It’s now 59 years almost to the day since Taoiseach Seán Lemass arrived at Stormont on January 14 1965 to meet the north’s prime minister, Terence O’Neill, only to be met first by the demented demagogue Paisley throwing snowballs at his car.
It seems that in the intervening decades nothing has changed in the paranoid style of reactionary unionists towards any unionist who wishes to develop relations with the south. As a result, in O’Neill’s case, their Lundyometer soon went off the scale.
The Lundyometer would have exploded if they had known that O’Neill and Lemass had discussed at Stormont, and subsequently in Dublin, common tourism, energy and transport policies for the island, as well as cooperation in education, culture and the arts. Indeed O’Neill’s initial invitation to Lemass included a personal message “that a fresh approach should be made in the matter of cooperation between the two parts of Ireland”.
Why is it that in what passes for unionist politics, extremist unionists always prevail? Is it not extraordinary that the default position of unionism is violence or the threat of violence or a passive-aggressive stance like boycott 1985-2006 or 2022…? Is it because it has always worked in the past and is habit-forming?
O’Neill, like many other unionists, realised that cross-border cooperation is a no-brainer. It offers economies of scale on a small island, offers opportunities for trade with smoother transport and, as at present, no tariffs, no duty. Yet because the incoherent, the irrational, always wins in unionism, fearful leaders fold and persuade their voters to vote against increased prosperity.
Nowadays the DUP are the latest exponents of that stance. Although it has been the settled policy of UK governments since 1973 that there must be a power-sharing administration in the north with an Irish dimension, the DUP, and therefore these days the majority unionist position, is to frustrate that. They have blocked all attempts to develop an all-Ireland economy which would be to the indisputable benefit of people in the north.
Unionists, including the UUP who voted for it, have stymied all progress in the North-South Ministerial Council during its rare meetings. Why does the enormously successful Wild Atlantic Way not continue to Fair Head? Answer: for unionist politicians the Atlantic stops at Malin Head.
The reason is that unionism was concocted as a way to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people on this island, so unionist politicians, taking this concoction to its logical conclusion, will not cooperate in any way with ‘those people’. That’s what Brexit was about; yet another vote for isolation, exclusion, restoration of the border the Good Friday Agreement removed.
Claiming that they’re afraid any move to cooperate, like Micheál Martin’s Shared Island project, is inviting in a Trojan horse – nationalists wish it was – is just another way of refusing to live on equal terms. The north’s constitutional position is established by international treaty. Unionists are guaranteed equality by law and treaty. Why have unionist politicians not the self confidence to deal as equals? Why continue to be dog in the manger to the detriment of everyone in the north? The result impoverishes their own voters.
Unionism was concocted as a way to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people on this island
Do you not think that this irrational, incoherent behaviour by unionist politicians is the reason so few unionists vote in elections? Thousands of unionists don’t buy the nonsense the DUP spouts. Many young professionals, if they vote, have transferred to Alliance; see North Down and Lagan Valley.
The indisputable fact is that unionist business people have no problem doing business with the south and that north-south trade has never been better. They just get on with it, never extol the advantages for fear of unionist violence.
There’s a world out there offering unionists the opportunity to join the 21st century but their leaders betray them by encouraging them to crouch in paranoia. Why do unionists buy that?
