Category Archives: Irish reunification

A brilliant, hard-nosed look at moves towards Irish unity. Unionists beware!

Posted on Tuesday, 15 November, 2022 by andypollak

I have been reading Making Sense of a United Ireland by the University of Pennsylvania-based Irish political scientist Brendan O’Leary. This is an important book, rich in detail, truth-telling but also hard-nosed. It is the first deeply considered exploration of … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland | 5 Comments

Is Ireland’s Future effectively a front for Sinn Fein? Or is that the wrong question?

Posted on Monday, 10 October, 2022 by andypollak

I was at the big Ireland’s Future ‘Preparing for a United Ireland:Together we can’ event at Dublin’s 3 Arena earlier this month. There was very little ‘preparing’ in the proceedings – it was more like a ‘Forward to the Promised … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Sinn Fein | 7 Comments

Mary Lou McDonald and the forgotten people of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’

Posted on Tuesday, 16 August, 2022 by andypollak

The title of this blog,  ‘Two Irelands Together’, was not chosen by accident. My core contention in writing this column is that for more than 400 years there have been two clashing politico-religious cultures on this island – Catholic nationalist … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein | 13 Comments

Poverty in Northern Ireland is not an election issue: society just ‘shrugs’

Posted on Tuesday, 3 May, 2022 by andypollak

Last month I sat in on a webinar organised by the Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre in which we listened to two very impressive youth workers from the most deprived areas of nationalist West Belfast. They told a shocking story … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland | Leave a comment

Discussing Irish unity over dinner with Trinity College politics students

Posted on Thursday, 14 April, 2022 by andypollak

I had an interesting dinner with five political science students from Trinity College Dublin last month at which we discussed Irish unity and Southern Irish attitudes to it. I had met them three weeks earlier when I was giving a … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Republic of Ireland | 4 Comments

Fintan O’Toole, Leopold Bloom and me

Posted on Tuesday, 1 February, 2022 by andypollak

I have been reading We Don’t Know Ourselves, Fintan O’Toole’s marvellous personal and political memoir of Ireland over the past 64 years. I am an unashamed admirer of O’Toole’s writings, and his brilliantly insightful, left-wing views on multiple aspects of … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Republic of Ireland | 5 Comments

Majority of Southern voters think united Ireland “not very important” but they would like to see it “some day”

Posted on Tuesday, 14 December, 2021 by andypollak

That is the headline I would like to have seen on the Irish Times front page lead story on 11th December about the paper’s latest opinion poll on unity and other issues. Its editors went instead for the much more … Continue reading →

Posted in Cross-border cooperation, General, Irish reunification, Republic of Ireland, Sinn Fein | 1 Comment

My single transferable blog: the people of the South are not ready for reunification

Posted on Monday, 1 November, 2021 by andypollak

In his long and distinguished political career, John Hume many times gave what came to be known as his ‘single transferable speech’. He used to say that as a former teacher he realised that for even the smartest pupils, the … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Republic of Ireland | 5 Comments

In praise of wise and moderate people of ideas

Posted on Wednesday, 1 September, 2021 by andypollak

In all my years in Northern Ireland, two of the wisest people I came across were a senior Irish diplomat and a Northern Irish business leader. The diplomat was Noel Dorr, ambassador to the UK in the 1980s, Secretary General … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland | 5 Comments

One of these years we in the Republic may have to face a difficult choice between equality and peace

Posted on Wednesday, 23 June, 2021 by andypollak

Readers looking for insights into the recent turmoil surrounding the DUP will have to wait until that storm subsides before I essay some impressions. In my last blog, I said I would return to the weighty and thought-provoking report from … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Irish reunification | 2 Comments