Opinion

Chris Donnelly: A new Ireland must be a warm house for all

Chris Donnelly

Chris Donnelly

Chris is a political commentator with a keen eye for sport. He is principal of a Belfast primary school.

Republic of Ireland teams at all levels today are reflecting stories of families who have moved to make Ireland their home, including Adam Idah (pictured right) with teammates Marc Walsh (centre) and Kameron Ledwidge.
Republic of Ireland teams at all levels today are reflecting stories of families who have moved to make Ireland their home, including Adam Idah (pictured right) with teammates Marc Walsh (centre) and Kameron Ledwidge. Republic of Ireland teams at all levels today are reflecting stories of families who have moved to make Ireland their home, including Adam Idah (pictured right) with teammates Marc Walsh (centre) and Kameron Ledwidge.

The pro-unity lobby group, Ireland’s Future, continues to be responsible for spearheading initiatives and creating the space and opportunities for the type of detailed and considered policies to be developed and explored to help shape and stimulate discussions about constitutional change.

Over the past 11 months, Ireland’s Future (of which I'm a member) has published four notable documents addressing different elements of the unity discussion: A Principled Framework for Change (December ’20), Advancing the Conversation (January ’21), Planning for a Strong Economy in a New Ireland (March ’21) and Rights, Citizenship and Identity in a United Ireland (October ’21). All of these are available to read on the organisation’s website (an internet search for ‘Ireland’s Future’ will help find it without difficulty.)

A series of public meetings are being held by Ireland’s Future across the island, generating and building upon the interest in moving the conversation beyond rhetoric and towards substantive engagement to flesh out what unity could resemble for all of us, north and south.

This autumn, that has already involved a public meeting in Cork and later this week another public meeting will be held in Galway. The panellists at the Galway event will include the Deputy President of NUI Galway, Professor Pol O Dochartaigh, the Indian-born writer Cauvery Madhavan, comedian and prominent member of the Travelling community, Martin Beanz Warde and Fianna Fail TD, Eamon O Cuiv alongside Sinn Féin TD, Mairead Farrell.

Ahead of that meeting, Councillor Owen Hanley tweeted last week that he was looking forward to the event, noting that a new Ireland “should be one of regional equality” and that west of Ireland voices need “to support those in the North [looking] for a decentralised, empowered, and prosperous future.”

Councillor Hanley’s intervention - and interest - is noteworthy because he is a young councillor for the Social Democrats representing east Galway.

His eagerness is reflective of the fact Ireland’s Future has been able, over the past year, to tap into and channel positive interest and engagement from elected representatives and civic voices from right across the political spectrum, epitomised by the composition of the Galway panel.

The faces and voices advancing the discussion are increasingly from diverse political backgrounds. No longer can it credibly be argued that the unity discussion is one being had merely by Sinn Féin and northern nationalists.

This is important, both north and south.

There is often an understandable and wholly appropriate focus on how a new Ireland must be shaped by and be reflective of the British and unionist minority of the north, but we must not forget that modern Ireland is a very different place from the Ireland that was partitioned 100 years ago.

As a season ticket holder for the Republic of Ireland football team, I am conscious that many of the rising stars of the Irish side have names not traditionally associated with the Irish nation. The sports journalist, Stephen Barry, has noted that just as the legendary Jack Charlton teams of the late 20th century told the story of the Irish Diaspora returning home to represent the land of their ancestors, Republic of Ireland teams at all levels today are reflecting stories of families who have moved to make Ireland their home. The names of our children’s football heroes today and for years to come will include Idah, Ogbene, Omobamidele, Ferizaj and Zefi.

Planning for unity and a new Ireland must reflect the need to provide the new Irish a prominent place in that discussion as well.

At the launch last week of the latest Ireland’s Future publication, two prominent members of the group from a northern Protestant background, Rev Karen Sutherman and Independent MLA Trevor Lunn, discussed how their own life journeys led them to support the vision of a new and agreed united Ireland whilst also discussing the central importance of anchoring that vision firmly in a rights-based framework, not least to ensure that their fellow northerners would be secure with their British and unionist identity in a new dispensation.

The backdrop to all of this is the winding up of the centenary year celebrations for the formation of the Northern Ireland state, which included the contentious church service in Armagh last week.

A false narrative that many unionists and nationalists alike continue to hold to is that only by demonstrating that the north is a failed entity can unity be achieved.

The logic of Sinn Féin and the SDLP spending most of the past two decades in government alongside unionist parties at Stormont suggests otherwise. Endeavouring to make the north’s institutions work, growing the economy and building better relationships must continue to be a part of living out the vision of a new Ireland this side of unification regardless of the antics or conduct of unionist politicians.

This is important not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because pragmatically it remains the case that unity will happen only when enough people comfortable calling Northern Ireland their home determine that forging a new future on this shared island represents the best option.

By implicitly recognising that the house must accommodate a diversity of people and be warm for all, Ireland’s Future continues to show the way.