In August 2020, in the early stages of this project, I met with the late poet, Thomas Kinsella, at his home in Booterstown, County Dublin. At 92 years of age, the translator of the Táin and the writer of ‘Butcher’s Dozen’, his scathing response to the Widgery Report on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, had much to say about the growing debate on a united Ireland. He was adamant that it would not happen.
‘The Unionist people are different. Planted in Ulster for half a millennium; growing their roots still,’ Kinsella said in an interview with me. He could imagine ‘nothing more manageable than the present arrangement with the Good Friday Agreement. A documentary of their difference’. During two hours of discussion, which covered what he has described as the ‘dual tradition’ in Ireland, Kinsella spoke of the fundamental difference between the culture and poetry of the Gael and that of the planter.
‘Ireland was the closest of England’s colonies, and the most thoroughly civilized,’ Kinsella wrote in his 1995 book The Dual Tradition. ‘The mechanics of colonialism were tested in Ireland and the stages recorded in Irish literature, in both languages. It is one of the findings of Ireland’s dual tradition that an empire is a passing thing, but that a colony is not.’
He was unmoved by the argument that demographic, political and economic change, and the decision of the UK to leave the EU in 2016, had altered the landscape. He was not convinced that the conditions were approaching when a majority of people in the North might choose to break the union and join a new and united Ireland through referendums, north and south, as envisaged in the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement (GFA). One of our greatest poets, Kinsella died 16 months after our discussion, in December 2021.
His arguments and analysis are important and will resonate with many readers. They help to explain why so many of the Protestant and unionist culture in the North remain steadfast in their deep hostility to constitutional change, even while their communities, their politics and their allegiances are under siege as never before. Now, many of those who previously supported unionist parties are drifting towards new ideas as the political and cultural winds of change across the island are sweeping away old certainties.
It is unsurprising that most unionist politicians, at least in public, do not wish to engage in the discussion about what a united Ireland might look like. By definition, they are part of the greater union and intend to remain so, even as that relationship is fraying at its edges, with an independent Scotland a real prospect in the coming years. For this book, I have engaged with influential figures in the unionist community who are open to discussion about Irish unity, but are also concerned that their identity, traditions and rights are respected in any such process, as guaranteed in the GFA. They have openly discussed the prospect and potential benefits of a united Ireland, and their views are widely shared among others whose traditional allegiance was to Britain but who are reluctant to declare their shifting position publicly. Many voted to ‘remain’ in the Brexit vote, and have since withdrawn their political support from the larger unionist parties.
These voters, along with many others who define themselves as neither unionist nor nationalist, and who are open to the idea of a new, inclusive and integrated Ireland, will be decisive in the forthcoming unity referendums. They wish to regain their citizenship of the EU – while retaining their British or Irish citizenships, or both.
In our discussion for this book in early January 2022, President Michael D. Higgins said that it is now accepted that both societies that emerged from partition on the island were flawed and failed to deliver equality for all of their citizens. He argued that ‘the oppression of the minority nationalist community in housing, employment and basic civil rights formed a different, but no less undemocratic and unequal, society in the North. Neither state had as its primary purpose providing for the wellbeing of all its citizens on an inclusive basis.’
Within the nationalist community1 there is a growing momentum for constitutional change, intensified in recent years by the UK’s exit from the EU and the possibility of a return to a hard border on the island. The nationalist community in the North is no longer a minority and is determined to exercise its right to self-determination, a promise delivered by the GFA. The Agreement provides for referendums, North and South, with the decision based on a 50 plus 1 majority in each. The economic, demographic and political changes that have occurred in both the North and the South since the GFA was endorsed in May 1998 – accelerated by the trauma of Brexit – have ensured that the decision will capture, if not dominate, the political agenda over the coming years.
In November 2018, along with 1,000 other journalists, artists, trade union and community activists, people in health, education, business and sports across the country, I signed an open letter to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, asking him to ensure that the rights of nationalists in the North were protected as the prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit loomed. I subsequently participated in meetings and discussions of Ireland’s Future in its growing campaign for a citizens’ assembly and preparations for a unity referendum as it gained traction at home and abroad. Since then, the civic movement has extended from its nationalist roots to embrace people across society, North and South, including many from within the wider cultural, academic, professional, business and sporting life.
When I first discussed this project with Deirdre Nolan of Gill Books in March 2020, I suggested that it would be useful if people knew what they were voting for when asked to make such a historic and transformative choice. This was a time of protracted and difficult negotiations between the EU and Britain over their separation. It was just before the world was struck by Covid-19 and the ensuing public health crisis.
In my written proposal for this book, I set out the parameters of the work that would have to embrace the questions of constitutional change. It would also examine the nature of the health, education and other public services in a new Ireland, the challenge of convincing a significant number of people from a culturally Protestant and unionist background to consider a future all-island economy and society within the EU and the extent of change that people on both sides of the border might expect.
The document made clear that the work was not about my views of what a united Ireland could look like, although I have supported the idea for as long as I can remember, but about how professionals, academics, artists, activists and politicians might imagine its future across a range of areas and interests. The vision of how Ireland can be integrated is gleaned through the perspectives of doctors, teachers, economists and historians, former police officers and soldiers, lawyers, academics, activists, artists, writers, actors, singers, poets and politicians; women and men whose views on what is possible are rooted in their life experience.
Some I know through my journalism, political campaigning and trade union activism over many decades, while others I encountered for the first time through this work. It has been a privilege to have access to their knowledge and personal stories, which are so central to making this an accessible and hopefully enjoyable exploration of our future, collective potential.
This work tracks the extended, turbulent negotiation of a withdrawal and trade agreement between the EU and the UK government, as well as the impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland. It also follows the course of the Covid-19 pandemic as it devastated the lives and livelihoods of people across the island, and examines the public health response of the two administrations as the crisis ebbed and surged between March 2020 and January 2022.
The interviews contained in the narrative began in June 2020 and continued until early January 2022, when the final manuscript was completed. Due to Covid restrictions, most of these were done over the telephone or on video calls.
United Nation does not seek to answer all the questions posed by the challenge of building a new and united island, and of integrating its parts after more than a century of partition. It does attempt to identify and outline in broad measure how fundamental constitutional, political, economic, social and cultural change can take place in a way that improves the quality of life and enhances the rights of all citizens on the island.
Much more detailed research and debate needs to be carried out to prepare the ground for a deep, radical and enduring transformation to emerge through a process of referendums in the transition to a new Ireland. I sincerely hope that this book makes a worthwhile contribution to the enormous and exciting task ahead.
Frank Connolly
Dublin
January 2022
1 I use the word ‘nationalist’ in the text to include the republican community in the North.