A united Ireland is not on the agenda

I wonder are there many people today who give a twopenny damn about a united Ireland. I mean in this part of the country. I am bringing this up now because of remarks made on the subject by the Sinn Féin spokesman on finance, Pearse Doherty, during the week.

Deputy Doherty, who is one of the brightest sparks among the new TDs in the Dáil, said his party are not too happy with any of the runners for the office of president of Ireland because of their lack of concern for the cause of a united Ireland. I am paraphrasing him here because I am working from memory but that is the gist of what he said.
I cannot get into the thoughts of Michael D Higgins, David Norris, Avril Doyle or any of the other people who want to be elected president later this year but I imagine they would all like to see a united Ireland. Wouldn’t the vast majority of us? But I don’t believe they are going to lose too many nights’ sleep worrying about the issue.
I believe the vast majority of people are far more concerned today about economic matters. They are much more worried about their health and about how they are going to pay their bills. They are thinking of how their children did in their exams and whether they will have to emigrate to find employment.
Those are matters that keep them awake at night rather than the question of a 32-county Republic of Ireland.
It wasn’t always thus. Our fathers fought a bitter civil war over this issue some 90 years ago. It split the national movement and laid the foundations for the two big rival parties in Irish politics – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Fianna Fáil still calls itself ‘The Republican Party’ or did the last time I looked at this. Fine Gael’s subtitle is ‘The United Ireland Party’. But those are only empty titles signifying nothing.
Sinn Féin is now trying to bring this issue of a united Ireland back on the national agenda. But their efforts, while commendable, are not being very successful. Nobody wants to talk about Irish unity. Even the Sinn Féin people themselves spend more time talking about the Irish economy, the poor state of our health system, the standard of our schools and other local and bread-and-butter issues than they do about Irish unity. Because Sinn Féin, like all other political parties, depend on votes for their existence and there are no votes to be won on what used to be called the national question.
Even the majority of Catholics in Northern Ireland are no longer in favour of joining us in a united Ireland, according to a recent survey. You could hardly blame them. The economy in Britain and in Northern Ireland is in poor shape at present but things are far better there than they are here. I imagine that a sizeable proportion of the Catholics who no longer want anything to do with us voted for Sinn Féin in recent elections up there.
However, I was glad to see Sinn Féin talking about a united Ireland in the context of the presidential election. In reality, president of Ireland is a misnomer. As I pointed out in a recent article here, Irish men and women living north of the border in counties such as Tyrone and Fermanagh and in cities like Belfast and Derry have no say in the election of the president.
But they are as Irish as anyone from Kerry, Clare or Dublin. Ireland does not mean the 26 counties south of the border but means the whole island of Ireland, along with the islands and the seas around us.
I would like to see Sinn Féin – and the other parties – emphasise that more often. We in the media – myself included – very often make the mistake of referring only to the State when we talk of “the country” or of “the nation”. The country and the nation means the whole of Ireland but we forget that very often when we talk about “a nation-wide campaign” or use a sentence like “the whole country will be up in arms over the latest Government proposal to cut spending and raise extra taxes”. Government – and here we are talking about the Government in Dublin – proposals seldom cause even a ripple in any of the counties north of Cavan, Monaghan or Louth. Like the president, our government is not really the government of Ireland but actually the government of the Republic of Ireland. Until the people of Derry, Antrim, Down, Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone have a say in electing them, we are only pretending when we call our rulers the government of Ireland.
But really, when we talk about a united Ireland we should be more concerned about uniting our people under the common name of Irish than in getting rid of partition. That’s the way the man recognised as the father of Irish Republicanism, Wolfe Tone, would have it.
Meanwhile, the biggest political scandal of the week had to be the one about the Healy-Raes and the ring of Kerry. You think that brought politics here to a new low? Well, I can tell you that it was neither today, nor yesterday, nor a year ago nor even 10 years ago that phones in Leinster House were first used to boost the fortunes of individuals in phone-in popularity contests. TDs’ and political partys’ office phones were organised to try to ensure the favoured ones got the most votes. That abuse of taxpayers’ money went on long before any of the Healy-Raes were elected to the Dáil. The difference this time is that the Healy-Raes broke the 11th commandment – thou shalt not be found out.
Finally, to that old chestnut about Dáil and Seanad reform. Fine Gael promised us they would be reducing the number of TDs by 20. Now they are talking about a reduction of the order of six – from 166 to 160. Hardly worth talking about. Instead of abolishing the Seanad, we are now hearing more from Government spokesmen about Seanad reform. We heard it all before and no doubt we will hear it all again.
Fianna Fáil are still in power but now under the name of Fine Gael/Labour. Nothing changes.