The kind of unity Ireland needs isn't about territory it is about people (Brexit). Guardian
The Guardian
By Fintan O'Toole
Keeping Northern Ireland in the union has long relied on Catholic consent but Brexit will change that fact
Sun 16 Sep 2018
Northern Ireland voted against Brexit and will be very deeply and adversely affected by it...
And the odd thing is that before June 2016 this was, from a unionist perspective, going rather well. The equality guaranteed in the Good Friday agreement, alongside the in effect borderless existence created by common membership of the EU, meant that, whatever their long-term aspirations, most Catholics were willing to live with things as they were.
It is quite breathtaking that the Democratic Unionist party in particular has failed to grasp the simple fact that this Catholic consent was their greatest asset and Brexit throws it away. The polling evidence is stark. Only 28% of Catholics in Northern Ireland would vote for a united Ireland if the UK changed its mind and remained a full member of the EU. However, 53% of Catholics would vote for a united Ireland if there were a hard Brexit in which all of the UK left the customs union and single market. This figure is likely to increase as the consequences accumulate in the coming years.
...The kind of unity Ireland needs is not about territory – it’s about people. The Irish constitution was amended 20 years ago to redefine the national aim as being “to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions”. We are not remotely there yet. We have a slow, delicate process of healing and reconciliation that Brexit tramples on with oafish disregard. We need time. And you don’t have to be a rabid nationalist to think time to heal is the least Britain owes Ireland.
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/16/northern-ireland-union-catholic-consent-brexit
Does the British public want to reopen the wound that so many have been working to heal? As the writer made clear Brexit is “reckless”.
