A United Ireland

[poppiesallykatie]

Not a goady thread or to stir, but how many are against it or for it? Obviously many in NI want to part of the Republic, many in NI want to part of Great Britain, how do the British people feel about it?

Hundredths of women a year gave travelled from NI for an abortion. NI still receives the abortion pills needed by the women of Ireland. If anyone from Ireland has ever needed one will know. You can't even have the abortion pill posted to Ireland still today, it is not available in Ireland it is coming but not yet. Lots of gps dont want it, it will be like Italy when it rolls out. It wasn't long ago Ireland was called backwards over the abortion laws on lots of MN threads.
All I hope for NI is safety and independence helped by the UK in getting there.

Yes I’ve been to NI more times than I can count. I’ve stayed there for a period of time. I have friends who live there. (These are all things which are not the same as living there I realize).

I do appreciate that these changes - abortion, same sex marriage - are what you want. But the Republic wanted them too for years and were held to ransom by the Catholic Church and it’s unhealthy influence on the running of the Country. Perhaps NI needs to do the same to DUP’s influence. It feels like in Ireland that we have a strong sense of our own identify - and I don’t want that hard work undermined. We are far far away from the De Valera church state we were.

In my opinion the British need to stop treating NI like a problem and start viewing it as the asset it could so easily be.

Hundredths of women a year gave travelled from NI for an abortion. NI still receives the abortion pills needed by the women of Ireland. If anyone from Ireland has ever needed one will know. You can't even have the abortion pill posted to Ireland still today, it is not available in Ireland it is coming but not yet.

This isn't true. You can of course have the abortion pill posted to Ireland. Women help do it all the time.

Women on the web. The main site to access abortion pills from Ireland can't won't deliver to the ROI. It is an amazing website set up by ordinary women. My DF only went through all this 2 weeks ago. Your parcel goes to a UK post office or hub in discreet packaging. You organise a transfer.

I shake my head in exasperation at the Irish people on this thread who seem to know little or perhaps care little about their country’s own history and therefore come to the conclusion that Northern Ireland is nothing to do with them. Really depressing.

If a country does not have a viable military force, conscription etc. then neutrality is a forced position to take.

Or maybe deciding on neutrality results in deciding not to pump billions into the military and avoiding conscription. Your definition is not one that’s commonly held.

@Linwin , not disowning NI. Just saying it isn't as simple as "let's unify tomorrow ".

I shake my head in exasperation at the Irish people on this thread who seem to know little or perhaps care little about their country’s own history and therefore come to the conclusion that Northern Ireland is nothing to do with them. Really depressing.

'History' is not a good enough reason. Lots have people have explained why recent history has moved the Republic further away from the north.

It's up to the people of NI to make a case for themselves frankly.

Or just move. Which is their right and 100% supported by me.

I have no personal aspirations towards a United Ireland but if NI voted for it I would support that decision.
The fact that a lot of people in the Republic have serious reservations means that there would be huge discussions before any decision was made which is better than blindly voting based on a vague emotional aspiration.

Of course it isn’t simple, nor should it be on the table for discussion at this point of time. It also shows a real lack of respect to the position of the unionist community.

However some of the comments on this thread which amount to an “I’m alright Jack” attitude show a distinct lack of knowledge and understanding of the history of the formation of the Irish Republic and the consequent chain of events.

Linwin we're not saying NI is nothing to do with us ffs, maybe try reading peoples comments without shaking your head because you seem to have missed the valid concerns some of us have raised .

As to knowing our history the Irish know their history pretty well, the good and the bad, unlike many of our neighbours across the water. We just don't believe that looking backwards instead of forward, obsessing over a mythical golden past, is any way to live or make decisions as a modern nation. Unlike many of our neighbours across the water...

show a distinct lack of knowledge and understanding of the history of the formation of the Irish Republic and the consequent chain of events.

I don't see any evidence of lack of understanding of these events. But history has moved on significantly since then.

In 1998 the Republic gave up their constitutional claim to NI. I wonder if NI nationalists get the full implications of that.

United Ireland all the way.
Oh the irony of seeing the DUP potentially die by the sword they thought would strengthen them.

If nothing else, for those of us with ears, ears, and something in between them, this Brexit business has really shown the RoI to be the sort of European country some of us Brits aspired to by remaining in the EU. Maybe you are the future, and this is the hoary old dinosaur of Britain getting it's just desserts ?

Definitely like the idea of a city break in Dublin (goes off to check accessibility).

"I’m alright Jack” is not what I can see from ROI posters who raise concerns about unification. It's more "we are just about managing economically, we certainly can't match NHS and education expectations of NI inhabitants (quite apart from trying to address deeper Unionist community concerns). We just haven't got the money for the project ".

we certainly can't match NHS and education expectations of NI inhabitants

University is free in Ireland. I don't know why you think that education is superior in UK.

Women on the web. The main site to access abortion pills from Ireland can't won't deliver to the ROI. It is an amazing website set up by ordinary women. My DF only went through all this 2 weeks ago. Your parcel goes to a UK post office or hub in discreet packaging. You organise a transfer.

I know this is off topic but just in case anyone who lives in ROI and needs to access an abortion is reading. Women Help, again another amazing website set up by women to help other women do deliver to ROI so there is no need to stress about having to organise getting the pills from NI. Women on Web used to be the main site but because they only deliver to NI they aren't any more. The pills come in a few days, discreetly in a wee padded envelope from an Irish address.

Hopefully this will all be useless info really soon though.

Not talking about university talking about buying supplies etc for schools

I think it can be quite hard to fathom the differences between NI and the ROI. We have vastly different health care, education, social welfare, housing, laws etc. it would take a long time to come to a point where we would be in a poisition to be united. My family are from NI but we live in ROI. We consider NI to be a poor under funded country in comparison to where we live. The town my parents are from is a ghost town which has never recovered from the troubles. Ireland is a modern vibrant European country and how to the bigots that are the DUP with their brand of tyrannical evangelism fit in with us.

If you're on benefits you get an annual allowance.

www.schooldays.ie/articles/back-to-school-clothing-and-footwear-allowance

Having to buy books, lack of fsm etc would make a big difference to lower earning families though.

Yes, I would welcome it if it's what the Irish on both sides of the border want. It should never have been divided and represents a sorry episode in British history.

I'm from NI and have lived in both England and ROI. I don't want a United Ireland, I have a deep mistrust of government and so like having a land border and dual citizenship. If I have to vote I will do so with my children's future in mind, not my grandparents' dreams.

Back in 2011 I was visiting a friend in Scotland whose parents come from Northern Ireland though she is Trossachs born and bred. We visited her parents and I asked them whether they thought people in NI would want to stay with England/Wales if Scotland dissolved the UK. They said they thought they would. At that point I wasn't thinking of NI joining the rest of Ireland, but becoming its own entity if it didn't want to stay with England and Wales.

A few weeks ago I saw someone had written to the Sunday Times saying that notice should be given to the people of Northern Ireland that it would rejoin Ireland and they would be given a few years' grace so they could choose to move to the UK or stay in NI. My immediate thought was: doesn't Ireland get a say in this?

stop trying to separate them from the UK by stealth during Brexit.

But NI IS different. I've said this before but nearly everyone in NI can be an Irish citizen (or in some cases have EU citizenship from elsewhere). So from March 30th we'll have an non-EU territory full of EU citizens, or people who can be. So how can it not be treated differently? Nobody is trying to take NI away from the rest of the UK, only recognising that it is going to be very different.

We consider NI to be a poor under funded country in comparison to where we live

Interesting. When we visited NI in 2004 along with parts of the Republic, we thought the opposite. Things have obviously changed. At least, that was our perception at the time.