How can we integrate Unionism into a possible United Ireland?

I always found the killing of Joanne Mathers very suspicious, the killing happened at the time of the hunger strikes when the IRA had announced a cessation of activities in support of the hunger strike by Bobby Sands, they hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the hunger strike began, then all of a sudden two days before the election of Bobby Sands they decided to kill a young woman and then went through the effort of adamantly denying involvement immediately afterwards, strange to say the least.

What is strange about it?

The background is clear in the article linked.

It's just strange the IRA who had ceased all activities for the hunger strike and hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the hunger strike began, then all of a sudden, out of the blue they decide to kill a young woman two days before the election of Bobby Sands, almost ruining bobby's election completely.

They then went into adamant denial immediately afterwards claiming they were not responsible, just seems a strange thing to do is all I'm saying.

We know: you think that the IRA are a great bunch of lads, but are happy enough to try and muddy the waters in regards to responsibility for their most heinous acts (murdering 10 working men at the side of the road purely on the basis of their religion, or murdering a sociology student purely on the basis of her job).

"You can be [SF/IRA's] wingman any time, M̶a̶v̶e̶r̶i̶c̶k̶ Harry"

We got just over €100m a year across the whole country in the last round of EU funding. Even doubling that to €200m a year would be a drop in the ocean of the bill for a united Ireland, and there is no chance of us getting anything like another €100m a year.

'Peace and cash

When addressing Northern Ireland, the European Commission usually focuses on the question of peace. The EU put the protection of peace at the forefront in Brexit negotiations, and there is a sense of responsibility for maintaining it following years of EU funding for border and community peace projects over the years.

In a budget agreement this summer, €120 million was set aside to continue such funding, irrespective of Brexit. If any vote were to arise, the reaction across the EU would depend upon the circumstances.

If a referendum occurred according to the Belfast Agreement, with consent on all sides and decisive results, there would likely be cheers across the continent. Many continental observers are unconvinced that even Conservative politicians in England remain unionist in regards to Northern Ireland, and a successful referendum would be likely to be broadly seen as a tidy resolution of history.

But until support for the idea is broad and formally declared, Brussels will likely hedge its bets.

“I think the EU would probably opt for a position of benevolent neutrality, set up the position that this is a matter for the island, but if Northern Ireland opts for integration in the EU in Ireland, the EU will not stand in the way,” Dr Clarkson said.

“I presume that they will smother Northern Ireland in EU cash to try to keep things quiet. A tried and tested EU method. And Northern Ireland’s integration into the EU system would be expedited. I don’t think that would be a difficult position to arrive at.”

Yes two days before the election of Bobby sands the IRA decided to try and sabotage his election by killing an innocent woman, even though they had declared a cessation to violence and hadn't killed or tried to kill anyone since the election began, then after killing her start frantically trying to deny they were involved.

Although there is a logical explanation that a young IRA member naive to the political effects and damage this would have caused the IRA and hunger strikers, acted alone and killed her, which according to your logic on the British army, would mean the IRA were not responsible?

I'm not coming up with anything I have a couple of theories on what happened and I'm saying that's one of the most likely.

I say naive as in he may have been stupid enough to not see how killing her could have sabotaged Bobby Sands election and damaged the IRA who ceased activities in support of the hunger strikesto prevent civilian deaths from draining international and local support for the hunger strikers,or else he was just a scumbag who didn't care and got blood thirsty, it's just very suspicious it happened two days before the election of Bobby Sands.

Killing her was “naive”, is there no end to the wretchedness of your posts?

It was a politically inconvenient murder? This really is stomach churning.

I'm responding to Kaiden Happy Mouthpiece because he wrote the most and the most thoughtful follow on comment, after mine. Thanks to Blanch152 for your support for what I wrote. I think I could quite happily sit down with both of you and have a very enjoyable discussion on lots of topics, over some quality alcohol :)

I also grew up in a very moderate unionist household. However, I was lucky enough to grow up in one of the safest parts of the Province if you were a civilian and that was the North Coast. However, there were still murders and bombings by PIRA that everyone remembers and the town centre was effectively destroyed by a massive bomb in 1992. There was an active service unit of the IRA within the University of Ulster during The Troubles that helped with targeting of local police officers and as I said previously, that targeting right across the Province has never stopped. As a child I only ever went across the border, as part of a sports team and on those few occasions, it felt like an entirely alien place. The money (punts) looked weird and often I couldn't understand what people were talking about. My sense of the Republic as a child, was that it was the source of all the problems that existed in Northern Ireland.

In my previous post, I was trying to illustrate that Republicans have reaped what they sowed. They are the reason for the widespread antipathy that exists towards them, right across the island. When they attempt to whitewash their personal histories and the history of their movement, it infuriates me no end.

I absolutely loved living in Cork and I hugely enjoyed living in Dublin at a later date. When I first arrived in Cork city in the early naughties, I used to wonder why the place was so empty during summer weekends and why people were unreachable on their cell phones. I quickly discovered that everybody who could, decamped to West Cork every weekend and when I discovered West Cork and Kerry, I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. When I moved to the Cork coast, I was the happiest I've ever been.

I was never more proud of my adopted home, when the Queen received a hugely warm welcome when she visited Cork in 2011. She walked around the English Market, a place I used to regard as my local supermarket, because it was the closest source of food, to where I lived. I knew many of the traders who met the Queen and I was so moved to tears, I had to pull over and park on the hard shoulder of the N7, because I was moving to Dublin that day.

I can appreciate the viewpoint of those for whom a united Ireland is an anathema. I am extremely proud of my own Scots-Irish ancestry and use the label Ulsterman or Ulster Scot to describe myself. Simply because I feel that its the most accurate. But having lived and worked in the Republic, both pre and post housing bubble, I can honestly say that its a place that I've grown to love.

Northern Ireland is a failed state. It needn't have been this way, but the blame lies squarely with Republicans. At the same time as The Republic was thriving on unimaginable amounts of inward investment by foreign companies, who were mostly looking for a tax haven. Northern Ireland suffered from sixty percent unemployment in working class estates all across the Province and in all of the border areas. Both Protestant and Catholic. The EU sank hundreds of billions of so-called Peace 1 and Peace 2 grants into N.I. over decades and the general assessment of it's effects are that it was largely wasted. Politics is conducted through an artificial construction. Not real democracy.

There is no more money, to help pay for Irish reunification. Ireland has had it's time at the EU trough and that time will never come again. Ireland has been a net contributor to EU coffers since 2019 and given the relative debt mountains of France, Germany, Greece and others, Ireland will be a net contributor for at least a generation to come. The U.S. has done it's heavy lifting. Mainly politically. Its going to be focused like a laser on China for the next generation. The UK has it's own economic woes. 30% child poverty. Huge inequalities across the countries and across ethnic groups. North Sea oil, that bankrolled the country since the 1970's, will only remain productive with massive investment and restructuring. So, there will be no dowry. Ireland will have to shoulder the burdens of reunification itself. Any intelligent Irish people that I have the reunification conversation with, just laugh. The consensus is, 'Thanks but no thanks.' The current Irish political leadership did itself no favours in Stormont or Westminster by letting no opportunity pass by, without putting the boot into the Brexit process and Northern Ireland's place within it. That sort of behaviour will not be forgotten, when the U.K. helped bail out Irish Banks. It sometimes seems like no good deed goes unpunished. If I was U.K. Prime Minister, I would show only cold, hard real politik towards Ireland, until Coveney either learns to think before he speaks, or is long departed.

I seriously doubt that any increase in tourism would add anything significant to GDP. Ireland is probably at capacity and Northern Ireland hasn't the infrastructure. Nor is high tech the answer. We have a poor history of turning research into jobs and the tech start-up niche is woefully under funded and hugely risk averse.

I'm not familiar with whatever happened or didn't happen in Armagh. I mostly ignore local politics. Politics is still viewed as a zero sum game here. For me to win. You must lose. We're still arguing over rights. We have not reached a place of shared interests. Apparently, there are more peace walls up now than during the height of The Troubles. Until we can make peace with each other here in Northern Ireland, don't expect any movement whatsoever towards unity on the island of Ireland. Because we'll have to pay for unity ourselves, both British and Irish, it will push unification even further into the future. Probably for at least another generation.

Slan Go Foill

(the first of the very few Irish phrases I learnt, because its painted on every road, leading out of every village and town) 🤣

Hoe could it? A new political situation possibly new parties. A new flag, new anthem a new Capital probably.. The 26 won't as as one entity anymore.

What's with all the Unionists on this thread? I do have to say though I give props to you and the other posters who are openly admitting they are from Unionist backgrounds, many posters on this thread refuse to admit their Unionist backgrounds and are operating under the guise of being from the Republic to spread fear of economic disaster and loyalist violence in their pathetic attempts to drain support for unification.

Why won't it be just adding the 6, maybe that's what the majority want?

The majority down here want to keep the flag and anthem according to opinion polls.