Please tell me what’s in a United Ireland for me. No President Kennedy quotes please.
Mary-Lou "United Ireland is within touching distance"
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Nothing, but why is it about you?
There’s nothing in it for me either.
There are lots of policies I support that are not in my interest but I think would make the country a fairer and better place.
How can anybody expect any person (in the Republic) to support a call for a United Ireland when our taxes would escalate spectacularly to pay for extra security etc? Not all of us are stupid!
Incidentally, it would be interesting to see how many Northern nationalists would vote for a United Ireland. Not all of them are stupid either!
Incidentally, it would be interesting to see how many Northern nationalists would vote for a United Ireland. Not all of them are stupid either!
thedaddyman
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The people who built a giant crown on a roundabout in Larne or build bonfires out a pallets are not just going to go to stop singing "the sash" and suddenly change to "four green fields".
There will be mayham and riots for a period, at best. At worst, the UVF/LDF etc will take up arms, again. This time, it'll be the Gardai and Irish army who would be the targets when they are policing up there
thedaddyman
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So
A (perhaps) better national football team
A (perhaps) stronger domestic football league
Not having to change money when I travel up there
Not having to wonder if I am over the speed limit if they convert to KM per hour.
Not having to try and spend a Northern Ireland tenner in London and being looked at like I had 2 heads
Struggling to think of much else to be honest.
When I think of benefits, I don't initially think of pragmatic benefits like you have listed, I think of patriotism and nationalism, a sense of unity.
I suppose my heart rules my head, maybe.
I also feel that although there will be costs, there will also be benefits, as hopefully our MNC-based economic model could be spread into NI.
Not wanting to be pedantic but the IRA regarded the Gardai and Irish Army as legitimate targets and did murder quite a few of them.
That's my problem with the debate; I don't like patriotism and nationalism as they both get ugly and become excuses for really nasty behaviour.
thedaddyman
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Having lived in England for many years at a time when my own country could not give me a job or a career( an economic refugee), having heard our patriotic bombs go off (twice) in London, having to go into work on a Monday morning to a company whose head office had been blown to smithereens by my countrymen and been treated with dignity and respect by my English colleagues, I've lost the green tinted view of the world, even though I am now back home. I will always shout for the boys in green when they are playing England, but then I'd do the same if we were playing Italy.
I like Northern Ireland, it's a great places to go on holidays, travel to work for and where sometimes I stock up on wine. A bit like France. A unified Northern Ireland is largely irrelevant to my life.
true, but this time it would be the loyalists doing the killing and the Gardai patrolling Larne and orange order matches in Portadown.
I think all the SF talk about a border poll is just posturing, and well, that's all they really stand for - reunification.
But it might be case of be careful what you wish for. Polls in recent years just don't show a majority in 'the North' for a united ireland/unitary island state. Even a sizeable number of Nationalists prefer the status quo.
If a border poll was rejected, then what? SF would look pretty stupid, as another poll likely would not be held for decades.
Another fact is immigration. Many who have arrived into NI are happy to remain in the UK too. As far as they are concerned, they migrated to the UK, not Ireland.
Any interviews i have seen with unionists (non-politicians) all seem to say the same thing - "the South couldn't afford us" or they are horrified at having to pay 65e to see a GP. Even if the NHS is worse than the HSE currently, the perception is still there that they'd have to give up free healthcare.
No-one is really selling the idea of a United Ireland.
But it might be case of be careful what you wish for. Polls in recent years just don't show a majority in 'the North' for a united ireland/unitary island state. Even a sizeable number of Nationalists prefer the status quo.
If a border poll was rejected, then what? SF would look pretty stupid, as another poll likely would not be held for decades.
Another fact is immigration. Many who have arrived into NI are happy to remain in the UK too. As far as they are concerned, they migrated to the UK, not Ireland.
Any interviews i have seen with unionists (non-politicians) all seem to say the same thing - "the South couldn't afford us" or they are horrified at having to pay 65e to see a GP. Even if the NHS is worse than the HSE currently, the perception is still there that they'd have to give up free healthcare.
No-one is really selling the idea of a United Ireland.
Duke of Marmalade
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A wee Union Jack in the corner of the tricolour, Oz style.
An extra bank holiday on the twalth
Duke of Marmalade
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That's the bit I don't get. The DUP should bite their hand off for a border poll. Imagine the setback to SF if there was a 60/40 "No" in NI and as you say that would put the idea of a BP off for the foreseeable future.
It would be even more of a setback if the majority "Yes" down here was modest, or, more likely, if there was a low turn out. In fact, the prospects of UI could hardly be more problematic from a Southern perspective than they are today, albeit it would stick in the craw for most to vote "No" and reject their childhood mythology.
Lived in different parts of Britain for several years. Very friendly and accepting of me, never had a single issue.
But they had almost no clue about Ireland versus Northern Ireland. Most notably they had zero knowledge of or interest in loyalism/unionism/DUP/Orange Order, etc. It struck me as an unrequited love on the part of northern unionists. I think most English (and probably Welsh) citizens would not blink if we had a united Ireland in the morning and about half of Scotland would cheer it on.
This all came to mind when I read this article today: 'My dad was in the Orange Order, but I'd probably vote for a United Ireland'
I suspect more northern Protestants and unionists would re-consider their position if they realised how unaware and uninterested Britain is in the north. I think there is much more in common between people on this island than between unionists and folk from the rest of the UK.
But they had almost no clue about Ireland versus Northern Ireland. Most notably they had zero knowledge of or interest in loyalism/unionism/DUP/Orange Order, etc. It struck me as an unrequited love on the part of northern unionists. I think most English (and probably Welsh) citizens would not blink if we had a united Ireland in the morning and about half of Scotland would cheer it on.
This all came to mind when I read this article today: 'My dad was in the Orange Order, but I'd probably vote for a United Ireland'
I suspect more northern Protestants and unionists would re-consider their position if they realised how unaware and uninterested Britain is in the north. I think there is much more in common between people on this island than between unionists and folk from the rest of the UK.
thedaddyman
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Very much my experience as well, to be frank, as long as there were no bombs going off on "the mainland" or soldiers getting killed, they couldn't care less. I come from the very south of Ireland, I well remember being asked by one person one day "was that where the bombs go off?" and they were not joking.
Seems relevant here:
A UNITED IRELAND would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years according to a new research paper by the Institute of International and European Affairs think-tank... The researchers suggest that there would be a “dramatic increase” in taxation of around 25% across the island, with the bulk of contributions coming from the Republic’s 26 counties.
www.thejournal.ie
A UNITED IRELAND would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years according to a new research paper by the Institute of International and European Affairs think-tank... The researchers suggest that there would be a “dramatic increase” in taxation of around 25% across the island, with the bulk of contributions coming from the Republic’s 26 counties.
A united Ireland would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years, says study
Researchers suggest that there would be a “dramatic increase” in taxation, of around 25%, across the island.
www.thejournal.ie
Difference in social welfare rates from 100 euros to 225euros here means that the disincentive to work will become much higher in the North like here, so we will be paying more. We introduce hospital and public sector work practices like here and the health system there goes into free fall costing even more, huge protests against the dublin government and their incompetence how they have wrecked Northern Ireland. Also the huge multinational tax surpluses will likely be long gone so we won't be able to pay the bills down here let alone in the North. Also the massive security bill, we don't have the defence forces or gardai as it is to run a peaceful 26 countiesSeems relevant here:
A UNITED IRELAND would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years according to a new research paper by the Institute of International and European Affairs think-tank... The researchers suggest that there would be a “dramatic increase” in taxation of around 25% across the island, with the bulk of contributions coming from the Republic’s 26 counties.
A united Ireland would cost €20 billion every year for 20 years, says study
Researchers suggest that there would be a “dramatic increase” in taxation, of around 25%, across the island.
I agree Joe, though their health service is generally worse than ours.