There were no great revelations from the local elections in the Six Counties.
It merely indicated that the voting for Stormont last year was not aberrant.
It’s now clear that political unionism is a declining minority in that confected polity.
The 2021 census revealed that the demographic basis on which the Six County statelet was established is over and done with.
The beneficiaries of Partition fetishised that they were of Ulsturr, yet the very line on the map indicated that they resided in a geo-political creation that was entirely artificial.
These words are being written in Cúige Uladh on a latitude further north than Béal Feirste.
Despite that geographic reality, people who stand for election in only two-thirds of this ancient province would consider that your humble correspondent resides “in the south”.
Apart from being historically illiterate, they do not appear to be aware of this island’s basic geography.
As the election results rolled in, it was clear across local authorities in the Six Counties that Sinn Féin were on a roll.
It elicited this bizarre lament from Danny Kennedy of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The facial expressions of Sarah Creighton sitting beside him were the high point of the entire election for this fella.
It is undeniable that political unionism in the Six Counties is currently relying on an ageing demographic.
Consequently, if they cannot reach out to voters from a nationalist background, then they’re in serious trouble both in electoral politics and on the constitutional question in the future.
I can recall when Belfast City Hall was a citadel of Unionism.
Danny Kennedy’s party once ruled that place, and any alternative seemed fanciful.
All is changed, changed utterly.
Sadly the response of those who cherish their Bradaish connection in the northeast of this island was to look for an out.
According to the pro-unionist Newsletter, 50% plus one in a Border Poll is no longer enough.
Did you hear that?
That’s the unmistakable sound of the goalposts being moved in Narne Arne.
Apparently, any future Border Poll must include a unionist veto.
This could be viewed as a desperate attempt to subvert the very essence of the democratic covenant, i.e. the peaceful transfer of power via free and fair elections.
Of course, that also goes for plebiscites like any future Border Poll on reunification.
The consent of the losing side in any vote is vital if democracy is to continue.
Indeed, all elections must have such an agreement.
The loser must acknowledge the result and then move on.
That is why the January 6th, 2021, events in Washington, DC, were so dangerous.
When the armed conflict was being waged here, many in the Dublin political elite urged Republicans to put down their weapons and take up electoral politics.
Well, that happened.
Unfortunately for establishment politicians, they’re rather good at it.
Irish Twitter didn’t take long to poke fun at the losers.
As ever, the folks at Waterford Whispers nailed it with the featured image of this piece.
Sam McBride is a fine journalist, and his work on the RHI scandal won him deserved plaudits.
However, his reference to “maternity wards” drew some criticism.
The brilliant Joe Brolly from Dungiven, a leading lawyer and ex-Derry footballer, deployed his customary good humour and scalpel-sharp intellect to address the maternity ward issues and also to forensically examine the insecurity of Ulsturr’s supremacists in this podcast with Dion Fanning.
Northern nationalism is confident and looking towards the future with hope and, crucially, a plan.
To paraphrase Óglach Bobby Sands MP, “Our revenge will be the votes of our children”.
Dear reader, this is what history feels like.
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Those who think the NHS is the Unionist Ace card to play in any upcoming border poll haven’t visited a hospital or doctors surgery in a while. The system is falling apart. By the time it gets round to border poll time it will have collapsed or been sold off to some American multinational.
A poll on a United Ireland is no more a gimme, than the Scottish referendum was. Many Catholics, particularly those from poorer backgrounds, would look at the loss of the NHS, flawed as it is, and say it’s better than the alternative. The fact that so many of us want it, does not mean it will be delivered.
If it was delivered, you can look for an armed Unionist resistance movement. They will regard their wee corner of Ireland in the same way as the IRA did. Legitimacy is irrelevant. They have to be offered something to make the deal look worth it to them.
If you can’t put your head into the head of your enemy, you’re in for a long, possibly unwinnable war.
Any evidence for your “Many Catholics, particularly those from poorer backgrounds” claim.
All evidence I’ve read is that younger and poorer Nationalists are the strongest demographic of Sinn Fein support and why wouldn’t they be, as they bore the brunt of the fight against the Brit state, notwithstanding its NHS benevolence.
Phil, what was the result of the vote/poll to split Ireland in the first place ?
The unionist’s province was an illegal land by the criminal British establishment.
Freedom from oppression requires no consent.
I don’t have a direct role in this (though I am in principle in favour of Irish reunification and deeply critical of the history of the British in Ireland), but I suppose the question has to be balanced with: what was the result of the vote to split Ireland from the realm of the United Kingdom?
The answer to both really goes back to the 1918 UK General Election, where Sinn Fein won 73 seats, with 47% of the vote, and where the Irish Unionists won 22 seats (an increase), with 25% of votes across the country, with the largest concentration of those votes and seats in Ulster, and more specifically the territory that became the statelet of Northern Ireland.
Yes, obviously, it is much more complicated than that. But it’s more complicated than any simple, rhetorical question that might be asked on the situation.
Damian, the demographic basis for Partition is over.
The 2021 census proves that.
We are now in a transition phase to reunification.
The modalities and the timescale are yet to be decided.
However, the Six County statelet has no long-term future.
Phil, I completely agree and absolutely support the reunification of the island of Ireland. I always like to make clear that my opinion on the matter is not important, so to speak. No amount of affection for or broad connection to the island of Ireland (as I type this, my father must be passing through the six counties on his way to the Sheephaven Bay area) will disguise the fact that I am from another country and so I always like to make clear that the views of anyone in the island of Ireland, whether unionist, nationalist or anything else, will trump my own in terms of importance.
Here, I was merely (perhaps pedantically) responding to Mr Smith’s rhetorical question. The century-old ‘democratic’ basis for the partition vandalism has the same root as the ‘democratic’ basis for Irish independence. That history clearly means different things to different people on the island.
Your take on the situation as it actually is, now, I agree with (both ethically and factually) – though I do think Hans raises some interesting points as it relates to the pace, timing and nature of the reunification. Any kind of border poll or plebiscite that is won by a small number is not a sound basis for a happy short to medium term future (however democratic it may very well be).
And what aspect of unification chimes with the overall centralisation of power within the EU and, specifically, Germany?
Would you say that worldwide there is more acceptance of individual nation states going their own way or less?
Best illustrated by the British State usurping of the IndyRef in Scotland and the long term imprisonment of the Basque leaders for holding a glorified opinion poll?
What really beggars belief, at this time of Unionism really needing to persuade Catholics, is the desire to include the Orange Order is a rather inward looking “think tank” (I know…) on its future.
Late on this one, but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the recent Rest is History podcast series on Ireland. The fourth installment went up this morning. Great stuff; fascinating depth.
Incidentally, the one before on the Freemasons was also very interesting (and not what I was expecting).
Seamus Mallon, a man with a much greater understanding of the situation than you, also suggested that a majority of unionists would also need to vote for Irish unification for it to have any chance of success. At this point, moderate nationalists have shown no interest in leaving the UK. Equality and a deserved place in the sun has been delivered and is being enjoyed.
“At this point” doing a lot of heavy lifting for you there.
The British connection is now in the hospice.
Moreover, increasing numbers of young people from a cultural unionist bakground in the Six Counties are aware of it.
Only one way to settle it then.
Democracy!
Have a Border Poll.
Séamus Mallon once advised Nationalists to give information about their neighbours to the RUC this was at a time that he & the Dogs in the Street knew the RUC was colluding widely with Unionist Terror groups.
In the end Mallon was a failed politician & abandoned by voters who obviously had a clearer vision of a future Ireland & a higher moral ambition for how they wanted to be policed.
Mallon was a man of the highest integrity. Anyone who thinks the North will be a happy place to live following a narrow vote in favour of unification is insane (and has never lived there). The unionists are more dead set against an all Ireland solution than ever. The big problem for them is they are led by the lowest quality politicians on the planet. So they are angry and frustrated. The DUP cheer leaded Brexit. That beggars belief. So many young unionists vote Alliance. But they are still unionists. They want to see power sharing work. Unless you secure a majority of unionists in favour of unification? Any United Ireland will fail. And Sinn Fein, with their IRA baggage, are several generations from being accepted by any unionist.
No skin in this game but I fail to see how a demand that majority of Unionists must agree to reunification is required to make it democratic?
How would you measure this? How do you assess someone who doesn’t vote?
With Unionist population falling under your rules you could end up with a situation where >60% of population support reunification but it is blocked- how is this democratic?
You seem to have a lot of die-hard Unionist ‘rage against the dying of the light’.
If there’s a narrow vote for reunification then that’s what should happen.
Its called democracy and, whether you like it or not, tough.
NI was set up to have an in-built Unionist majority and now that has gone, you want a Unionist minority veto.
That’s risible and should be treated with the contempt it deservers.
Any evidence that the unionists are more dead set against an All Ireland than ever?
The haemorrhaging of votes from hard-line Unionist parties, tells a different story.
Unsurprisingly, you’re also wrong regarding the Alliance Party, which is neutral on the Union and not Unionist like you fraudulently claim.
All parties have baggage and wait ’til you find out about the Brits.
The Unionist Sinn Fein IRA jibe only plays well with the dinosaurs who are dwindling bt the day.
The paltry turnouts for protests about the Protocol graphically show the decline from the 70s, when tens of thousands could be mobilised.
That might make you say but it makes me and others, who support democracy, smile.
The transition to a United Ireland is already happening, the six counties still being part of the EU trading bloc is an example of its slow loosening of its ties to the Westminster State. The younger generation will take this to its logical conclusion that Ireland is one Island and one state.
Some people trying to justify the denial of democracy is a disgrace.
The denial of local democracy in the six counties is one of the issues that led to the troubles in the 1960’s. The intransigence of Stormont and Westminster resulted in the horrors of the next 25 years.
The British State has bullied people for centuries throughout the World. In its death throes It is now starting to bully its own people with its public order legislation, banning most examples of People’s Protests and making it harder for anyone to take Industrial action.
A German friend of mine remarked that they reminded him of East Germans that railed against reunification right up to it actually happened, and reality took over.
When they no longer had any choice …
Exactly
When did they ever have a choice?
None of us get to choose.
We’re like children, ‘Mark the X in the box and we’ll take care of you’.
Our ‘elected representatives’ make all our decisions for us when we should be telling them what sort of world we want to live in then they follow our orders to achieve it:
Instead we invest them with our power then let them make the decision to lord it over us eternally and with impunity.
So much for the joys of democracy, eh?
Did they have a choice to become East Germany?
They had no choice to move from East to West Germany after early 60’s.
I watched the results with growing delight and pride via the news coverage on BBC NI. Any neutral couldn’t help but form the impression that Sinn Fein are a party looking to the future, whilst the DUP are so obviously a party stuck in the past. So many younger folks from all communities in the north of Ireland are looking to Europe and beyond for their futures. For many, if the price of that future is a united Ireland then so be it.
“We are the Brogue, coexistence is futile.”
PURE QUALITY
Brilliant. Lakingtus of Brogue.
A pathway from occupation to habitation via habituation?