Our Day Will Come. Sooner rather than later.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-united-ireland-north-border-dup-reunification-republic-uk-loyalist-republican-a8494556.htmlIt may well be that Brexit could bring about Irish (re) Unification. It seems that Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to remain. (56%- 44%)
Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (basically ending 30+ years of "The Troubles" that claimed almost 4,000 lives), there has been peace in Northern Ireland as the Catholics and Protestants have disarmed. Now while it's not all unicorns and rainbows, at least the two sides have not been killing each other over the past 20 years.
The problem is that part of the agreement got rid of border checkpoints between both countries as both are part of the EU. At last count there were 278 border crossings. Then there are ones like this:
Yep, the A3 crosses from Ireland to Northern Ireland and back four times over the space of roughly 4 miles. How do you set-up border checks on a highway like that. And Border Checkpoints have a REALLY bad history in Ireland. The British closed almost all border crossings and made going through the few that remained worse then a full TSA Blue Glove search. (See
Aiden McAnespie to get some idea as the
bad feelings new Border Checkpoints may stir up.)
Now as part of the British-Irish Agreement, within the Good Friday Accords, was the provision that Northern Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and would remain so until a majority of the people both of Northern Ireland and of the Republic of Ireland wished otherwise. Should that happen, then the British and Irish governments are under "a binding obligation" to implement that choice.
In other words should the people of Northern Ireland vote to join the Republic of Ireland the British would have to respect their wishes. (It would also be put up to a vote in the Republic, were it would most likely pass overwhelmingly.)
Now with recent (last twenty years) changes to the Republic's Constitution; Removing the "Special Status" of the Catholic Church, Allowing Divorce, Allowing Gay Marriage, and just last year, Allowing Abortion on Demand, with those changes, Ireland differs little from (formerly) Great Britain, making
A Nation Once Again, a distinct possibility as there is a growing movement to hold a plebiscite on (re)unification.
We live in interesting times. My father never thought that Northern Ireland would never, ever consider (re)unification, just like back in the 1980's no one ever considered that Germany would ever re-unify.
I do hope it comes to pass.
