Alison O'Connor: Challenges of a shared island will take us far beyond our comfort zones
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I can still remember climbing on board the school bus to the sound of songs blasting out from the tape deck.
They were, I realised much later, what we’d traditionally call “rebel songs”. But at the time a bunch of primary school kids singing along to a bunch of rousing tunes was as good a start to the day as any. What I remember most was the chorus for the tuneful ‘A Nation once again’.
I grew up in a house where we had little discussion of the politics of the North, or of a pressing need for us to repossess this contested land. It was journalism that would eventually bring me fully into contact with the realities of the situation and actually bring me to travel over the border.
It’s not an easy subject — the North — from any angle; we need all the help we can get to understand it, and not just at the level of singing rousing ballads when we’ve pints on board. My first proposal on this would be that a speech given at the Shared Island forum recently should be shown in classrooms to every school child in Ireland. The address, by comedian Patrick Kielty, brilliantly contextualises the current situation, without passing on the baggage of the past.
This is brilliant from @PatricKielty https://t.co/inYQ5NPA87
— Colum Eastwood (@columeastwood) December 11, 2021
It seems simplistic, but it would honestly be a great idea to have that speech by comedian Kielty, whose father was shot dead by the UVF in 1988, viewed by as many people as possible. The way it has been shared already on social media is a example of how that medium can also be a force for good.
It was delivered just ahead of the results of an opinion poll which indicated a strong desire for a united Ireland with 62% of people saying they would vote in favour in a referendum. On the other side, 16% said they would vote against.
Across political lines there was strong support, with the figure in favour jumping to 78% for Sinn Féin voters, compared to 58% for Fine Gael.
However The Irish Times Ipsos/MRBI poll also showed that when nationalist push came to budgetary shove, just under 80% of us would not accept higher taxes, and the same number were not prepared to tolerate any cuts in public spending that would be required to foot the reunification bill.
In other words, when you bring it out of the fantasy realm of singing along to the Wolfe Tones blasting out the catchy chorus of ‘A nation once again’, and the cold shower actuality of the many extra billions required to pay for a one nation island our enthusiasm simply shrivels.
This is all the more interesting when you look at the other results of the poll showing a Champagne-popping all time high of 35% for Sinn Féin making them the leading party of middle Ireland. This compares to Fine Gael dropping to 20% and Fianna Fail remaining on 20%, with the Green Party at 5%.
It’s a possible three years yet to our next general election but right now Sinn Féin is looking a pretty good bet for that contest. But how will that mañana approach of middle Ireland to a united Ireland fit with Sinn Féin, which openly proclaims that this is their raison d’etre?
It will be impossible to imagine this will not be an in-your-face feature of a Sinn Féin-led government, but how do they plan on dealing with the lack of joined-up thinking on the part of voters, indeed the evident immaturity of thought on the matter.
It’s all the more interesting to learn that 77% of those questioned in that poll say they would not accept a new flag and 72% would not accept a new national anthem. Rejoining the commonwealth was rejected by 71%. No céad míle fáiltes there for unionists.
All the more intriguing were the further poll results which threw up the fact that it was Sinn Féin voters that were most opposed to those flag, anthem, and commonwealth possibilities which would clearly make unionists more comfortable in a united Ireland.
It would be interesting to know what the Sinn Féin plan of attack, as it were, would be in the event of finding itself in power in Dublin and in Belfast in relation to its prize political project. How does it intend manouvering its way around the major obstacles thrown up by this opinion poll, and others which have had similar results when it comes to the rubber hitting the road on a reunification project.
Patrick Kielty gave his speech at an event organised as part of the Government’s Shared Island initiative — one of Micheál Martin’s main projects as Taoiseach. Mr Martin launched a week-long series of events marking the one year anniversary.
It was launched with the aim of “harnessing the full potential of the Good Friday Agreement” through cooperation, connection, and mutual understanding on the island and engage with all communities and traditions to build consensus around a shared future.
In that time, €50m has been allocated for north-south investments, more than 1,000 people and organisations have participated in a dialogue series, and research programmes on healthcare, climate and biodiversity, and economy.
Without a doubt a worthy initiative and, as the poll results show, it is something we need far more of and involving far more people. Because, as Patrick Kielty said, a shared island is a challenge for us all and something that means we have to go beyond our own comfort zones. He questioned what we are prepared to give up to make things better for others and ourselves.
I imagine he was trying to connect here with those very people who mourn the loss of our fourth green field and like to sing about it after a few bevvies, and answer “yes” to the reunification question when asked by a pollster but “no” when asked if they’ll put their hand in their pocket to pay for it.
So many of these are the people who have never bothered to cross the border and, as Kielty so pithily puts it, do not have any curiosity about what happens in the North.
As a result, things get passed down through the generations — not just trauma — but one sided history, stereotypes, and apathy.
“It is easy in a post-Brexit world to sit in Dublin and say the British government does not care about the North when the truth is for many people here in the Republic, they are not particularly interested in it either unless a northern team pulls a hard Brexit with Sam Maguire. I know it can be a tricky place to get your head around, a place that is home to Orangemen and All-Ireland winners. But it’s way harder to understand when you are not curious,” he said.
In this year of centenaries, he added, the ghosts of the past are easier to honour. In a speech full of fine lines, my favourite was this: “It is far easier to sing a rebel song about a united Ireland than decide not to sing it in order to maybe have one. Yet we have to be honest with each other, about who we are and how we feel, and why we feel it.”