national team will lean towards an NI identity that is distinctly British in its fundamental nature, all the way to the fact that the national anthem is God Save the King.

The Rory McIlroy example is often used and often used fairly misleadingly as this kind of 'third way' example. McIlroy seems to dislike the question, and understandably so, and he has spoken himself of the nuanced nature of his identity but you will note that his comments always relate to some split between Irishness and Britishness. In other words — the identity does not really stand on its own, it relies on the two fundamental identities of Britishness and Irishness. It's not an identity that ever seems to be properly expressed as being singular and independent.

The absolute number one indicator here however is that there is literally nothing resembling a political movement or party in Northern Ireland that promotes the idea of a fully distinct Northern Irish identity that is entirely removed and independent from Irishness or Britishness. It remains in my view similar to my own sense of there being a Northern / Ulster identity on my part — but it sits within an Irish identity.

Who is lauding it?

We will see what it has to offer and remember FF promised similar but never got it done.

If there is support for a federalist approach, so be it. Would not be my choice but I'm a democrat.

You see that whole primary mode of human identity of nation states is a construct of Western imperialism imposed on the rest of the world. Try explaining it in terms of the borders of Africa.

Ghana's national identity, to take one example, is far newer than that of Northern Ireland, born of an artificial construct, yet the nation is united in the World Cup.

There is comfort in the idea of Northern Ireland, small comforts, and you should not underestimate the resistance to changing small comforts.

They are producing their ideas.
As other parties have done too.

It is not a definitive 'plan' which you would know had you listened to Neale Richmond, that will be produced by all parties and stakeholders coming together.