NI's future in the United Kingdom could depend on Catholics - Robinson

[SuperMac]

So, is this a sign that ' Ulster ' is truly doomed ?

The Stormont Executive's First Minister has said Northern Ireland's future in the United Kingdom could depend on Catholics, wary of Ireland's economic woes, voting across the traditional divide.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1119/robinsonp.html

[Maguire01]

Not necessarily, at least in the short to medium term. SF and the SDLP could get 60% of the vote, but it's only the vote on a referendum that matters. I don't think it would make any sense to push for a referendum until the nationalist vote is at least 55%.

As for the DUP attracting Catholics... I can't see it happening in any significant numbers. Robinson's reaction to the Prison Service emblems issue is a reminder of just how moderate the DUP is. Not very.

[seafoid]

Figures out last month found that 49% of Northern Irish students at the province's universities were Catholics, while 35% were Protestants

the Protestant working class are in big trouble with stats like that. 

[dec]

Not necessarily, at least in the short to medium term. SF and the SDLP could get 60% of the vote, but it's only the vote on a referendum that matters. I don't think it would make any sense to push for a referendum until the nationalist vote is at least 55%.

As for the DUP attracting Catholics... I can't see it happening in any significant numbers. Robinson's reaction to the Prison Service emblems issue is a reminder of just how moderate the DUP is. Not very.

Catholics won't vote for the DUP any time soon. However a percentage could well vote to remain in the UK in a referendum mainly for "fear of change" reasons rather than "Castle Catholic/West Brit" reasons.

[lawnseed]

i wouldnt like to be depending on a catholic for anything 

[thewobbler]

I'm 34 years old. If, in the immediate future, Ireland was reunited, I think i'd emigrate.

Life's too short to spend most of it living on the breadline in pursuit of an ideology. I've no love of Britain or Britishness, but I'd hate to see how long it would take the wee six to cope without British money.

I'd also argue that if another life is lost over division/unification, then it's one too many.

[Windmill abu]

I'd also argue that if another life is lost over division/unification, then it's one too many.

I agree that far too many lives have been lost because this island is divided. Not one more life should be lost to keep it divided.

[mylestheslasher]

I'm 34 years old. If, in the immediate future, Ireland was reunited, I think i'd emigrate.

Life's too short to spend most of it living on the breadline in pursuit of an ideology. I've no love of Britain or Britishness, but I'd hate to see how long it would take the wee six to cope without British money.

I'd also argue that if another life is lost over division/unification, then it's one too many.

Let me get this straight. If Ireland was reunited you would be forced to live on the breadline and therefore you would have to emigrate? You haven't much faith on your own people to you? Instead you would prefer to live in a state that is propped up by British money instead of building a new country for your people and family. I think if Ireland was reunited i would be happy enough to see you go.

[thewobbler]

I'd be happy to go too Myles. Romanticism doesn't pay the bills.

[deiseach]

I agree that far too many lives have been lost because this island is divided. Not one more life should be lost to keep it divided.

And what would be an acceptable number of deaths to reunite it?

This is the latest step in Unionism's constant redefining of what The Irish Question is. Whether it be carving out their own herrenvolk democracy, depriving their own proles of votes so the Papists couldn't have them, rejecting the sovereignty of Parliament in making international treaties, or constantly threatening violence should they not get their way, we now have the hysterically desperate idea that you can buy a person's sense of national identity. Coming next: a requirement a la Montengro that any change in the status quo requires the approval of 55% of the voters. Then 55% of the electorate. Then 55% of Protestants . . .

[mylestheslasher]

I don't recite poetry to everyone wobbler but this one is for you...

What need you, being come to sense, But fumble in a greasy till And add the halfpence to the pence And prayer to shivering prayer, until You have dried the marrow from the bone; For men were born to pray and save; Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet they were of a different kind, The names that stilled your childish play, They have gone about the world like wind, But little time had they to pray For whom the hangman's rope was spun, And what, God help us, could they save? Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Was it for this the wild geese spread The grey wing upon every tide; For this that all that blood was shed, For this Edward Fitzgerald died, And Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone, All that delirium of the brave? Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave.

Yet could we turn the years again, And call those exiles as they were In all their loneliness and pain, You'd cry `Some woman's yellow hair Has maddened every mother's son': They weighed so lightly what they gave. But let them be, they're dead and gone, They're with O'Leary in the grave.

[muppet]

Surely there is a better argument than listening to dead men?

[mylestheslasher]

I'm very much alive.

[Ulick]

Look on the bright side at least - its gonna be fun watching the unionists bend over backwards to keep the Fenians happy lest we decide to say "da f**k with this shit".

[Trout]

Look on the bright side at least - its gonna be fun watching the unionists bend over backwards to keep the Fenians happy lest we decide to say "da f**k with this shit".

There is as much chance of it happening as SF sitting in the Dail or Stormont.