A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
Where to start on the week gone by. I had attended events in Washington and got back to New York with a raging cold, feeling very sorry for myself, when my phone rang at 6:30 on Saturday morning. The number was from a good friend from New York who would not normally call at that hour, so I took the call. The first thing he said was the words I dreaded: “Have you heard the news?” No one calls at that hour with good news. My first thought was, “Who’s dead?”
Then he said that President Trump had called for a United Ireland. I responded, “Wait, what?”
He told me he was in Ireland and that the President had called for a United Ireland while sitting beside the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, at a press conference in Dublin. I did laugh, more out of relief that no one was dead.
While I was surprised at the nature and timing of the statement, I was not surprised by its content. Over the past number of years, I have crisscrossed the United States and Canada, speaking at Irish Unity People’s Assemblies and engaging with our diaspora. All support Irish Unity and are eager to seize the opportunity before us to make it happen.
The President was echoing what I had heard in Irish Centres and across tables throughout the US. Support for the Good Friday Agreement was predicated on its delivering peace and a democratic pathway to Unity.
Peace has been embedded, but the Taoiseach Micheál Martin has refused to plan, prepare, or countenance unity referendums, standing with the British and Unionist parties over all nationalist parties.
The reaction from the British, the Taoiseach, and commentators was predictable and dismissive, even when the President doubled down on his support.
As the President left Ireland, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and Vice President and First Minister in the North Michelle O’Neill were travelling to Cardiff.
The following day, they signed a memorandum of understanding with the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (the Welsh Nationalist party). The memorandum committed the parties to working together for the mutual benefit of their people and to secure the right to national self-determination.
This was significant because the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Sinn Féin head the governments and are the largest parties in the North of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, respectively. Irish Unity was not only on the Americans’ agenda but also on the agenda of three of the four components that make up the so-called “United Kingdom.”
Again, the British response was dismissive, with Downing Street giving a knee-jerk response about supporting “the Union.” This seems a misnomer, as a union is an alliance from which any party can leave. Yet the British refuse to acknowledge the rights of the people of Scotland and Wales.
The North of Ireland is in a different situation, as we have the right to vote and leave under the Good Friday Agreement.
The Taoiseach, rather bizarrely, and on brand, said that this alliance of Celtic nations would “set back” the cause of Irish Unity.
It is too early to tell the impact of this week’s events, but what is clear is that the Taoiseach is becoming more and more isolated in his opposition to Unity, and the British Government is in denial about the changes all around them.
Have a great weekend,
