45 Comments

• STEVENSTAR | Oct 19, 2012, 09:37 PM EDT

  A united Ireland ?, Im Irish i live here and i was born here but im in my 30s...Its the year 2012 and the Irish goverment can barely run the south of Ireland never mind inflict the North of ireland with the same mess. I think Martin would be far better off forgetting about our British neighbors who we now all get on great with and FOCUS on the Germans who now practically run Ireland and are next to take over the EU banking system .. Its time to move on and focus on whats relevant now and as this paper focuses mainly on Americans with sentimental Ireland you dont have a clue whats going on over here in the year 2012 ...

• Eire32 | Oct 06, 2012, 05:10 PM EDT

  Ireland SHOULD be United! Or country was stolen from us and only 4/5 was given back! anyone who disagrees with sinn fein or a united Ireland should be ashamed.. Our ancestors weren't butchered and imprisoned for nothing.. and o i don't want more violence and i don't hate britain but i believe in what's right and hat's right is an Ireland free of borders and free of discrimination.. ONE IRELAND GREEN AND PROUD! btw i'm 17 so don't bother accusing me of being sectarian or a religous fanatic.. UNITE!!

• TechFab | Feb 10, 2012, 11:32 AM EST

  Ireland should be reunited - absolutely. The republic should rejoin the United Kingdom. How can the tiny states of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland - even England compete in the modern world independently - impossible. All current economic decisions about the Republic of Ireland are made in Germany who see Ireland as an irrelevant island so distant from its centre - more of an nuisance. It is a ridiculous situation when its closest neighbour is an hour away by boat and shares an irrelevant land border. The ROI shares a deep cultural connection especially when at least 5 million mainland British are Irish. The whole idea of a separate Ireland is stupid -just plain mythical 19th Century nonsense causing thousands of lives for an illogical cause for the delusional uneducated few. Each state can have their own flags and emblems but economically and culturally they are one - think music, football, arts and entertainment and more importantly science and technology and higher knowledge - they have been integrated for centuries. And yes they have shared a enormous amount of bloodshed as has every human culture and race. Get your heads together and rejoin the UK and stop being a backwater.

• TechFab | Feb 10, 2012, 11:28 AM EST

  Ireland should be reunited - absolutely. The republic should rejoin the United Kingdom. How can the tiny states of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland - even England compete in the modern world independently - impossible. All current economic decisions about the Republic of Ireland are made in Germany who see Ireland as an irrelevant island so distant from its centre - more of an nuisance. It is a ridiculous situation when its closest neighbour is an hour away by boat and shares an irrelevant land border. The ROI shares a deep cultural connection especially when at least 5 million mainland British are Irish. The whole idea of a separate Ireland is stupid -just plain mythical 19th Century nonsense causing thousands of lives for an illogical cause for the delusional uneducated few. Each state can have their own flags and emblems but economically and culturally they are one - think music, football, arts and entertainment and more importantly science and technology and higher knowledge - they have been integrated for centuries. And yes they have shared a enormous amount of bloodshed as has every human culture and race. Get your heads together and rejoin the UK and stop being a backwater.

• TechFab | Feb 10, 2012, 11:27 AM EST

  Ireland should be reunited - absolutely. The republic should rejoin the United Kingdom. How can the tiny states of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland - even England compete in the modern world independently - impossible. All current economic decisions about the Republic of Ireland are made in Germany who see Ireland as an irrelevant island so distant from its centre - mor of an nuisance. It is a ridiculous situation when its closet neighbour is an hour away by boat and shares an irrelevant land border. The ROI shares a deep cultural connection especially when at least 5 million mainland British are Irish. The whole idea of a separate Ireland is stupid -just plain mythical 19th Century nonsense causing thousands of lives for an illogical cause for the delusional uneducated few. Each state can have their own flags and emblems but economically and culturally they are one - think music, football, arts and entertainment and more importantly science and technology and higher knowledge - they have been integrated for centuries. And yes they have shared a enormous amount of bloodshed as has every human culture and race. Get your heads together and rejoin the UK and stop being a backwater.

• ancavker | Oct 17, 2011, 04:10 PM EDT

  Paddy I have friends in Fermanagh too, and they consider themselves nothing but Irish. Very hard not to to in a county where so many of the place names are all of Gaelic origin.

• Fergananim | Oct 14, 2011, 08:53 AM EDT

  As an Irishman living in Ireland I feel compelled to point out that since it began its campaign in 1969 the IRA were never supported by even a majority of Irish people living in Northern Ireland, still less in the Republic, where they remain an illegal organisation. They were responsible for over 1700 murders during the troubles, more than the loyalists and British security forces. Combined. Many of the people the IRA murdered were Irish, so is it any wonder than so many here in Ireland are disgusted at McGuinness running for President? How would Americans react if a man who endorsed an organisation responsible for that American deaths ran for the White House?

• KMcSinger | Oct 10, 2011, 12:22 AM EDT

  Brilliant article! Sometimes I think that Irish Americans are more upset by the border than the people actually living there. I have heard arguments that if NI was returned to the Republic that the pro-English faction would go on a rampage and there'd be anarchy. I've also heard that neither the British nor the Irish governments actually want NI as it's more trouble than it's worth.

• PaddyDuffy | Oct 07, 2011, 01:05 PM EDT

  Ha, cheers Towngate, always appreciate your comments! I also appreciate that this is a very emotionally charged debate and people will always have strong opinions about it. However, Ernesider: while I respect your fervency for United Ireland I can't understand why me simply expressing an opinion would make you so angry as to invoke GBH. Or worse, Henry VI! I have friends in your own home county of Fermanagh who would never consider themselves Irish, not out of spite, they just simply don't consider themselves such. I think therefore we need to think beyond the old school solutions and try and move in lockstep, where people can feel free to be whatever they want and leave the bad old days of imposition behind. I've seen some of your comments elsewhere on the site, like with the Bosnian family, and you seem to be a compassionate sort of person who values looking after your fellow man, stances I completely agree with, so there's really no need bring phrases like "jailtime" or assumptions into the conversation.

• Towngate | Oct 07, 2011, 09:28 AM EDT

  Paddy: you certainly got a few feathers flapping and flustered with this Post. All the usual suspects and even a few new ones too! ~~~ With The Dauntless O'Dowd hopelessly beating the drum for the hapless McGuinness still,and the not so veiled threat of violence from one of your Commenters, it is a brave stance you have taken here. ~ Aughavey sensibly points out that the island we now like to call Ireland is historically, culturally and geographically divided,but fails to include that its connection to the British Crown is much longer than any of the local dynasties that went before! It only truly became a single political entity under British influence intil part of it decided to break away. ..........The hard bullet your detracters below have to bite on, Paddy, is the fact that Britain has a right to try and retain its sovereignty and the 'North' are justified it fighting to avoid being forced to break away and join the 'South'. The South, having Formally removed their Territorial claim to the 'North' from their Constitution should now stop bleating on about it! BOTH sided should take a big gulp and swallow the bitter reality pill. When they are cured, they will wake up to the fact that our little island is,and always has been,a hotbed of strife and division, inhabited by a very strange racial mixture of curious, but deliciously argumentative people. ~~~ So hold steady under fire Paddy,a chara,you are quite right. It's just that some members of IC appear to be very slow learners. Slainte!

• bestofIrish | Oct 07, 2011, 07:06 AM EDT

  I have never heard as much rubbish in all my life. Mr Duffy must not have looked at a history book in his young life.The Irish people have for the most part lived a very sad existence.Their lands have been seized,they have lived and died through famines and have fought and died so that people like Mr Duffy and everyone on this island can have a better life. Do we stop supporting the Irish rugby team because it does not matter who wins,or that Wales will do as good as job in the final? of course not,we are Irish after all. And as a person that wants to see a united Ireland for all,it is my duty to lam-blast this waffle when ever and from who ever it comes from.

• Ernesider | Oct 06, 2011, 09:16 PM EDT

  Paddy Duffy! Are you some sort of eejit? Some have lived along the border longer than you. You must have always been well enough off to take such an aloof view of things. A sort of a Horse Catholic I'd be thinking. The problem with boys like you, Mr. Duffy, is you get me so upset since I can never understand how you can take such a position. I might do jail time if I ever met you. God you madden me. "Plantagenet : The truth appears so naked on my side That any purblind eye may find it out. Somerset : And on my side it is so well apparell'd, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye". Jaysus, you have me now turning to Shakespeare to figure you out.

• fermanaghman | Oct 06, 2011, 10:09 AM EDT

  Mr. Duffy's pro Brit opinion does not belong in our Irish Central. His ignorance is the best example of English propaganda. Slan abhaile, Mr. Duffy (and the editor that allowed this article to print!) Ireland was one nation and will be one nation again. Brits out now!

• JOHNTOBIN | Oct 06, 2011, 02:12 AM EDT

  I believe the latest poll shows that the majority of Catholics in Northern Ireland would prefer that the North stayed united with the UK.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 05, 2011, 09:26 PM EDT

  Aughavey, the battle between Cuchulain and Queen Maeve was an inter-dynastic war between two Irish factions and not a battle between Ulster and the rest of Ireland. During the reign of Brian Boru(941-1014), the High King of Ireland, the Kingdom of Leinter was warring constantly with the King Brian's native Munster and this does not suggest that Leinster was battling the rest of Ireland. Ulster has been one of the strongest repositories of Irish Gaelic culture and resisted valiantly the invasions by Anglo-Normans, Tudor Kings and Queens. Gaelic Ulster was the last Irish bastion to fall despite the great military resistance led by Hugh O'Neill(Earl of Tyrone) and Hugh O'Donnell(Earl of Tyrconnell)against English rule under Queen Elizabeth 1st. You state that Ireland was given to an English King to spread Catholicism. This is a very simplistic and distorted view of a disputed event which involved a bull called "Laudbiliter" in 1154 which supposedly granted the English King Henry 11 complete sovereignty over Ireland if he managed to get the existing Church structures overhauled. There is a substantial body of opinion among the experts of this period that the letter was a forgery or amended by Henry to make it look like he was given certain powers by the pope that in reality he was not given.

• patriot | Oct 05, 2011, 07:25 PM EDT

  Utter ignorant bullocks. Has this person ever read A HISTORY BOOK? The column is so filled with historical inaccuracies and unionist opinion camouflaged as Irish opinion that is mist be called an utter falsehood. In the 1600s the brits sent the scotch over to Ulster to murder the Catholics and steal their land. THIS IS A FACT. And it is the main reason that we Irish Patriots will unite Ireland. Writers like this can be happy as clams in Glasgow, which she seems to love so much, but she is not wanted on our Island. Unite Ireland by 2016! Brits out! Up the RA!

• Aughavey | Oct 05, 2011, 06:26 PM EDT

  `A border which never made any geographical, social or economic sense ` lol clearly you have never heard of cuchulain or the Black Pigs Dyke, Queen Maeve or Dalriada then? Ulster has existed as a separate Kingdom from the rest of Ireland in various forms down the centuries and has existed as part of a Kingdom encompassing parts of Scotland at a time as well. LilPaddya says `come pick up their national flag AND TAKE IT HOME.... Keep in mind, Ireland was not "given" to England.... ` sorry but the flag is to do with Ulster Loyalists born and bred in ulster and nothing to do with England. Secondly the Pope gave Ireland to England in order to spread Catholicism a thousand years ago.

• ancavker | Oct 05, 2011, 04:29 PM EDT

  towngate: Time to give it a rest old boy, the whole Ireland should have never left the UK thing and all. No wonder why the south is such a mess. No pride in the men and women who fought and got freedom fro the place. The old Irish inferiority complex thing again and again, "ah now sure we would have been better off if we had stayed in the UK". Pathetic little country indeed.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 05, 2011, 04:01 PM EDT

  It's the only solution that ain't been tried, Towney. Is it any more ridiculous than having our ancient nation partitioned by a foreign colonial power which consequently left one jurisdiction sapped by decades of devastating communal conflict and economic stagnation whilst the second jurisdiction is lumbering under a mountain of debt and is effectively bankrupt. We need to be of course realistic but this should not deter forward-thinking nationalists from tackling the obstacles to the reunification of our country.

• Searlit | Oct 05, 2011, 03:45 PM EDT

  When it comes to culture and heritage I think it does make a difference. As long as we live together in peace, we agree to accept people as they are. There does need to be a single set of laws for everyone. If we humans are one (on a spiritual level) that doesn't require that we become carbon copies of each other. Vive la difference!

• Towngate | Oct 05, 2011, 03:30 PM EDT

  Everyone who is whinging on about a 'United Ireland' should start to persuade those who 'dis-united' it in the first place by breaking away,to beg the remaining province to allow it to re-unite! Don't be surprised by the answer they get,though! When you are honest with yourself about how and why the south split away ~ and what it has done to itself since, add that to the chances of a reunion, and then you may begin to realise just how stupid and ridiculous the notion of Martin McGuinness - of all people - being elected President is! Dream on! " It just ain't gonna happen,folks!"

• Borderboy | Oct 05, 2011, 03:21 PM EDT

  RedBranch, Let me see if I've got your grasp of economics. Border towns, you say, thrive by sucking retail business from the other side. It makes as much sense, I suppose, as believing that we can all become millionaires by selling increasingly more expensive houses to each other. If jobs are created by having a border, then let's all have one. That's it, every city, town and village in Ireland with its own international frontier and retail price differentials for petrol and diesel, groceries and everything else. Let the good times roll. Those boys in the IMF and ECB sure missed that solution.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 05, 2011, 03:21 PM EDT

  You are way of the mark, Mr Branch, the towns and cities that you mention in the north of Ireland are not exactly thriving. Strabane and Derry still have stubbornly high unemployment rates. Derry recently has won the title "City of Culture" for an amorphous entity called the UK. There was an air of expectancy surrounding that accolade in terms of future economic development and employment prospects. But alas, the infrastructure renewal promised for the railway and road links to make the city ready for prospective employers will not be underway until at least 2014. The civil service cabal making these decisions in Belfast seem to be directing the vast quantity of the jobs towards the east of the Bann. Both economies are in a great degree of difficulty and if truth be told the north is faring little better than the south despite the IMF having to lay down conditions for an effective bail-out for the latter. The north is over-reliant on the public sector which was artificially enhanced by the demands of the security services during the troubles. Now with the impending cuts in that sector and little stimulus in the private one, things could become a little desperate. I think that it is time that forward thinkers project ahead and think about how an united Ireland could bring the whole country to it's true potential. Only then will Robert Emmet's epitaph be written

• joemccullough | Oct 05, 2011, 03:20 PM EDT

  What then of the generations who were tortured and murdered for a free and united Ireland? Robert Emmitt, Padraic Pearse, Bobby Sands? I guess their dreams are no longer pragmatic enough for you. Oh well.

• RedBranch | Oct 05, 2011, 02:54 PM EDT

  Well Paddy Duffy you are brave to put your head above the parapet, In fact I hope you are writing under a pseudonym as some of those irredentists may be paying you a visit in the dark of night with a pointy reckoning. I believe many of your observations to be spot on; flags however will continue to be a matter of contention for some time yet, its in the DNA. Some Points at your detractors. @sirpeter: Where did you get this unemployment info? Don't catholic men have the highest unemployment of ANY group in the Republic of Ireland? @borderboy, there is a filling station in Strabane, coming up to the bridge. Your question should be why isn't there a supermarket in Lifford. The answer lies in why Newry, Armagh, Enniskillen, Strabane, Derry/Londonderry are thriving. Thousands and thousands of private sector jobs rely on the border.

• LilPaddy | Oct 05, 2011, 02:22 PM EDT

  The only change there should be..... Would be to tell England to come pick up their national flag AND TAKE IT HOME.... Keep in mind, Ireland was not "given" to England.... It was "taken" by England.....

• greensod | Oct 05, 2011, 02:16 PM EDT

  This makes about as much sense as this Norris follow runnining for President.Must be a slow news day.

• clevelander | Oct 05, 2011, 02:09 PM EDT

  I agree with Gearoid, well stated BorderBoy. Thank you.

• Gearoid4 | Oct 05, 2011, 12:57 PM EDT

  You put the pro-united Ireland case very well, Borderboy. You explain the case in a coherent and eloquent manner.

• Borderboy | Oct 05, 2011, 12:29 PM EDT

  We will have a united Ireland soon because, as the Americans say, it is 'manifest destiny'. Partition is – and has been from the start – a nonsense. A border which never made any geographical, social or economic sense is rapidly disappearing to the point where the only current notification of the Frontier is a crease in the tarmac beside roadsigns indicating speed limits in kilometres or miles and occasional bizarre warnings for motorists to 'drive on the left'! Economic necessity will fuse our political systems even further to the point where we will have common currency, tax rates, social systems and political representation. The aim of European Union is the removal of borders and anything that would restrict the free movement of people, goods and services. Resisting the re-unification of Ireland – along with increased harmonisation of this island with Britain and our other European partners, and then beyond – makes absolutely no sense and is the least feasible option open to us. Reuniting Ireland is a dawdle in comparison to going it alone in a pair of truncated, under-performing political entities.

• cillowen | Oct 05, 2011, 11:40 AM EDT

  The crown ars$ kissers - so many are hard to take. The people on the island of Ireland as viewed from afar or even within seem to be a c%ock-a-mamy bunch of dysfunctionality that has no equal on the planet. Confused as can be, as they try for meaning through connections both real and imagined. In a word those who look from afar at the muckey isle can only conclude that the natives are living in a funny farm.

• PaddyDuffy | Oct 05, 2011, 11:33 AM EDT

  Borderboy you say it yourself, "Life has improved only as the Border has declined in status". I agree, nowadays the sting (and ramps) have been taken out of the border and I welcome every scintilla of cross-border co-operation to take on the very many socio-economic problems going. I deliberately made no reference to the past effects of partition though and the bigger political problems associated with that because my central point was the feasibility of a united Ireland in the future, as regards to squaring the circle of harmonising tax rates, infrastructure, service provision, and so forth.

• Borderboy | Oct 05, 2011, 11:04 AM EDT

  Either you are incredibly young or ridiculously naive in arguing that the Border hasn’t impinged on the lives of people who have had to live beside it. It is not long since long delays and intrusive searches and interrogations by British soldiers at the Camel’s Hump in Strabane or Clabby Bridge. Before that, we had cratered roads and spikes, B Specials, curfews, stamped pass-books and even work permit impediments to shopping or working along this nonsensical frontier. There is no guarantee that these impediments will not be enforced again, so the steady erosion of the Border during the past then years is a welcome change, but far from the norm of the past 90 years of economic stagnation and social decline. Life has improved only as the Border has declined in status. Yet even now it accounts for why there is no supermarket in Lifford and no filling station in Strabane; no railway service for the north-west; why neighbouring children endure different and often inadequate school systems, health care and why none of them have jobs when they grow up. It means duplicated tax, social welfare, security and political systems – with all their costs; it has nurtured sectarian difference, civil rights infringements (on both sides) and persistent conflict. Its cost has been almost incalculable and its removal would mean the end of another barrier to co-operation and development. It is why the vast majority of those with their eyes open want an end to partition. If you weren't blinded by smug prejudice, you might see that too.

• PaddyDuffy | Oct 05, 2011, 10:44 AM EDT

  Thanks for your comments everyone. Brendan, I take your point about Texans and New Yorkers, and I'm all for vive la difference in fact. The problems occur when you tell a Texan that they are now in fact Oklahoman, that's my point. My point is there is no impediment to people of different cultures moving about and living their lives under the current system. Gearoid you make some interesting points and I think it's only right both traditions are involved in the governance of NI as is, to my mind, neither and both. as for what's the point of this article, I figure we'll be talking a lot about this in coming years up to various commemorations, and wanted to see if anyone who believed in a united Ireland had any workable ideas around how that could be achieved.

• jonno99 | Oct 05, 2011, 10:38 AM EDT

  Paddy Duffy writes his article using American spelling. Was it a mistake for the USA to break from England? The fact is a united Ireland will be a firm step in righting a terrible wrong; the sectarian partition of Irealnd. The NI state has an expiry date. Its days of subvention from London are numbered. Nevertheless a 50% plus one vote to remove the border won't happen tomorrow. This is a peace 'process'. The green paint is just waiting. boxes

• ballyhip | Oct 05, 2011, 10:18 AM EDT

  If the Boundary Commission had been allowed to complete its work w/o interference, the borders that we know now woukd be completely different. If an international court had intervened in the treaty process as one academic has argued, a coerced treaty would never have gained acceptance. As a practical matter, there is one Ireland making the news now. Rory McIlroy, Darren Clarke, Graham MacDowell, Padraig Harrington, etc. all began their careers as amateur golfers representing the Irish Golfing Union which includes every course in Ireland, one Ireland, not two.

• BrendanDunphy | Oct 05, 2011, 09:58 AM EDT

  You can have multiple cultures in the same country. Do you really think that Texans and New Yorkers and Californians are all alike?? Or Bavarians and Hamburgers? I challenge Paddy Duffy to chime in further on this and my below point.

• BrendanDunphy | Oct 05, 2011, 09:55 AM EDT

  I can't believe I'm reading this on an "Irish" website. You're either British or are one of the 26-county free-staters that has turned their backs on the six counties and their fellow countrymen.

• stephendoyle | Oct 05, 2011, 09:18 AM EDT

  To ask such a stupid question, you are obviously not Irish but british. Sure there are cultural differences, but the are cultural differences in cities,counties,etc. That is not an excuse to keep a country split apart. A country that was stolen by an inbred family across the sea. Come on, this article is a joke, right?

• Gearoid4 | Oct 04, 2011, 11:46 PM EDT

  "Northern Ireland" is a totally artificial,cobbled-together creation whose meandering border does not follow any recognized pre-existent frontier. It was gerrymandered in favor of one community along obvious sectarian lines. Whole towns and cities in this "state" were cut off from their natural hinterlands that they had served for hundreds of years. The negative effects of this can be seen in the depressed areas on either side of the border which have suffered from the economic harsh realities which it brought in it's wake. Both states on the island currently provide organizations and services which are duplications of each other in the health, industrial, education, farming and hospitality sectors to cater for slightly over 5 million people. Think of the economic savings that could be made in the event of an united Ireland? The concept of an united Ireland does not have to be the traditional model of subsuming the north into the south. I do not think that this would work because of the variations in political culture and allegiances which have been present in both parts of the island since partition and indeed before. A federal solution of separate administrations for the four provinces with the main national parliament still resident in Dail Eireann.

• ancavker | Oct 04, 2011, 12:49 PM EDT

  As far as Glasgow and all of that, what is your point? I have friends in Glasgow, and on my last recent visit, it is still very sectarian. Unless Donegal people have family there, I never heard any one long to go and live there, because they loved the place. As far as lineage and all, again who cares and how exactly would you know how many converted over the years? A few, some, a lot? Are you going just by last names, then that is not necessarily a reliable indicator.

• ancavker | Oct 04, 2011, 12:44 PM EDT

  While it may not matter, what really would be wrong with it, if a united Ireland were to come about? You should at least acknowledge that partition was wrong, or at least acknowledge that if it had to be done, that a large portion of it (Tyrone, Fermanagh, west Derry, and south Armagh should not have been included. Also the possibilities of might have been it the country was not divided. Why don't you at least acknowlede that before the Unionists opted out of Irelnad, they could have opted in, with the right to withdraw, were they to be mistreated. I think they woudl have liked the opportunity to rule themselves, and at 20% of the population they could have had a real influence in shaping an independent Ireland.

• sirpeter | Oct 04, 2011, 12:42 PM EDT

  What rubbish!!Of course it makes a difference.Northern Ireland,North East England and parts of Scotland are the poorest parts of the UK.Money makes money and it is drawn down South towards London and it's surrounding counties.Northern Ireland is massively subsidized by the rest of the UK.Northern Ireland Catholic men have the highest unemployment rate of ANY group in the UK,while Northern Ireland's Protestants have the second lowest.Do you want me to go on?

• hancock | Oct 04, 2011, 09:45 AM EDT

  Whats the pointy of this article? I guess Israel/ Palestine can be forgotten about too?

• Shmrck5S | Oct 04, 2011, 09:28 AM EDT

  In answer to your question-"yes".