Opinion

Jim Gibney: Feile discussions show debate on a new and shared Ireland is moving forward

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald during the Féile an Phobail 'Leader's Debate' at St Mary's University College, Belfast 
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald during the Féile an Phobail 'Leader's Debate' at St Mary's University College, Belfast  Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald during the Féile an Phobail 'Leader's Debate' at St Mary's University College, Belfast 

It was the big ideas about Ireland’s future that drew the biggest crowds to the debates and discussions in Féile’s thirty-one year history.

The significance of the political mood, nationally, was reflected in the presence of An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Belfast, twice in as many days.

He took part in Belfast’s Pride march and the Feile’s ‘Leader’s Debate’ which was attended by one thousand people.

The taoiseach’s presence at both events was I believe a timely statement of immediate intent by the Irish government that it is Ireland first as the Brexit crisis is deepened by the ‘runaway train’ that is Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

But Brexit was not the only important topic on the mind of the taoiseach as his comments at the ‘Leader’s Debate’ on a new and shared Ireland, in terms of a new Irish state requiring constitutional and other change show.

His welcome comments reflect a growing awareness that the Irish government needs not only to be involved in the debate about the nation’s future but needs to lead that debate and bring its formidable authority and resources to it.

Such authority and resources are essential to manage the twists and turns of the shifts in political mood which demonstrably began in 2016 when a majority of people in the north voted to Remain in the EU referendum.

This was quickly followed by the unionist parties losing their majority in the north’s assembly and the recent result in the EU election which saw two Remain MEPs and one pro-Brexit MEP being elected.

And these crucial developments have to be set in the wider context of a growing nationalist majority in the north which could become a voting majority by the mid-2020s.

An amphitheatre of ideas is how you might describe St Mary’s University College during Féile week, as hundreds of people, nationalists, unionists and others debated a host of topics including what an independent Ireland – new and shared - might look like.

Accommodating unionists now, in preparation for a new and shared Ireland and to make the transition easier for unionists was a central tenet of the argument of Irish High Court judge, Richard Humphreys, who believes that the Irish government and republicans must change Irish society now to reflect, accept and protect the existence of unionists and their identity.

A new, for me, dimension about the economics of a united Ireland was introduced into the debate by associate professor Ursula Barry who argued for a gender focused economy, which she believed, as did Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty and the economist Paul Gosling, that Ireland and its people would prosper with a single unified independent economy.

The debate about Britain’s subvention to the north was described by Pearse Doherty as a ‘conversation stopper’ on the grounds that the economic figures were loosely and misleadingly used.

The ‘ledger’ as he described it showed that the ballpark figure was closer to £9 billion not £10 billion and that a microscopic examination of the £9bn showed that £6bn of it was spent in areas which were strictly speaking the primary domain and responsibility of the British government and it alone and that an independent Irish government would have no responsibility for these financial commitments.

Surprising too was the content of the debate about the setting up now of an Irish national health service because the panellists, Féilim Ó hAdhmaill, Mary Murphy, Jim Dornan and Patricia McKeown, experts in this field, agreed that the difference in the gap in the quality of both services was not great.

And while there were issues of concern regarding the amount of government funding for the health services north and south and the extent of privatisation the panellists accepted that it was ‘doable’ now to set up an Irish national health service.

A capacity audience in St Mary’s assembly hall heard John McDonnell, the British Labour Party’s shadow chancellor, present the annual James Connolly lecture during which he referred to the influence of the thinking of James Connolly of his party’s policies.

In a speech which reflected Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and its vision of an alternative Britain to one dominated by Tory austerity, McDonnell said that the issue of a unity/border poll would have to be addressed.

And addressed it should be, sooner rather than later, to give direction to the public ferment that was Féile 2019.