As the border poll bandwagon rumbles on, it is becoming increasingly clear that in attempting to demolish the northern state, nationalists are making the same mistakes which unionists made in establishing that same state 100 years ago.
In 1921, in-your-face unionism used its sectarian majority to foster triumphalism, arrogance and intolerance, which ultimately led to the state’s failure. In 2021, in-your-face nationalism is using its expected (but by no means guaranteed) majority in a border poll to mock and taunt unionists, in a manner which will undermine the sustainability of a united Ireland. Nationalists have not learned that sectarian triumphalism is no basis for unity or stability.
You will, of course, point out that everyone will be treated equally in the earthly paradise of a united Ireland. But promises of future equality contrast sharply with nationalism’s current sneering at unionists for their “stupidity” in backing Brexit (a condition which can only be cured by the political faith healing of joining a united Ireland).
Yes, Boris Johnson is a political buffoon and some in the DUP are deservedly figures of fun. But when political point-scoring becomes sectarian triumphalism, we are moving away from, rather than towards, uniting the Irish people.
Much of nationalism’s current anti-unionism was spawned by Brexit, which nationalists could have used to seek unity with unionists in designating the north as a special economic zone.
Instead, prompted by Dublin and Brussels, they embarked on a sectarian campaign about where the border should be, claiming victory for an Irish Sea border and then blaming unionists for that arrangement’s serious failings.
Indeed, the SDLP criticised the Northern Ireland Office for talking to representatives of loyalist paramilitaries about the sea border. (This is the party which built its reputation on talking to the IRA.)
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s and the SDLP’s not-so-subtle repetition of having a “conversation” about a border poll aims to shape the news agenda and deflect attention from their failings in government.
Which do you think is the more urgent: a border poll, or addressing the needs of the 350,000 long-suffering people who will be waiting for a first outpatient appointment with a consultant when the pandemic is over?
Why are nationalist leaders not suggesting a “conversation”about their failure to tackle the UK’s worst levels of child poverty here or the recent 80 per cent surge in the demand for food banks? The answer is the same one offered for 100 years by the IRA, de Valera and more recently Fine Gael: all will be well in a united Ireland.
Meanwhile, a Muslim charity is handing out hundreds of meals to Dublin families, babies in prams and some children queuing up twice to get food to bring home. So which is the more urgent - feeding hungry children or a border poll? Only the well fed will opt for a poll in an Ireland which has the fifth highest number of billionaires in the world per head of population.
Those who believe that “unity” can be secured by a majority of one in a border poll have no idea what unity means. This is not to suggest that the aspiration of a united Ireland should somehow be abandoned. It should not.
But a united Ireland can only be built on a united north and the north has never been more divided. Irish unity must therefore begin with a non-sectarian consensus on tackling the growing inequality in health, housing and education here, in what might be considered the modern equivalent of Wolfe Tone’s unity of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.
Instead, what’s being promoted right now is just old-fashioned Catholic nationalism. If a border poll is carried, it will merely encourage unionists to agitate for an all-Ireland compulsory power-sharing coalition, (and its inevitable regular collapse) and, of course, the in-built right for a poll to reinstate the border.
We have tried government by constitutional issues. It doesn’t work. Ask the 350,000 patients on the waiting list.
