25 Comments

• DanOLoingsigh | Aug 21, 2012, 06:46 AM EDT

  No, what actually happened was one part of UKGBI left, and the other part stayed...'ourselves alone' versus 'keep the union'...

• seanomelb | Aug 18, 2012, 10:18 PM EDT

  You miss the point as usual as we are discussing the separation of the Irish state into two parts.

• DanOLoingsigh | Aug 18, 2012, 08:32 AM EDT

  There was no separate Irish State for 120 years, UK of GB&I was the legal entity, ie GB (England Scotland Wales) and Ireland...until the Treaty.

• seanomelb | Aug 17, 2012, 08:26 PM EDT

  To use the phrase "pre-existing union" is ridiculous by virtue of the fact that no "union" existed before the carve up Irish state.

• DanOLoingsigh | Aug 17, 2012, 07:25 AM EDT

  ancavker - The Irish people did not vote for 1916 either, just because facts are inconvenient does not make them any less valid...Laws passed by the 19th century administration are still legal, so therefore that union was a legal entity...revising cuts both ways...

• curtisjohnson | Aug 15, 2012, 10:14 PM EDT

  The modern nation state and idea of a singular political unity defining a nation did not arise until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. During this timeframe Ireland was being terrorised and cleansed by psychotic puritans so the standard really is not applicable (although had Owen Roe O'Neill survived and prevailed, he would have most likely united the country as a single political entity under his leadership). However, Ireland has traditionally been united as a nation by language, ethnicity, genetics, culture and law.

• seanomelb | Aug 15, 2012, 07:10 PM EDT

  Kilsally you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. Your post below is childish to say the least or you are so bitter commonsense just passes over your head.

• Kilsally | Aug 15, 2012, 06:17 PM EDT

  ancavker obviously unaware that Ireland was only ever united for a very brief time under High King Brian Boru, uniting several kingdoms of Ireland. The only other time was under English influence (after the Pope urged the English King to invade and spread Catholicism in the 1100`s) and laterly as part of the UK. WE choose every 5 years or so to remain as part of the UK otherwise nationalists would be a majority. The Good Friday Agreement accepts Northern Ireland as part of the UK as voted for overwhelmingly on both sides of the border. The Good Friday Agreement also provides for a border poll should there be the chance of constitutional change - I don`t hear any politician, not even Sinn Fein calling for said border poll despite their United Ireland rhetoric which speaks volumes. Better to focus on making Northern Ireland work for all it`s citizens and working with our southern brothers & sisters and the rest of the UK (England, Scotland & Wales)

• ancavker | Aug 15, 2012, 10:10 AM EDT

  Dan: Please stop with the pre existing union nonsense. The Irish people did not vote to join this union. The other part did not choose to remain in the union, they simply carved out an area for themselves, and than took another big chunk with them, that they should not have. You keep harping on about this, and it is typical revisionist nonsense.

• DanOLoingsigh | Aug 15, 2012, 08:05 AM EDT

  IrelandNorth - The Irish nation, at least those who remain on the island, inhabit two states...following a decision by one part to separate from a pre-existing union, and a decision by the other part to remain in it...uniting the two parts will, if and when it happens, create a new state, which may or may not be greater than the sum of both parts...unless like some you think a straight takeover is possible, likely or desirable?

• IrelandNorth | Aug 15, 2012, 07:20 AM EDT

  Her Excellency, the Rt Hon Sen Mary Burke-Robinson, (although undoubtedly of old Anglo-Irish landed gentry and tweedy Trinitarian stock from Ballina, Co Mayo, Province of Connacht/western Ireland), did break the mould of the Irish presidency as a sinecure for retired politicians, (a political paradigm some may fear has been returned to?) The Irish state and Irish nation are not currently coterminous. Still, she's verbalising what needs to be said, even if she's a byproduct of her class environment like us all.

• EamonnDublin | Aug 15, 2012, 03:31 AM EDT

  "Tom MO" - A beautifully witty play on words there with regard to Noddy. Nice one! Éamonn, Dublin.

• curtisjohnson | Aug 14, 2012, 11:35 PM EDT

  Wasn't maccamouthpiece in favor of all the trans-nationalism that led to the economic crisis (including the bailouts of the creditors of the international banks that just happened to be based in Ireland)?

• Tom Mo | Aug 14, 2012, 10:49 PM EDT

  Why even mention her? She deserted Ireland. She should be a broad without a country

• Tom Mo | Aug 14, 2012, 10:40 PM EDT

  I may be wrong but was it not Mary Robinson who said it was Ireland's duty to invite the entire turd world to Ireland and go on the dole?

• misneac | Aug 14, 2012, 10:02 PM EDT

  I am cynically amused by the comments of the former Mary Bourke from Ballina .Representing me as as a citizen of the Irish Republic she refused to obey common good manners and protocol when meeting with the Pope . Big deal ,thought she was making some statement of protest , not in my name ! She has proven to be an opportunist self promoter ,and actually very successful at same . That does not mean that Irish people retain any respect for her opportunism and ambition !

• merefalow | Aug 14, 2012, 05:37 PM EDT

  not while corrupt EU bought politicians are in charge.not while you have mass uncontrolled immigration,not without a cleansing of the banking system,ireland has been betrayed,bought and sold,sort them out hard.

• seanomelb | Aug 14, 2012, 05:32 PM EDT

  Robinson was always a bit "plastic Irish". People seem to forget she was a "stickie" at uni. She certainly abused the system to get a leg up.She's A former member of the workers party living in an ivory tower preaching to those she abandoned,what a hypocrite.

• Sionna | Aug 14, 2012, 03:29 PM EDT

  Ireland needs to close its borders, especially to Muslims.

• EamonnDublin | Aug 14, 2012, 11:37 AM EDT

  Don't forget we're talking here about the Mary who gave up being President of Ireland before her term was ended, because she got a "better" job abroad. Make of that what you will. Éamonn, Dublin, Ireland.

• Seanmor | Aug 14, 2012, 11:11 AM EDT

  Mary Robinson was never President of the whole Irish nation, merly the part of the country over which the Dáil has jurisdiction. She bemoans the "loss of our economic sovereignth", but doesn't seem to regret the ditution of the Irish state's legal sovereignty to the E.U. In 2011 this lady refused to be the 3rd female Gand Marshal of the St. Ptrick's Day prade, an event that had occurred for almost 1½ centuries before Westminister imposed Partition on Ireland.

• Seanmor | Aug 14, 2012, 10:54 AM EDT

  volunteering to dig your own economic grave is the only Irish solution she has to offer

• lokionline | Aug 14, 2012, 10:14 AM EDT

  Interesting that Robinson noted that neighborliness and volunteering are up.
  
  That sounds a little different from the individualism touted by the second and third etc... generation so-called "Irish Americans" we hear from on this site often.

• johhnyb | Aug 14, 2012, 09:52 AM EDT

  Everybody who could get a loan was buying houses. I never heard of a banker forcing anybody to borrow money. Do we always have to blame someone else for our troubles?

• Portia777 | Aug 14, 2012, 09:17 AM EDT

  ??? she does not care