The following extract is taken from 'Our Shared Way of Life', a new publication released by Clones Family Resource Cente.

The Border question United Ireland, shared, new or stay in the Union

“We will have our united Ireland,” says former County Monaghan Sinn Fein activist, Marius. And he believes it will not be too long. However, there is a “but”.

“We’re not talking about absorbing the Six Counties into the 26, I’ve never had any interest in that,” he says, describing the chance to “reframe an (all-Ireland) new Constitution around rights in the modern era” as “an exciting project.”

Some Northern Protestants, however, still believe there will never be a United Ireland in their lifetime; some suggest “the South can’t afford us” or even “the South doesn’t want us anyway.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the debate over a United Ireland doesn’t always divide along the traditional binary divide of Protestant/Catholic. There are also Protestants in favour, or at least open to the debate; while some Catholics believe the time is not right for a decision.

In many ways, our interviewees are a cross-section of opinion across the island. Politically, the push is on from parties such as Sinn Fein for a Border poll, while Unionists say it will be divisive. There is a widespread acceptance that a Border poll will take place at some stage, but Unionism believes it is a long way away.

But there is a general acceptance from our interviews that much greater preparation is needed to let people know what they would be voting for in such an historic referendum. Opinions on the methodology needed for that preparation vary with suggestions of a Citizens Assembly or Civic Forum and other ways of having the conversation. Northern Nationalists are often critical of the Southern Government’s lack of planning in this regard.

Frank, from County Leitrim, says “I have no interest in a Border poll now,” citing the need for more conversation. While Tommy from the Fermanagh-Donegal Border believes you would have trouble convincing people in Cork and Kerry of the desirability of integrating the island.

He’s not in favour of a Border poll just now either as he thinks it would be divisive and says that the process towards a United Ireland should be focused on getting people together and having economic unity.

“I wouldn’t fear a United Ireland, I grew up as a Roman Catholic and it’s one of those aspirations that a lot of people have. But I think the efforts of a United Ireland are starting at the wrong end. It’ll never come about working from top-down politicians,” says Tommy.

“I think you need to start from the bottom up and start with the relationships between people. Get better roads, better railway lines, enable people to communicate and grow.”

“I’ve told many a person that I wouldn’t vote for a United Ireland at the moment. I don’t know who would pay for it. Northern Ireland as an economic entity has hardly ever supported itself financially by its taxation. It’s something like 10 or 12 billion a year to get Northern Ireland to float. I don’t know where the Southern Government would get that sort of money,” says Tommy.

“So, I don’t welcome a Border poll at all. If they’re going for a Border poll it should be after a process, about roads, railways, infrastructure, health service, trying to level up the health service in the South to make it more like the health service in the North,” he says.

Referring to dealing with the “basics of society first”, Tommy adds, “Make it easier to get on with each other and less struggling to impose their dogma on somebody else.”

In contrast to those two Nationalists’ reservations, Northern Protestant Kyle is enthused by the “exciting opportunity” of creating a new Ireland, a phrase with much in tune with Marius, as mentioned at the start of this chapter.

Kyle says that the thousands of people who attended “Ireland’s Future” events in Belfast and Dublin is evidence that we’re more inquisitive about a united or new Ireland now. “We’re not locked into what your father and mother’s experiences were, we’ve broken the shackles of that. I am very confident that it doesn’t matter where you are on the Border, people have a very, very, deep, deep appreciation of who they are and their identity. I think that where they sit in the world and what the relationship is between them and Dublin and Belfast are very acute. They see the world in a wider context,” says Kyle.

Marius believes a good time to hold a Border poll would be when a new rights-based Constitution is written. “I wouldn’t want the poll to be held without a framework that says, look this is what we’re talking about. The Republican project has always been about building a new Republic. Those of us who are Republicans need to listen ….. to put together in collaboration with everybody. Not simply the Unionist community