By Judge Michael C. Mentel
The Irish Unity Summit was held on March 1st this year in New York City at the historic Cooper Union. I had the privilege to attend. The Cooper Union venue is indeed historic. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln gave his celebrated anti-slavery speech at Cooper Union before his election as President. It is also the venue where, in 1902, James Connelly spoke in support of a free and United Ireland. Fourteen years later, he would be executed at Kilmainham Gaol for his participation in the Easter Rising. The Cooper Union once again served as a historic venue when Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin President and Leader of the Opposition in the Dáil, addressed the Irish Unity Summit declaring that, “We’ve run the numbers, and it is adding up to a vote in 2030 that will create a United Ireland.” Ms. McDonald’s declaration was not one made-up of hope or wishful thinking. It is a declaration that recognizes the changes from the past and grounds itself in fact. Three major events within the past thirty years support Ms. McDonald’s declaration. First, no Irish Republican-Nationalist has served in any elected leadership capacity in the north following partition. This year, Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin Vice President and MLA, became the First Minister and leader of the Northern Ireland Assembly, with Sinn Féin holding the majority in the Assembly. This is a clear tell on the political direction the north is taking. In the Republic, a poll conducted by Politico in early March of this year revealed that, among all political parties in the Republic, Sinn Féin has a 28% support level among Irish citizens, followed by Fine Gael at 20%, and Fianna Fáil at 18%, with all other parties and independents trailing. The level of support for Sinn Féin in the north and the Republic provides an indicator of the direction that unification support is heading. Second, although a slim majority in the north presently favors… |
