Battle for the soul of Unionism

Ulster Unionism never recovered from the existential trauma of Partition. Over time, and under assault from simplistic-minded forces both internal and external, it shied away from accepting itself as a truly Irish thing. Of course Ulsterness and Britishness are also cornerstones of Ulster Unionism. But too often it appears that Unionism is desperately trying to make a three-legged stool balance on just two. Continue reading...

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Severance

Last night's exit polls came as a shock, the scale of both the Conservative and SNP seat predictions almost beyond belief. The cold hard reality of the morning after has brought little comfort. Remainers must be commended for fighting to the end, but the good fight is now lost. The roller-coaster has crested the summit, and Boris Johnson's Brexit is now inevitable. If this truly was the Brexit Election, then the electorate have given their verdict. Continue reading...

The cult of death

The cycle of death in Ireland will not stop until we stop teaching the cult of death that sustains it. If political murder is wrong today, then it was wrong in the past. If killing a fellow human being in cold blood is unthinkable today, then it must always have been unthinkable. If we cannot commit ourselves to this simple moral truth, then we condemn future generations to the same cycle of violence and hypocrisy that our generation and every generation before it has suffered through. Continue reading...

The swing vote

In an idealised democracy, battles are fought in the centre ground of the landscape. Not everyone is in the centre ground of politics of course, but there are enough swing voters that their votes are worth the effort. In Northern Ireland, the assumption is that there are no swing voters, or at least that there are insufficient numbers to make courting them worthwhile. Continue reading...

A wee trouble

Maybe it's just because I've been away or maybe it really has become more common. But my subjective, unscientific experience is that "wee" has reached epidemic proportions. It has always been used in its literal sense, and has long been part of the charm of the Ulster dialect. But it is increasingly often being used as a verbal tic, a piece of filler that says less about the text than it does about the subtext. Contiue reading...

Synthesis

A unitary state is more efficient, more equitable and arguably simpler in its daily operation; but the process of building one from two separate jurisdictions with a century of divergence would be complex, expensive and traumatic. A confederal state would be relatively cheap, fast and painless to construct, and could be done without creating any new government bodies; but it would not in itself address any long-term inefficiencies or structural inequalities.
There is a synthesis. Continue reading...

The escape hatch

There are some who argue that disruptive change is exactly what Northern Ireland needs, and I have sympathy for their position. It does sometimes seem that politics in NI is incurably dysfunctional, and this perception is the same one that motivates support for Direct Rule among Unionism. But just as Direct Rule from London has been ruled out as lacking balance, so must Direct Rule from Dublin. That leaves a unitary state, asymmetric devolution, and (con)federalism as the possible models of a new Irish state. So let’s give the options a test drive. Continue reading...

The mechanics of a border poll

Even if a change is accepted in principle, it will often founder on the details. The principle of a united Cyprus has been accepted by both sides for decades, and yet still they cannot agree. The principle of a united Ireland is not yet accepted by both sides, so what chance have we of agreeing a radical change, or any change at all? If there is to be constitutional change, three things need to be done in sequence. Continue reading...

Borders and boundaries

No matter where you draw a border, it will be in the wrong place. The only "good" borders are those at the top of mountains or in the deepest ocean trenches where nobody ever sets foot. Everything else is fluid and debatable. Continue reading...

Biscuits and gravy

We have all heard the aphorism that Britain and America are two great nations divided by a common language. Gas, fall, biscuits, fanny packs. When we hear the accent we automatically run the words through the universal translator, and then hold them up to ridicule as appropriate. But we often forget that even though the Irish and the British are linguistically closer to each other than to their transatlantic cousins, there are still entries in the dictionary, particularly in the ethnopolitical section, that remain false friends. Continue reading...