Fake it ‘til you make it
How the map of Ireland looked 90 years ago.
Blame it on the World Cup.
Ever joined a book group with the best of intentions only to find that you didn’t find time to read the book? Flashback to English classes and CliffsNotes. (That’s the way it’s spelled.)
I’m staring down a 4 P.M. deadline (Tuesday 30 June) to read the first three chapters of a book by Ben Collins called The Irish Unity Dividend. Friends of Sinn Fein in the US calls this an Irish Unity Study Group rather than a book group. Attending four monthly sessions is a chance “to learn more about the specifics of the plan for Irish unity. There are many books, studies, podcasts, and research papers being made about this issue...” Thank God for all that!
United Ireland Update
Irish unity is in the news a lot these days. The Good Friday Agreement of May 1998 laid out a pathway to eventual reunification of the 26 counties in the Republic with the six counties up north IF A MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND VOTE YES. When that vote will take place is, as we Yanks would say, “the $64,000 question.”
It’s been nearly 30 years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, what could possibly be new?
A lot.
Development # 1 - Just the other day, the leader of one of the three main political parties in the Republic of Ireland, Fine Gael, came out in favor of beginning to investigate the possibility of Irish unity by developing (appropriately) a comprehensive Green Paper on how one sovereign united Ireland would be established and how it would work.
Development #2 - Sinn Fein is introducing a bill in the Dail in Dublin to kick start the process and “legislate for the planning and preparation for constitutional change and Irish reunification.” In other words, “Gentlemen and ladies, start your engines.”
It’s surprising and significant that two of the three biggest parties in the South are willing to tackle the challenges of reunification. What about the third big party, Fianna Fail, DeValera’s party, the party built on the aspiration of Irish unity? “Let’s pump the brakes,” FF leader Micheal Martin seems to be saying.
Development # 3 – Opposition to the reunification of Ireland up north has been spearheaded by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which never signed on to the GFA in the first place. Its leader though all this was Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. At least until he was arrested, tried and convicted of a handful of “historic” sexual assault charges, including rape. He’s wearing orange these days in jail. Not good for the DUP brand.
Development # 4 – Brexit turns to Begrets. New economic stats show that Brexit caused the British economy to shrink by six percent. “Told you so,” say the the majority of voters in the six counties who voted against leaving the European Union. Rejoin the 32 counties and they’d be back in the EU. Is it Brejoin, Breturn - or perhaps Bre-entry? asked one of the tabloids.
Further reading.
