A United Ireland. Opening up the discussion.

[BennyCake]

So one guy fantasises about a United Ireland and it's going to happen? Maybe its because I'm from Portadown that it makes it easy for me to realise the depth of Unionist feeling and determination to resist a United Ireland,and know it's never going to happen.

They see themselves as more British than the British themselves.If Brexit makes the people of Britain starve,Unionists will be happy to starve with them to prove they are equally British.

Which is also why they'll never agree to a UI. Even if they're crawling in the gutter, rather the British gutter than an Irish paradise.

[OgraAnDun]

So one guy fantasises about a United Ireland and it's going to happen? Maybe its because I'm from Portadown that it makes it easy for me to realise the depth of Unionist feeling and determination to resist a United Ireland,and know it's never going to happen.

They see themselves as more British than the British themselves.If Brexit makes the people of Britain starve,Unionists will be happy to starve with them to prove they are equally British.

Unionists are not in the majority, their proportion of the population drops by 0.3% per annum.

Be higher too if you  could re-patriate them.

Unionists/Protestants/Planters have been here long enough that they are now fully Irish and there is nowhere to repatriate them to.

Interesting how posters here have brought up the idea of the re-patriation of Unionists / Protestants in Ulster.  The same people also claim that bigotry is a one way street.  What's the difference between Irish Nationalsists / Catholics bringing up the idea of re-patriation and far right fascists in Great Britain making the same suggestion for ethnic minorities to be "sent home"?

I noticed it but I'll think you'll find that the vast majority of nationalists have enough common sense to see it as stupidity. There is no point in treating unionists as nationalists were treated when nationalists finally gain ascendancy. They need to be convinced with rational economic and political arguments that they have nothing to fear from a UI - indeed, that it will be beneficial to them. The problem is that many unionists have blindfolds on so thick that they live in a state of constant darkness, devoid of rationality or fact. Their rulers play the orange card and working class unionists take to the streets to defend themselves from Catholics, all the while it's simply a ruse to keep Sammy, Arlene and co in power.

[T Fearon]

I would contend that the same tribal instincts are played on the nationalist side.Identity is precious.On the face of it,for decades attachment to the UK brought economic benefits to the North that the South could only dream of.Did that make Catholics value and prefer the Union? No.

In the highly unlikely event that a UI will come about it will be on the current basis,regional governments,with Stormont in place and the accompanying veto and opt outs.

Dublin does not want nor can it afford nearly 2m extra people a million of which will be disgruntled.

[heganboy]

Tony,
You keep stating your opinions as facts.

Dublin does not want nor can it afford nearly 2m extra people a million of which will be disgruntled.

No part of this is in any way shape or form anything other than your misguided conjecture.

[02]

So one guy fantasises about a United Ireland and it's going to happen? Maybe its because I'm from Portadown that it makes it easy for me to realise the depth of Unionist feeling and determination to resist a United Ireland,and know it's never going to happen.

They see themselves as more British than the British themselves.If Brexit makes the people of Britain starve,Unionists will be happy to starve with them to prove they are equally British.

Which is also why they'll never agree to a UI. Even if they're crawling in the gutter, rather the British gutter than an Irish paradise.

It doesn't matter whether they agree to it, their day is over, enjoy the gutter.

[Applesisapples]

So one guy fantasises about a United Ireland and it's going to happen? Maybe its because I'm from Portadown that it makes it easy for me to realise the depth of Unionist feeling and determination to resist a United Ireland,and know it's never going to happen.

They see themselves as more British than the British themselves.If Brexit makes the people of Britain starve,Unionists will be happy to starve with them to prove they are equally British.

And that is exactly the rock on which unionism is perishing, it prevents them from making any concession to nationalists. The more a nationalist majority looms the more they will retreat.

[AQMP]

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/49-of-republic-of-ireland-voters-back-united-ireland-36380704.html

It's not looking too good

If you read past the headline, the trend is up.

[AQMP]

Ha, they done that for Craigavon in early 70's...offered them money to move there from Belfast. The British Government should offer all the Prods money to move to England/Scotland and everyone's happy. That's Brexit sorted...

Moving them to Scotland would secure the Union. The poor people of Scotland might never forgive either us or England for doing this though.

This is the sort of stuff that's designed to encourage them to engage in the conversation about a shared future?

Hardy, while I don't agree with the poster's views about moving people to Scotland, conversations about a shared future in the North are a waste of breath.  They will become worthwhile when a significant number of Unionists buy into the idea of a shared future.  There just aren't enough of them who actually want it at the moment.

[T Fearon]

There can be no shared future when one community owes allegiance to Britain and the other to Ireland.Only when these two obsolete ideologies are abandoned and the communities merge to have a common outlook,can a shared future come on to the horizon.

[red hander]

There can be no shared future when one community owes allegiance to Britain and the other to Ireland.Only when these two obsolete ideologies are abandoned and the communities merge to have a common outlook,can a shared future come on to the horizon.

Hear that noise outside, that's a squadron of pigs flying over Portadown

[mrhardyannual]

There can be no shared future when one community owes allegiance to Britain and the other to Ireland.Only when these two obsolete ideologies are abandoned and the communities merge to have a common outlook,can a shared future come on to the horizon.

Both communities are members of the EU......does that help?

[J70]

I would contend that the same tribal instincts are played on the nationalist side.Identity is precious.On the face of it,for decades attachment to the UK brought economic benefits to the North that the South could only dream of.Did that make Catholics value and prefer the Union? No.

In the highly unlikely event that a UI will come about it will be on the current basis,regional governments,with Stormont in place and the accompanying veto and opt outs.

Dublin does not want nor can it afford nearly 2m extra people a million of which will be disgruntled.

The north may have been relatively prosperous compared to the south, but Catholics were subject to institutional discrimination in all walks of life. Plus, the very people subjected to second--class citizenship were the same, first and second generation who were left behind in a statelet to which they had no allegiance. Unless you're proposing that the same treatment would be reciprocated against unionists in a united Ireland which would be created with unionist consent and design, then the comparison isn't valid.

Of course, convincing them that they wouldn't suffer the same fate they inflicted is another matter, especially when political fortunes depend on just such fear mongering.

[T Fearon]

Absolute bullshit.Catholic and Protestant professional classes always  lived together in the leafy suburbs,even in Portadown.I spent my early years in the Killicomaine Housing estate,mixed then,but now a loyalist enclave,in the same housing conditions as many Protestants.My parents,both born in the 1920s,were never once out of work,and enjoyed or suffered the same terms and conditions as their fellow,vastly predominantly Protestant work colleagues.

The access to free education introduced by the British Labour Party post WWII benefitted Catholics far more than Protestants and led to the educated civil rights leaders like Hume,Bernadette Devlin, and Mc Cann etc.

[HiMucker]

Absolute bullshit.Catholic and Protestant professional classes always  lived together in the leafy suburbs,even in Portadown.I spent my early years in the Killicomaine Housing estate,mixed then,but now a loyalist enclave,in the same housing conditions as many Protestants.My parents,both born in the 1920s,were never once out of work,and enjoyed or suffered the same terms and conditions as their fellow,vastly predominantly Protestant work colleagues.

The access to free education introduced by the British Labour Party post WWII benefitted Catholics far more than Protestants and led to the educated civil rights leaders like Hume,Bernadette Devlin, and Mc Cann etc.

Absolute bullshit?  So this better education led to these well educated types you listed to take up civil rights issues when none existed?      Seriously where do you pull this drivel from?

[T Fearon]

I am not saying there wasn't discrimination,but it was exaggerated,as my own family experiences in Portadown.It certainly didn't impact at all on the catholic middle classes.Without access to free education,those who brought about radical change,like Hume,Devlin etc would never have emerged