United Ireland
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A United Ireland is the common demand of Irish nationalists, envisaging that the island of Ireland (currently divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) be reunited as a single political entity. Nationalists have suggested many different models for unification, including federalism, and joint sovereignty, as well as a unitary state.
Although nationalists and republicans wish for the reunification of Ireland, the island of Ireland has never existed as a single sovereign political state in the modern sense. However, prior to 1922, the island was always considered as a single entity, having been the Kingdom of Ireland for centuries. Until the Act of Union of 1800 the island was governed as a single politcal entity by an Irish Parliament based in Dublin. Thereafter with the enactment of the The Act of Union on 1 January 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland was merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
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[edit] History
[edit] Kings and High Kings
Before the coming of the Normans there existed the title of Ard Rí (High King), usually held by the Uí Néill but this was more of a ceremonial title denoting a sort of "first among equals" rather than an absolute monarchy as developed in England and Scotland. Nevertheless, several strong characters imbued the office with real power, most notably Máel Sechnaill mac Maíl Ruanaid (845-860), his son Flann Sinna (877-914) and Flann's great-grandson Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill (979-1002; 1014-1022), Brian Boru (1002-1014), Muircheartach Ua Briain (1101-1119), and Toirdhealbhach Ua Conchobhair (1119-1156).
What prevented the consolidation of truly national power even by the Ard Ríanna was the fact that the island was divided into a number of autonomous, fully independent kingdoms ruled by rival dynasties. The most powerful of these kingdoms in the immediate pre-Norman era were Aileach, Brefine, Mide, Leinster, Osraige, Munster and Connacht. In addition to these, there were a number of lesser subject kingdoms such as Airgialla, Uladh, Brega, Dublin, Ui Failghe, Laois, Desmond, and Hy-Many. Many of these kingdoms and lordships retained, at the very least, some degree of independence right up to the end of independent Gaelic polity in the 17th century.
[edit] Confederate Ireland 1642-1649
The next significant moment occurred in 1642 when the Confederate Catholics Association of Ireland – an Irish Catholic government formed to fight the Irish Confederate Wars, assembled at Kilkenny and held an all-Ireland assembly. The Confederates did rule much of Ireland up to 1649, but were riven by dissent and civil war in later years over whether to ally themselves with the English Royalists in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Ultimately, they dissolved their Association in favour of unity with the Royalists, but were defeated anyway in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
[edit] 1653-1921
Although ruled by Britain, Ireland was a united political entity from the end of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1653 until 1921.
Until the Constitution of 1782, Ireland was placed under the effective control of the British-appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland due to restrictive measures such as Poynings Law. From 1541 to 1801, the island's political status was of a Kingdom of Ireland in personal union with the English (and later the British) Crown. Under the leadership of Henry Grattan, the Irish parliament (still dominated by the Ascendancy) acquired a measure of autonomy for a time. After the Act of Union, Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a single entity ruled by the Parliament at Westminster.
Ireland was last undivided at the outbreak of World War I after national self-government in the form of the Third Home Rule Act 1914, won by John Redmond leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party was placed on the statute books, but suspended until the end of the war. It was amended to partition Ireland following the objections of Ulster Unionists.
In the 1918 general election, the republican Sinn Féin political party won a landslide victory. The newly elected Sinn Féin candidates formed a republican assembly Dáil Eireann which unilaterally declared itself in 1919 the Government of the Irish Republic and independent of the British Empire. Its claims over the entire island were, however, not accepted by Unionists. Under the Anglo-Irish Treaty the Irish Free State became in 1922 the name of the state covering twenty-six counties in the south and west, replacing the Irish Republic, while six counties in the northeast remained within the United Kingdom under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act.
[edit] 1922-1998
The Free State and its successor, the Republic of Ireland (declared in 1949) both claimed that Northern Ireland was part of their territory, but did not attempt to force reunification, nor did they claim to be able to legislate for it. In 1998, following the Belfast Agreement, the Republic voted to amend Articles 2 and 3 of its constitution so that the territorial claim was removed and replaced with recognition of the Northern Ireland people's right to self-determination.
[edit] Present day
The leading political parties in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have often made a united Ireland a part of their political message. It is also a main focus of Sinn Féin and SDLP in Northern Ireland.
In contrast, the Unionist community – composed primarily of Protestants in the six counties that form Northern Ireland – opposes unification. All of the island's political parties (except for tiny fringe groups with little electoral representation) have accepted the principle of consent, which states that Northern Ireland's constitutional status cannot change without majority support in Northern Ireland.
Many Protestants (and some Catholics) in Northern Ireland argue they have a distinct identity that would be overwhelmed in a united Ireland. They cite the decline of the small Protestant population of the Republic of Ireland since secession from the United Kingdom, the economic cost of unification, their place in a key international player (within the UK) and their (Protestants) mainly non-Irish ancestry.
Some have suggested that one such method of governing in a United Ireland, would be for a united nine-county Ulster to have local self-government, and perhaps local self-government for Ireland's other three provinces (like U.S. states or German federal states), to help ease the worries Unionists in Ulster might have about joining a reunified all-island nation-state. Unionist people in Northern Ireland primarily descend from the Scottish and English planters, whose descendants can also be found in the three counties of Ulster which are governed by the Republic of Ireland. Such individuals celebrate their Scots heritage each year like their counterparts in the other six counties.
A possible referendum on a united Ireland was included as part of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Currently about 40% of the Northern Ireland electorate vote for Irish nationalist parties that oppose the union with Britain and support a united Ireland as an alternative, although it is not the only issue at election time so it is difficult to take this figure as a direct indication of levels of support for a united Ireland. A comprehensive 2004 survey shows support for a united Ireland at 22% of Northern Ireland's population. The same survey shows support for full independence at 11%. The survey has been conducted annually since 1997 with broadly similar results on the constitutional question. Because of the relatively large sample size of over 2,000 people, the survey is considered to have a low margin of error.
Opinion polls in the Republic of Ireland reveal public opinion there to be divided on the question of Irish Unity. Such polls generally reveal a broad middle ground of soft nationalist opinion, whose support for Irish unity is tempered by worries as to the economic consequences. There is also support in Great Britain for Ireland to reunify as a political entity. An ICM poll conduced by The Guardian in 2001 revealed that only 26% of Britons supported Northern Ireland remaining a part of the UK, while 41% supported a united Ireland.[1]
Given that all significant political parties and both the UK and Irish Governments support the "Principle of Consent" the final choice is one for the people of Northern Ireland, alone, to decide.
[edit] Support and opposition for Reunification
There is support in the Republic of Ireland for Irish unity from all major political parties. It is difficult, however, to ascertain public opinion generally on the subject. Whilst a section of the population is strongly nationalist, many people are lukewarm towards the idea, with some even hostile to Irish unity, at least in the short term.
There are also some non-partisan groups, such as the Reform Movement and southern lodges of the Orange Order, that tend to be sympathetic to Northern Ireland remaining within the UK for the forseeable future.
Opposition to reunification comes mainly from Unionist political parties in Northern Ireland, particularly the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). It also comes from loyalist paramilitary groups such as the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force. In the UK as a whole, the Conservative Party, UKIP, and other conservative groups tend to be unionist in outlook. (See also Unionism (Scotland).)
[edit] Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is currently the largest pro-reunification party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the fourth-largest in Ireland[citation needed]. It now believes reunification can be achieved through political means, but in the past it promoted a policy of political and violent intervention through the Provisional Irish Republican Army. They now wish to reunite Ireland through integration of institutions, ultimately forcing a nationwide referendum on reunification.
For example, the party has proposed that Northern Ireland should have some form of representation in the Dáil, with elected representatives from either the Stormont or Westminster parliaments able to participate in debates, if not vote. The major parties in the Republic have rejected this notion on a number of occasions.
Should Irish reunification ever occur, Sinn Féin has stated that it would wish to amend the Irish constitution to protect minorities (including the Protestant and Ulster Scots communities). Sinn Féin has seen growing support since their IRA ceasefire and they began moving towards a more peaceful route to change in Northern Ireland and to reunification.
[edit] Social Democratic and Labour Party
The SDLP describes itself as 100% for a United Ireland. They believe that reunification should be accomplished through electoral means only. This means that they would support a United Ireland only if a majority of both parts of Ireland voted for it in a referendum. In a United Ireland, the SDLP would support the continuation of a devolved Northern Ireland, governed by a local assembly through the Good Friday Agreement. The SDLP commands moderate support.
[edit] Irish Republican Socialist Party
The IRSP works towards attaining a united socialist Irish state. The IRSP is affiliated with the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, which shares a common political outlook with the INLA (currently observing a "no-first-strike" ceasefire). The IRSP is opposed to the Good Friday Agreement. It is extremely small and commands almost no popular support.
[edit] Republican Sinn Féin
Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) does not believe that the Irish government, or any potential "six-county" (Northern Ireland) government, are legitimate, as neither legislates for Ireland as a whole. It has a policy of abstentionism towards both Leinster House and Stormont, which Sinn Féin adandoned in 1986. Its Éire Nua ('New Ireland') policy advocates a unified federal state with regional governments for the four provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster), and with its national capital in Athlone, Ireland's geographical centre. The party is extremely small and commands negligible popular support. This party is linked with the CIRA.
[edit] Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil has supported reunification since its foundation as one of the party's key aims; however, in its history it has differed on how to accomplish it. Fianna Fáil rejected the Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in Northern Ireland for the first time. Former Fianna Fáil leader, Charles Haughey, claimed the agreement was in conflict with the then Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland because it recognised Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, but it fully supported the Good Friday Agreement and the consequent changes to the constitution.
[edit] Progressive Democrats
The Progressive Democrats have supported reunification since its foundation but always said that a majority of the people of Northern Ireland would have to consent to it. The party fully supports the Good Friday Agreement. In April 1993, long before the Good Friday Agreement, party leader Des O'Malley, in a major address on Northern Ireland to the Irish Association, spelled out a six point programme for peace and democratic progress in Northern Ireland, as follows:
- Irish government to accept need for Constitutional change in Articles 1, 2 and 3 to accord with the principle of unity by consent in Article 1 of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
- Acceptance by unionists of an Irish dimension requiring new North-South institutional links.
- Nationalism must be made legally, institutionally and economically legitimate within Northern Ireland.
- A new Constitution, incorporating a Bill of Rights, for Northern Ireland.
- Joint North-South Security Agreement to combat terrorism.
- Devolved power-sharing Government in Northern Ireland.
Former party leader Mary Harney was expelled from Fianna Fáil for supporting the Anglo-Irish agreement.
Progressive Democrat TD Liz O'Donnell was one of the key negotiators at the Good Friday Agreement talks.
[edit] Fine Gael
Fine Gael has officially supported reunification since its foundation as one of the party's key aims ;It fully supports the Good Friday Agreement.
The Anglo-Irish agreement was negotiated under the Fine Gael Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald.
[edit] Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party has supported reunification since the foundation of the state although it has always considered this aim secondary to social causes. It fully supports the Good Friday Agreement. It also supported the old Anglo-Irish agreement. The former President of Ireland Mary Robinson resigned from the Irish Labour Party because she objected to the exclusion of unionists from the talks that led to the agreement.
[edit] Economic consequences of Reunification
Northern Ireland is not economically self sufficient - as part of the United Kingdom, it has benefited from far higher levels of public spending, per capita, than any other UK region[citation needed], while internal security costs are counted separately. Until recently, the Republic has had the same relationship from its membership of the European Union, but will be a net contributor in the next budget. Psychologically, people in the Republic expect far less from the State than those in Northern Ireland, who have benefited from the same public services as the rest of the United Kingdom, such as the National Health Service. Some commentators allegedly have drawn parallels with the reunification of Germany, in which Germany, while a much larger country and more prosperous than the Republic of Ireland, has faced considerable financial burdens as a result of supporting the former East Germany. While others have drawn attention to the fact that unlike the former communist East German state, both north and south have enjoyed European Union membership for several decades and have comparable standards of living, thus making any similarity with the situation witnessed in reunified Germany purely symbolic.
Additionally, the analysis above is disputed, mainly by unionists. They argue that, in practice, the Republic has similarly benefitted from effective economic subsidy from outside, in part direct (from the European Union), but also indirectly given large-scale emigration to Britain through the 20th century. While more recently per capita income has been higher in the Republic, as the economy has diversified. Arguably expectations are now higher there.
Strand Two of the GFA was supposed to connect North and South through commonsense economic, social and environmental forums and institutions. Nationalists were committed to these reforms because it was thought that this could provide democratic momentum towards a united Ireland. At the very least, it would provide relief for the impoverished border corridor and seek to coordinate issues of health, education, agriculture, commerce and infrastructure.
[edit] Likelihood of a United Ireland
The Good Friday agreement, which most parties (with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party) and both the British and Irish governments support, states that a majority of voters in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would have to approve a United Ireland. It should be stressed that smaller unionist parties, while supporting the GFA, are as adamant as the DUP in shared opposition to a united Ireland.
No referenda on the matter are planned in the near future; mainly because such a referendum would almost certainly be defeated in Northern Ireland, but also as most political attention is currently focused on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the restoration of devolution to Northern Ireland.
