Introduction
If the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is the gateway to a reunited Ireland as we are led to believe, why then after 24 years, that no effort has been made to enter the gateway and start the reunification process?

The answer to that question is found is a cleverly crafted provision of the GFA that grants sole control of the gateway to the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The secretary can decide at will to hold or forego referendums on Irish reunification. That being the case, the British government has no compelling reason to hold a referendum that could result in the undoing of the United Kingdom. The only recourse to this dilemma is for the Irish government to engage the British government in talks to replace the language in Annex A, Section I of the GFA that gives the Secretary of State sole control over the holding of referendums on Irish reunification and replace it with language stating that referendums will be held every five or seven years regardless of what the Secretary thinks.

The Irish Government and the GFA.
Most Irish government leaders subscribe to the belief that the GFA is responsible for ended years of armed conflict and bringing peace to a sectarian ravaged Northern Ireland. However, they are sorely mistaken if they also believe that the GFA, an agreement mostly authored by the British, is geared to achieve Irish reunification.The GFA is an instrument to keep Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. That will continue to be the case until another existential crisis crops up. When that happens, the British government will cobble together another ‘kick the can down the road’ agreement to mollify the aggrieved antagonists and, if the past is any indication, allow the Irish government to breathe another sigh of relief. The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement

Before that happens, the Irish people must hold the Irish government accountable for not placing Irish reunification on the front burner, something that should have been done decades ago. Leaving the future of Irish reunification in British hands is a major copout. Irish reunification is a national imperative, not an aspiration as portrayed by the Irish government. Reuniting Ireland must be treated as a major policy initiative and pursued diligently in discussions with Northern Ireland politicians, European Union partners and British officials. By always opting to take the back seat to the British in matters related to Northern Ireland, it appears as if they has a stake in the status quo. It may be that they are fearful of losing control of the power and privilege they now enjoy but would have to share in a reunited Ireland. The House of the Oireachtas will be a sad place indeed when northern Ireland politicians are strutting around, having their voices heard and demanding change.

Political Parties in both states must step up to the Plate.
All political parties in the Republic of Ireland including those in government should have detailed proposals for a reunited Ireland that describes how a reunited Ireland would be organized and function and how it would be promoted. The proposals should also describe why they would be acceptable to the people of Northern Ireland and to the people in the Republic. The proposals should be readily available online and in public facilities for public viewing and commenting on. In addition to political parties, reunification advocacy organizations and groups should weigh in with their own proposals. If political parties are allowed to sit on the sidelines and let others take possession of Irish reunification (an Irish imperative) they would be derelict in their duty to their constituents, therefore should not be supported going forward.

The Unionist community and their party bosses in Northern Ireland know that their long-held stranglehold over political and social life in Northern Ireland has come to an end. History and progress has undermined their flawed institutions that were based on prejudice, domination and fear. In essence, the era of Unionism has been eclipsed by successive generations of better educated and informed voters who value inclusiveness and equality above tribalism and misplaced loyalties. With that sobering reality as a background, unionists in Northern Ireland should weigh in on the above mentioned proposals with their opinions on what they find acceptable and, conversely, objectionable in each proposal. Nationalist and independent minded individuals should also weigh in with their opinions.

Such feedback would go a long way in finding a way forward to Irish reunification that would be acceptable to reasonable people who in the final analysis will have to decide and live with the eventual outcome. If the decision is left to political party bosses, theirs will be based on what’s good for them and their cronies who benefit from division and conflict.

Developing a specific proposal for Irish reunification
In a perfect world, the Irish government would have a specific reunification plan on hand and an action plan to back it up. In an imperfect world the Irish government prefers to play dumb and do nothing. Playing dumb has gotten old and tiresome, it’s time to move on and face the issue of reunification square on. Irrespective of which political party controls the Irish government, the same inability to move on reunification is evident.

What the government needs to do at this late hour is prepare a reunification plan that is creative, innovative and inclusive, a plan designed to appeal to all traditions and walks of life throughout all of Ireland. To create such a plan, the government and opposing political parties would convene a special citizens’ assembly to prepare a nonpartisan reunification plan that would meet the above criteria and be used by successive governments.

In order to facilitate the citizens’ assembly in their work, all of the proposals prepared by political parties and outside organizations together with public’s comments and other pertinent information and data would be stored in a secure repository for their use. The document produced and delivered by the citizens’ assembly would be based solely on information and insights gleaned from the proposals, public comments and official census data and statistics deposited in the secure repository.

It’s important that that be the case so that the voices of the political parties and organizations that prepared the proposals are heard and reflected in a document that is designed to transcend successive governments. The citizens’ assembly would not be allowed to use their own or outside materials or sources except with the explicit permission of an oversight committee of mainline political party’s members. The reunification plan prepared by the citizens’ assembly would be available for viewing by the general public before and after Dail approval.

Conclusion
One would hope that the Eire Athaonthaithe (Reunited Ireland) proposal described on this website and encapsulated in the following paragraphs would be a logical approach for the citizens assembly to emulate in preparing the reunification plan.

The Reunited Ireland proposal envisions an all-Ireland Federal Parliamentary Republic comprised of three distinct regions namely, 1) the Ulster Region encompassing the nine counties of Ulster, 2) the Munster/Connacht Region encompassing the eleven counties of Munster and Connacht, and 3) the Leinster Region encompassing the twelve counties of Leinster. The union of Connacht and Munster into a single region would lend economic equity and political balance to what would be lacking in a standalone Connacht and to a lesser extent, in a standalone Munster.

The proposed federation would be underpinned by a new constitution that would provide for the allotment of governmental powers between a national and regional governments. The new constitution would be the nation’s supreme authority that all government entities and the people at large would bear allegiance to. This proposal would offer the people of a reunited Ulster the opportunity to have control over their own affairs, the same as the other two regions. It would obviate the probability of being absorbed into the Dublin political juggernaut that stifles local control while slavishly catering to the interests of the elitists in Dublin and its environs to the detriment of the rest of the country.

The stakeholders in a reunited Ireland scenario are the people of Ireland. If the framers of a reunited Ireland act in good faith as the people’s representatives, the political entities that emerges will be nonsectarian, egalitarian, democratic and for the people.
 

Contributed by TMMTP