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> Northern Ireland is even holding talks with the Republic of Ireland to unite the island. Protest Northern Ireland frantically scrambling to join the Catholic
by mbrd 10y ago
> Northern Ireland is even holding talks with the Republic of Ireland to unite the island. Protest Northern Ireland frantically scrambling to join the Catholic Republic of Ireland, and receiving a tepid response, is something I never thought I would see in my lifetime.
Not true, see http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36621822 http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36621822
- s_q_b 10y agoYou have to understand the broader demensions of interaction between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, going back at least to the Anglo-Irish war, and perhaps back to the plantation of Ulster. Ireland is quite literally the first colony of the British. It only recently emerged from centuries of civil war, and the Protestant-Catholic conflict has abated within the past five years. For the topic of unification to even be seriously discussed is extraordinary, and without precedent. Forgive me if I don't believe a government funded news outlet, with a vested interest in the outcome, a deep cultural belief in Anglic superiority, that was so sure the U.K. independence vote would fail, when they discuss issues of Irish affairs. One could be forgiven for believing the government line at the moment. But if viewed through the eyes of Irish history, current events are clearly unprecedented. In Ireland, there are many people alive who remember the Troubles in vivid detail. For the Deputy Prime Minister, and more importantly several prominent Anglo-Protestant politicians, to even broach the subject is to risk reopening Pandora's box. Even now there are armed groups operating in the RoI with the explicit goal of finally driving the British from their lands. Even a cursory understanding of Irish history is sufficient to appreciate that the current discrete (and even public) communiques would be in the realm of fantasy even a few short years ago. The vast majority of the Northern Irish voted to remain in the E.U. With the loss of their British patrons, as the inevitable loss of Scotland unfolds, Protestants in Northern Ireland already know that the E.U. is their only assurance of security and insulation from the chaotic collapse of Britain.