The Irish protocol.

An Irish identity is a threat to being in the union. If people were proud of being irish then they would not mind being independent from the union. To stop this identity growing unionists need to delude themselves that they are not Irish even tho they are from Ireland which factually makes them Irish.

Just as hard core unionists would be stranded in a UI, so too would hard core republicans. If there is no cause, there is nothing to fight about and no excuse to continue. If they persist they would be dealt with by the State, as before.

The idea that "certain republicans" won't agree to certain changes is part of the same narrative that allows the DUP to mutter in their soup that Ireland is a provo country or dissident republicans to tell themselves they are the true Gaels.

Green herring. So what if they don't like a new Ireland and are forced to behave like normal people. They won't stop the majority voting for a reasonable and fair arrangement.

You seem to believe that "certain republicans" have some hold over Ireland. They do not. They never have. We put many of them in jail.

The Irish Times poll clearly shows that Irish people south of the border want to take a careful, moderate approach to a UI, even if the questions asked were very Irish Times. "Would you like a tax increase" being a particular beauty.

I note that you, like downcow, appear to see this as a scorecard.

I can guess but don't "know" what is provocative to anyone in NI because I'm not from there and have never lived there.

I would also guess that most people could live without the flags, murals, parades if it meant a permanent settlement on the island. Make the 12th a bank holiday and watch opposition melt.

I can't understand why you always focus on the extremes of the debate, diametrically opposed positions which can never be resolved. You can't make progress at the edge of a cliff.

Ireland is not a provo country and NI is not a terrorist state.

The people you mostly talk about are old men now and the things they did were horrific. It was a war. Nasty **** things, wars.

It's future, if it is to be peaceful, will be decided by moderate people who don't hate anyone and never have, not by SF/FF/FG/DUP/TUV/Tories or paramilitaries

I presume he's competing for voters who might otherwise be attracted to Jim Allister and the TUV.

This is a sector of the Unionist vote who aren't overly concerned about actually achieving anything, or influencing the course of events; their priority is performative and confrontational assertion of their identity and values. It doesn't bother then that this marginalises them in the wider political process; in fact they find it strangely comforting — if everyone is opposed to them then they must be the righteous minority. On the contrary, when people start agreeing with them they feel very insecure and uncertain of themselves.

It's no accident that their foundation myth is a siege, in which they are the besieged.

He wants the appearance of defending the union, at the cost of not pursuing any measure which might actually defend the union, it seems to me.

Donaldson is leaving his dream career as an MP in 'The Mother of all Parliaments' in the capital of the Empire to come back to the arse-end of nowhere to collapse Stormont? Nah, not buying it.

Wee Jeff is coming back in an attempt to keep Unionism in Ireland relevant at all. Wiser DUP heads know that if power-sharing fails then their little Protestant/Unionist project has failed and what replaces it will not be nearly as generous to Unionist sensitivities.

How many ultimata is that now?

Tent well and truly folded. Great news for Ireland.

So we're yet again pretty much back to where we were. Good jesus. Unionism is exhausting.

Well yes we are, but the UK has humiliated itself some more and Unionism looks more rudderless and powerless.