September 30, 2007
Obviously, the central problem is partition and the many injustices and the violence that have resulted from it. As it stands, Irish Citizens have the same voting rights in the UK as British Subjects and British Subjects have the same voting rights in the Irish Republic as Irish Citizens. The Irish constitution says that sovereignty is vested under God in the people of Ireland and this is apparently without regard to the fact that a large minority of the people of Ireland do not choose to take up Irish Citizenship but wish to be subjects of Elizabeth II. So the sovereignty of the Irish Republic is partially vested under God in individuals themselves subject to Elizabeth II Dei Gratia Regina Britanniarum. The seeds of the solution are contained in this consideration. It is necessary to find a way of integrating the North into Eire without making the Unionists feel they are being compelled to repudiate their own history and loyalties. It would accordingly be better to work out a deal with the Unionists while they are still the majority population in Northern Ireland. Obviously, this couldn’t be attempted for a few years but a start can be made. The real problems are symbolic. For Unionists the Irish Tricolour and the ‘Soldier’s Song’ are symbols of the attempt to compel them to abandon loyalty to the crown and to incorporate them against their will into the Republic. The Republic should make the St Patrick’s Cross and St Patrick’s Breastplate the flag and anthem of Ireland. This should be done straight away before the actual union of NI and Eire so that both jurisdictions would use the same flag and anthem. Everyone would obviously be free to continue to use the Union Flag and Tricolour as they wished but only the St Patrick’s Cross would fly from government buildings on either side of the border. The UK should eventually surrender sovereignty over Northern Ireland to the Republic and become ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain’ but the Queen should resume, with the agreement of the Republic, the Regal Style of Queen of All the Britains - Britanniarum Omnium Regina (which she used at her Coronation) in acknowledgement that she also has many Irish subjects. Individuals in Ireland with UK citizenship would be free to transmit this to their offspring and they would be free to take up Irish citizenship if the wished to do so. Anyone born in Ireland would be entitled to UK citizenship if they requested it as if they had been born in the UK. The Union Flag and Royal Arms would remain unaltered. The convertibility of British and Irish Citizenship should be enshrined in treaty and this treaty should be incorporated into the Irish Constitution and the Act of Union.
I realise that the change of anthem and flag could be psychologically difficult but it would be absurd to insist on retaining the Tricolour as the Flag of Ireland when it is supposed to represent reconciliation between Unionists and Nationalists and is actually a serious obstacle to this very thing. As already mentioned, the St Patrick’s Cross seems to have already existed as the Flag of Ireland when Trinity College Dublin was founded in the sixteenth century. No one could object to the Lorica. It is ideal as a National Anthem acceptable to Catholics and Protestants (and most in keeping with the preamble of the Bunreacht na hÉireann). If one were to wait until Nationalists form a majority in Northern Ireland and then humiliate the Unionists by imposing a Carthaginian settlement it would be both unworthy and risk a future resumption of ‘the troubles’.
October 1, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Using the St Patrick’s Cross as the flag of a united Ireland is an excellent suggestion but logically it entails the removal of the red saltire from the Union Flag, restoring it to its original, pre 1801, design as a combination of the Cross of St George and the Saltire of St Andrew.
October 1, 2007 at 2:34 pm
The idea of keeping the title Britanniarum Omnium Regina and the right of people born in Ireland to take UK citezenship (if they wish to do so) is to retain the link with the Crown for those Irishmen who wish to retain that link. For this reason it would be necessary to keep the St Patrick’s cross in the Union Flag.
October 1, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I have long loathed the Irish Tricolour, a very boring flag. The St. Patrick’s Cross, while just as simple (even simpler), is much more representative of Ireland since it is emblematic of the religion and culture of Ireland.
Part of me, however, would much prefer the Four Provinces flag be used as a national flag (http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ie-prov.html).
As for your constitutional questions, I think I would (most unpragmatically) go the other way. Make Northern Ireland the Kingdom of Ireland and have counties gradually escape from horrid republicanism by seceding from the Republic and joining the Kingdom. Of course, we would want a Catholic king, and that might make the Ulstermen quite unhappy.
Perhaps the best solution is the hybrid solution of Eire 1937-1949: a mostly republican form of government with the King as the head of state. The Seanad should, naturally, continue to be corporately organized, and perhaps five or six seats should be set aside for the much-neglected Irish peers to elect some of their number. (A number of Irish peers have been elected to the Seanad anyhow, especially during the earlier part of its history).
October 1, 2007 at 10:13 pm
You do realise that there’s a better chance of Ian Paisley becoming the next Pope than any of this happening???
Of course, any of this requires the people to go to the ballot box in a referendum; even the Tricolour as National Flag is covered in the Constitution. But you can forget any idea of monarchy, whether Irish or the House of Windsor.
Personally, I think the Seanad should be abolished, as it adds nothing to the political process, apart from a bill to the taxpayer. But its existence suits the best interests of the political parties, so it’s going to stay.
October 1, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I think you might be struggling to find any unionist who will drop his opposition to a United Ireland because the flag and the national anthem have changed.
Its a bit like asking me to reconsider my nationalism because Gordon Brown is Scottish!
October 1, 2007 at 11:58 pm
I am quite sure that the cause of Irish Monarchism needs at least century before it could be credible whether or not it is desirable. I don’t think speculation on this point is helpful in resolving the matter at hand.
The dividends in terms of good will to be reaped from the adoption of the St Patrick’s Cross as the flag of both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland would be incalculable. This would be worthwhile regardless of any future unification of those jurisdictions but it would also hugely increase the likelihood of a united Ireland.
I would have thought the Unionists would see the merits of negotiating good hypothetical terms of unification while they are in the majority rather than waiting until they are the minority and getting nothing. It would then lie in their own power to keep NI in the United Kingdom by having lots of babies. If they can’t be bothered to do that then they will have only themselves to blame. Furthermore, it is in the nationalists’ interests to achieve hypothetical terms of unification which the Unionists have agreed in advance of any nationalist majority in order to facilitate a peaceful transmission to a united Ireland and accustom the Unionist population to the idea.
Brendan, I pray that the population of the Irish Republic are not so mean spirited as to risk a resumption of the troubles and greatly diminish the chances of a united Ireland rather than make two symbolic concessions to the Unionists. It would be particularly absurd to insist on the Tricolour in complete defiance of the reconciliation it is supposed to represent.
October 2, 2007 at 1:33 am
There’s something which I forgot to mention earlier; the growing power of Brussels is gradually making the border less and less relevant - but that’s another story.
Frankly, I do not believe that “a resumption of the troubles” is on anybody’s agenda. The Provos have started to make an electoral impact in the South only after they started to face reality and join in “normal” politics. I don’t believe that the Armani-suit-wearing man with beard and holiday home in Co Donegal is going to go back to life behind the barricades.
But I don’t believe the Unionists will EVER agree to any form of political union with those South of the Border, regardless of what concessions. Naturally they would have no objection if we here decided to re-join the United Kingdom, but there’s no chance of that happening either - in fact, that will not even be discussed!
The Celtic Tiger has helped, because now all the Northerners basically want to piggy-back the Northern economy onto the Southern one; and they are happy with that, as long as they retain their own Parliament at Stormont and control over their own political future.
October 2, 2007 at 1:45 am
I did not mean that the IRA would have a relaunch in the event of a united Ireland! Rather, I meant that loyalist terror groups would re-emerge if the Republic insisted in rubbing the Unionists’ noses in it. I visited NI a few weeks ago and stayed with a Protestant family and spoke with a number of other Protestants (admittedly C of I not Presbyterians) and I had the distinct impression that their long term resistance to reunification is weak and their appreciation of the economic benefits strong. What they don’t want is to be humiliated and forced to sing about themselves as dirty Saxons, foes of Ireland and willing slaves of the despot.