Twice as many Northern Irish voters favour the status quo over unity. Southern Irish voters back unification, but as a low priority Published: 6 December 2022 oday is the centenary of the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It passed without celebration, for what...
Over-excited nationalists will say otherwise, but whatever happens on Thursday, the country will not unite in our lifetime Published: 3 May 2020 If the pollsters have got it right, by the weekend, although unionists will almost certainly have scored more votes than...
Having claimed for decades that the majority of the electorate in the Irish Republic just pay lip service to the idea of a united Ireland, I got a momentary shock the other day when I saw the Irish Times leading with ‘Large majority of voters favour a united Ireland,...
With some of the usual suspects still boring on about a border poll, I want to go back to basics. Published: 6 July 2021 I apologise to those who have heard this story before, but I think it one of the most telling comments about Irish aspirations to unity I’ve ever...
First, the bad news, though you know it already. Published: 27 April 2021 Until the Sinn Féin leopard changes its spots there’s no hope of having a stable government in Northern Ireland working for all its people. The Province is stuck for now with a disruptive...
Here’s a suggestion to unionism in dealing with Irish nationalism. Published: 30 March 2021 Stop reacting and take control of the agenda. “How do you feel about a united Ireland these days?” I recently asked a patriotic friend in the Irish Republic who takes more...
Published: 31 January 2020 This evening at 11pm I’ll be drinking champagne with a few rejoicing friends, but my feelings will be mixed. I expect joy, optimism and excitement to predominate, but there will be flashes of sadness and worry, for I was born and brought up...
Published: 21 January 2020 My admiration for Matthew Parris has remained intact throughout the period of his severe attack of Brexit Derangement Syndrome. But, just when I was rejoicing that he seemed steadily to be returning to equilibrium, his article in Saturday’s...
Published: 12 August 2019 The news I bring from the West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen is that in the Republic thinking people have serious misgivings about a United Ireland. In a country that goes in for navel-gazing summer schools, this three-year-old event...
Published: 20 April 2019 “I didn’t know it was still going on,” is a comment I’ve heard frequently since Thursday night and the death of my friend Lyra McKee. But close followers of the situation in Northern Ireland are all too aware that there are still plenty of...
