A United Ireland. Opening up the discussion.

[AustinPowers]

Don't recall an Taoiseach saying the 26 Counties is in a worse state than the 6.

It was last year . In terms of GAA  success

[Snapchap]

Don't recall an Taoiseach saying the 26 Counties is in a worse state than the 6.

I was more referencing the hostility towards any suggestion of a border poll and a 32 county independent Ireland.

[Rossfan]

He's not a fan of the still mythical "Border poll" but the shared Ireland initiative is one of the few practical All Ireland things I see happening.

Anyway the "Border poll" is not in his gift, it's up to the Brit S of S to call it and that won't be happening if only 40% of the 6 Cos people are in favour of an All Ireland State.
You folks need to get working on the "don't knows" and "Others"

[armaghniac]

Don't recall an Taoiseach saying the 26 Counties is in a worse state than the 6.

It was last year . In terms of GAA  success

Only if you define the GAA as football. 

[AustinPowers]

Don't recall an Taoiseach saying the 26 Counties is in a worse state than the 6.

It was last year . In terms of GAA  success

Only if you define the GAA as football. 

Ach sure  nobody takes any  interest in that hurling malarkey 

[AustinPowers]

He's not a fan of the still mythical "Border poll" but the shared Ireland initiative is one of the few practical All Ireland things I see happening.

Anyway the "Border poll" is not in his gift, it's up to the Brit S of S to call it and that won't be happening if only 40% of the 6 Cos people are in favour of an All Ireland State.
You folks need to get working on the "don't knows" and "Others"

Where did that figure come  from?

I don't think  we'll truly know how many are in favour until  there's a referendum .

[weareros]

He's not a fan of the still mythical "Border poll" but the shared Ireland initiative is one of the few practical All Ireland things I see happening.

Anyway the "Border poll" is not in his gift, it's up to the Brit S of S to call it and that won't be happening if only 40% of the 6 Cos people are in favour of an All Ireland State.
You folks need to get working on the "don't knows" and "Others"

Where did that figure come  from?

I don't think  we'll truly know how many are in favour until  there's a referendum .

Last LucidTalk poll from Feb 2025 which I posted earlier in thread had it at 41% if an vote now and also buried in that study was that 53% of respondents aspire to Irish Unity in next 20 years. That is what is most troubling about the Irish government - there's likely already a majority waiting on a credible plan from Dublin. Everyone knows there won't be a vote next week, but you'd need to start planning now for a vote in next ten years to avoid a Brexit fiasco. Now some will say with justification that the planning is already quietly happening and keeping North in EU and aligned with 26 counties for trade makes transition easier when day comes. Dublin is also sending plenty of money for projects in North.

[Rossfan]

https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/alex-kane-micheal-martin-has-canniest-approach-of-all-on-irish-unity-which-as-a-unionist-worries-me-Z7J6YKW5B5F55BUZAI644KJ7XU/


Maybe someone might upload the full thing?

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Isn't interesting that the 40% figure keeps getting used. It would imply 60% support the union of course that is not the case but the don't knows or neithers seem to always be conveniently ignored to allow everyone to assume they are unionist.

[Wildweasel74]

Nay, I lived here all my life, know the score with people outside of Sinn Fein and Dup voters. Anybody thinking they win a border poll [which i would vote for] living in dreamland. Make a mess of the first one. You wouldn't see another for 20 years.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Nay, I lived here all my life, know the score with people outside of Sinn Fein and Dup voters. Anybody thinking they win a border poll [which i would vote for] living in dreamland. Make a mess of the first one. You wouldn't see another for 20 years.

I think it's going to be closer than you would think. The biggest pro UK argument is the NHS. I can only assume these people haven't been ill in years. The NHS is completely stuffed and anyone with any sense knows this.

[AustinPowers]

Nay, I lived here all my life, know the score with people outside of Sinn Fein and Dup voters. Anybody thinking they win a border poll [which i would vote for] living in dreamland. Make a mess of the first one. You wouldn't see another for 20 years.

I think it's going to be closer than you would think. The biggest pro UK argument is the NHS. I can only assume these people haven't been ill in years. The NHS is completely stuffed and anyone with any sense knows this.

So, what are  the pro-UK arguments then?

[RedHand88]

Nay, I lived here all my life, know the score with people outside of Sinn Fein and Dup voters. Anybody thinking they win a border poll [which i would vote for] living in dreamland. Make a mess of the first one. You wouldn't see another for 20 years.

I think it's going to be closer than you would think. The biggest pro UK argument is the NHS. I can only assume these people haven't been ill in years. The NHS is completely stuffed and anyone with any sense knows this.

So, what are  the pro-UK arguments then?

Fleg

[weareros]

https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/alex-kane-micheal-martin-has-canniest-approach-of-all-on-irish-unity-which-as-a-unionist-worries-me-Z7J6YKW5B5F55BUZAI644KJ7XU/


Maybe someone might upload the full thing?

Alex Kane: Micheál Martin has canniest approach of all on Irish unity – which as a unionist worries me
What is absolutely clear is that the unity debate is here to stay. And every section of the pro-union community needs to have their counter arguments marshalled

There has been a lot of chatter from southern voices about Irish unity in the past week or so.

To be honest, there usually is around the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement: not least because both Sinn Féin and the SDLP built much of their support for it on the prospect it offered for a united Ireland.

Yet here we are, 27 years on, and unity seems no closer than it was in 1998.

Indeed, the paragraph in the agreement dealing with a border poll remains as woolly and constructively ambiguous as it was. All of which is irking nationalists on both sides of the border.

What irks them more, I suspect, is that the polling numbers on both sides have yet to provide demonstrable evidence of a comfortable majority in favour of uniting Ireland any time soon. Which may explain why some of them are reaching beyond Ireland to convince local nationalism.

Speaking at an event in Brussels a week ago, Sinn Féin's national chair, Declan Kearney, said: "Colonial rule, partition and separate states in Ireland have all failed. Unity, through self-determination, is the way forward. The EU can play a role in supporting the peaceful, democratic pathway to securing that objective. It should help us open up the next phase of the peace process, and the achievement of reconciliation, reunification and a new Ireland for all."

It sounded like a rather torturous attempt to underpin the party's demand for a twin referendum in 2030, and maybe Kearney hopes that the fact Northern Ireland is presently subject to EU regulations would be a handy enough route for EU involvement (or interference, as some would describe it) in its constitutional future.

Fair enough, I've been no fan of the EU's extra-territorial activities in other states – a view which Sinn Féin used to share not very long ago – but even I don't believe Brussels would want to get involved in what could be a very divisive and fractious poll.

Meanwhile, Leo Varadkar was Ireland's Future's keynote speaker in Philadelphia on April 10: "I firmly believe that building a new and united Ireland is the next step in our national journey and I believe that Irish-America can help us to make those next steps. While there is not yet a majority for it north of the border, support grows with every year and unification now is supported by a clear majority of younger voters. The tectonic plates are shifting and in one direction only."

Regular readers will know that none of this surprises me. I've written a couple of columns since Varadkar stepped down as taoiseach, suggesting that his priority was unification right now rather than the much vaguer 'sometime in my lifetime' approach of his former Fine Gael colleagues.

Leo Varadkar speaking at an event in Belfast
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at an Ireland's Future event (Brian Lawless/PA)

Maybe he harbours an ambition to be the first president of a newly united Ireland and reckons that actually playing a key part in its delivery is the best way to achieve that.

He did admit in the speech that unity was not inevitable: "The case has to be made and worked for. But it should be an objective and not just an aspiration".

The main caveat I would offer is that he, like Sinn Féin and many in Ireland's Future, set a great deal of electoral store in what might be described as the younger demographic.

But just look at what that demographic is doing in many parts of the world right now: it is shifting to the hardline, nativist, populist right. So, it may not be as biddable on the prospect of bundling hundreds of thousands of British-identifying unionists into what is usually described as a 'new' Ireland.

The canniest of all approaches – even though he annoys many in the unity lobby – is from Micheál Martin.

In an interview last week with Sam McBride, Martin argued that uniting Ireland constitutionally was less important than building relationships.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and ex-Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar agreed to a rotating Taoiseach arrangement in 2020

He insisted that his Shared Island initiative was not some sort of Trojan Horse for unity. "It very much is grounded on people-to-people connections and basically the simple question: Can we share this piece of ground together in a harmonious way that involves real sustainable peace and friendliness for generations to come."

Some critics have described this as his 'latest' – and still weak –position on the issue, but he said exactly the same thing to me in an interview in 2014.

And while I have a lot of time for the man, I actually think his softly-softly-catchy-monkey approach is likely, in the long term, to be more successful than the unity now lobby. Which, as a unionist, worries me.

So be it. What is absolutely clear, though, is that the unity debate is here to stay.

And every section of the pro-union community needs to have their own counter arguments marshalled.

[JPGJOHNNYG]

Nay, I lived here all my life, know the score with people outside of Sinn Fein and Dup voters. Anybody thinking they win a border poll [which i would vote for] living in dreamland. Make a mess of the first one. You wouldn't see another for 20 years.

I think it's going to be closer than you would think. The biggest pro UK argument is the NHS. I can only assume these people haven't been ill in years. The NHS is completely stuffed and anyone with any sense knows this.

So, what are  the pro-UK arguments then?

Blue passports after that it's looking a bit sketchy. Don't forgot the old classic you have to pay 50 euro to see a Dr in the South lol. Up here it's free you just need to wait until you are dead to see one.