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Recent Posts
- A united Ireland will have to include unionists – so let’s get on with the difficult task of including them
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- Ulster loyalism feeling abandoned, betrayed and in perpetual crisis
- A brilliant, hard-nosed look at moves towards Irish unity. Unionists beware!
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Category Archives: Republic of Ireland
Why Micheál Martin’s speech was inspirational and why the Shared Island initiative matters
Nobody would ever accuse the former Taoiseach, Micheál Martin (now Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs), of being an inspirational public speaker. But listening to his speech at the big Shared Island event in Dublin Castle earlier this month, I … Continue reading
The results of the census and the revolt of the masses
Firstly, and briefly, the 2021 Northern Ireland census results. We know the headline figures well by now, that the number of those who are Catholics or from a Catholic background (at 45.7%) now outnumber the number of people who are … Continue reading
Sinn Fein are winning the peace, as people forget the IRA’s war
Sinn Fein are winning the post-1998 peace. They are now the largest party in Northern Ireland, and almost certainly will be the largest party in the Republic after the next election. A combination of internal and external events have come … Continue reading
Posted in General, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sinn Fein
4 Comments
From Rebel Cork to Orange Antrim: a cyclist’s journey through the gorgeous heart of Ireland
In the first eleven days of July I cycled with my friend David Ward from Mizen Head in west Cork to Fair Head in north Antrim to raise money for Concern’s work for girls’ education in Afghanistan. The journey confirmed … Continue reading
Discussing Irish unity over dinner with Trinity College politics students
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
Is Ireland neutral in this battle between good and evil?
Sometimes (rarely) wars are seen as battles between the forces of good and evil. The war of the Allies against Nazism is the classic example in modern times. Except the Irish state chose to sit that one out, unwilling to … Continue reading
Fintan O’Toole, Leopold Bloom and me
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
4 Comments
Majority of Southern voters think united Ireland “not very important” but they would like to see it “some day”
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
Could North-South agri-food cooperation help cross the rural-urban climate change divide?
So in the end the political will did not exist among world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow to radically tackle global warming. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned at the end of the conference: “We are still knocking on the … Continue reading
My single transferable blog: the people of the South are not ready for reunification
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