GROWING CONSENSUS THAT TIME HAS COME FOR UNITY

Posted by Jim on March 10, 2017

There have been vocal and widespread calls for Irish reunification in
the face of the British government’s determination to leave the European
Union and a historic election result last week which has delivered
unprecedented political strength for nationalism and Sinn Fein.

Speaking on the Falls Road in west Belfast, flanked by senior party
representatives, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams pointed to the
significance of the fact that the unionist majority at Stormont has been
ended by last week’s election.

“The notion of a permanent or a perpetual unionist majority has been
dismantled,” he declared.

For the first time, unionists do not have an overall majority at the Six
County legislature, which dates back to the partition of Ireland. Sinn
Fein came within one seat of drawing level with the DUP, and only 1,168
first preference votes separated the two parties.

The result means the DUP no longer has enough Assembly members to use
their veto on political change without external support.

Mr Adams said that the election in the north had been “a watershed”.

“This has brought an end to the unionist majority in the Assembly,” he
said. “It has also demolished any notion of a perpetual unionist
majority in the north. This needs to be reflected in the approach of the
unionist parties and the two governments.”

The increase in Sinn Fein vote came after the party successfully
challenged unionist corruption, as well as the failure of unionists and
the British government to deliver on talks deals dating back to 1998. On
the back of an increased turnout, the party secured 27 seats,
maintaining its numbers at Stormont in spite of the reduction of
assembly seats, on an increase of almost 4 percentage points on last
May’s result.

In a blog post, Mr Adams said there was now a need for political leaders
“to co-operate with other progressives to create real changes in
peoples’ lives based on everyone’s right to equality.” His full post is
included below.

But its response to the election result, Republican Sinn Fein described
it as a “setback” for republicans and the Irish working-class. Stormont
remained a “fundamentally undemocratic” assembly “kept under the strict
control of British imperialism, designed to give British rule in Ireland
a democratic mantle”, they said.

Republican Network for Unity Chairperson Stephen McCourt, meanwhile
called for a realignment of republicanism to challenge the Six County
administration. “We need to begin a process of working together,” he
said. “Factionalism and protesting in isolation is allowing Stormont to
dominate the narrative.”

But the election has ignited strong new demands for Irish reunification.
In the past week, three university student unions have voted
overwhelmingly in favour of taking an official stance for Irish
reunification. Mainstream media commentators have also rowed in behind
the concept of Irish unity, motivated equally by Brexit and the election
result.

Political analyst Siobhan Fenton, writing in the London Independent
wrote: “A united Ireland is no longer hypothetical or absurd, but a
credible option that must be considered seriously by both the Irish and
British governments.”

Irish Times columnist Noel Whelan wrote: “We need to talk about Irish
unity. We have been avoiding the conversation in the Republic for too
long. The ground has shifted quite dramatically on the question in
recent years. Last week’s Assembly Elections in Northern Ireland was a
reflection of that new reality. The results of that election should now
also serve as a lightbulb moment for nationalism south of the border.”

Economist and financial analyst Chris Johns pointed to the need to
explain to northern unionists that “their economic future looks far
rosier in the EU rather than outside, and the only way to achieve that
is to accept Irish reunification”.

But there has also been an opposite reaction from unionist extremists.
One English commentator, Melanie Phillips, writing for The Times of
London, caused an angry backlash after she called for the 26 Counties to
be reintegrated into the “authentic unitary nation” of the UK, asserting
that Ireland has but “a tenuous claim to nationhood, having seceded from
Britain as the Irish Free State only in 1922”.

Daniel Mulhall, Irish ambassador to Britain, pointed to Ireland’s 100
years since the proclamation of the Republic outside the GPO in Dublin.
“Irish nationhood based on strong sense of identity, distinctive culture
and shared values and interests. Nothing ‘tenuous’,” he wrote.