Vocal Voices

... and would it be a bad thing?

The recent election has put Sinn Féin just one seat behind the DUP. Brexit showed that the majority in NI want to remain in the EU. Could the combination of the two shift things?

There are a lot of 'ifs' in the mix. Power sharing by the two main parties is an absolute given un the Good Friday agreement, but what if the DUP and Sinn Féin cannot cobble together an agreement this time - there would be a new election. What if Sinn Féin came first? Could it get an agreement with other Republican leaning parties and individuals to ask the NI Secretary, James Brokenshire, for a referendum on NI's position re the EU? It is not beyond the realms of reality.

It would obviously be turned down because it would play into Nicola's hands. Then again, the border thing is going to be problematic, post Brexit. There may come a time when the UK thinks that letting NI go is not such a bad thing.

To be honest, I have always thought that the British government would be glad to be rid of NI. From my own experience, I feel that the majority of the British population couldn't care less about NI - when we lived in London, albeit over 40 years ago, Irish was Irish whether north or south with few knowing the difference between Belfast or Dublin and I suffered the resulting prejudice, as this was in the '70s during the time of the Birmingham and other bombings.

The current situation is completely down to arrogant Arlene Foster, who makes no effort to conceal her disdain for and dislike of Sinn Fein - she is supposed to work with them instead of blocking them at every turn. All she had to do was step aside for a few weeks while the investigation into the RHI scandal took place, but her arrogance and bigotry has lost her party 10 seats and overall majority in the Assembly when there was no need for the election in the first place. As for a united Ireland? Who knows? NI is so totally dependent on the British Exchequer, I am not sure that we down here want to take on that drain on our resources to be honest.

This is a good article that expresses a lot of what I have always thought.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/adam-r ... ence-that-

A united Ireland and within the EU would give a huge fillip to the Scottish Nationalists ...... would Scotland follow and then do a deal with Brussels?

The Eurocrats ultimate revenge for Brexit ....

A good article, Osc, and I do think it is right.

My mum's side of the family is S. Irish and I was in the RAF during the 70s so I probably have more of an interest in Eire and NI than most on the mainland.

Ossie, that is right as well... it is why I mentioned all the 'ifs' and 'buts'. The whole thing would be an all-round nightmare.

It interests me. My uncle was head of a bomb disposal unit in Northern Ireland in the 70's and 80's. As he was out there risking his life, I thought I should know more so borrowed a book from the library called The British Army in Northern Ireland. My aim was to be able to talk to him about it and in fact it did the opposite. It made me feel we shouldn't be there. So I could talk to him even less.

It made me understand the IRA's reasons, but NEVER their actions. But it made things really difficult and I wished I'd remained in blissful ignorance

But it still interests me and I do care about Northern Ireland

The Unionists would kick off big style, I reckon. If they don't like working with Sinn Fein how much less would they like being a part of the Republic? NI is a tangled web. I get the feeling that plenty of British politicians would like Ireland to be reunited though. It should come down to the will of the people in NI. Give them a referendum and see what they say. If they vote to reunite then do it.

Mrs S has a strong Irish strain in her family. I have strong Scots and Strong Welsh with a bit of English and some extensions into France but, as far as I'm aware, no Irish.

After leaving the Army and moving to Scotland and finding there are two histories to the English/Scots conflicts and that the English version skates on much thinner ice than the Scots one; I tend to look a bit closer to emotive issues. After all Japanese Schools virtually teach that Japan was a victim of WWI and try to hide almost all of the atrocities and never mention that they initiated war without a declaration first, using an attack from stealth in Hawaii.

My own personal experience, two tours of "civ pop" or Civilian Population in the NI training centres in Germany, showed me that the Army deliberately hyped the troops up for 6 months and then fired them into an area of conflict with an attitude of aggression. Hardly the best way of cooling things down.

Besides all the rest of the difficulties are the huge differences in attitude and approach to government. The Republic with a heavy nod to the Catholic Church and the Six Counties with their heavily secular bias do not mix well. Whilst some in the south would appreciate the balance of the protestant North in their government, many in the North want nothing to do with the government in the South and they are not all Protestant either.

In short the whole thing is a mess made in England and pushed out to Ireland. There were few better than the British at Divide and Rule and the two parts of Ireland only show it up strongly and close to home.

Whether Brexit will overwhelm those differences? Who knows. In the end it will have to go to a referendum and you can ask anyone you like what the result will be, but you'll only see the true result on the day.