The Partition of Ireland has been with us since the Government of Ireland Act 1921 created two distinct states with very different complexities and affiliations.

The actual line of division was to some extent arbitrary, but clearly was designed to reflect a substantial Unionist and pro-British majority.

Over 100 years later, we are all still subject to the effects of that political decision.

The geographical and social position of the county of Fermanagh and areas of West and South Tyrone was changed forever as it became an area remote from its new centre of government – Belfast – and at the same time, a frontier to a hostile and unstable state.

In the intervening years, we have continued to suffer from a lack of investment, with poor roads and infrastructure, no railways, few industries, and a lack of interest from the powerbrokers in the remote east.

These thoughts occurred to me amid the tedious merry-go-round of the BBC politics shows inviting anyone who would venture an opinion as to when Stormont would return.

Stormont has not sat for various reasons for nearly half of its 25-year existence, with Permanent Secretaries acting like mandarins of the old raj to the grateful people.

Is it not time for someone to start thinking outside the box?

Does it really matter to most rural people if Stormont never returned?

Is there a different way of delivering more resources and prosperity to our people?

The greatest service which is done for us by the British government, in my view, is not the NHS – welcome as it is – but the knowledge that the British navy, army and air force would be prepared to come to our aid in the event of an incursion by a foreign power.

This is not as unlikely as perhaps five years ago!

There is also a day of reckoning for the Republic if it was honest that some of its bountiful income will have to be diverted to pay for British protection.

Without getting into the merits of a Border poll, which I would advise people to steer well clear of, at present, are there other ways of looking at and doing things differently?

Denzil McDaniel’s excellent book, ‘Our shared way of life’, opens a world of insights into the experiences and positions of the very people whose ancestors, children and grandchildren have lived within and around Partition.

While that book contains the sort of prejudices which one would expect, there are many, many more who just want to live in peace and prosperity with their neighbours, and are surprisingly open-minded to the sort of future which could lie in store.

What if governments on both sides of the Border started to imagine what could be possible for places like Enniskillen, Clones, Belleek, Ballyshannon, Strabane, Fivemiletown, Newtownbutler, Aughnacloy, Cavan, Monaghan, West Tyrone and other such places, if they could be re-imagined without the Border?

Could decisions be made for healthcare which sets the South West Acute Hospital at the centre of acute services for people in a 30–mile radius, with its five theatres going full-tilt and waiting lists North and South being decimated?

Are there enough grown-up politicians to move on from sterile debates to trying to improve peoples’ lives through innovation and cooperation without compromising on constitutional issues?

Could areas such as South Fermanagh, North Cavan and Monaghan, be dealt with as a single region for, say, tourism, and the promotion of rivers and leisure activity?

Could our councils take up some of the administrative slack and work with local authorities on the other side of the Border to bring prosperity to citizens?

There are undoubtedly issues which might spook sovereign governments, and the fact that the United Kingdom is no longer in the EU does not help, but fresh ideas and thinking is badly needed.

Imagine taking a charter flight from St. Angelo Airport to France, or Spain, or the train from Enniskillen to Sligo and on to Galway, Armagh or Clones, and on to Belfast or Dublin.

The British government has talked about “levelling up” all parts of the United Kingdom.

Well, now is the time to do it, and not talk about it.

The Republic’s government has gone a little further, practically, and created a fund of half a billion pounds which it is willing to spend in Northern Ireland, and it is about to pay for the training of 250 nurses in Northern Ireland campuses.

While I am grateful to The Impartial Reporter’s Editor for the opportunity to pen what some may consider a “flight of fancy”, what is to be gained by pursuing the same old goals which leave everyone frustrated?

Why not imagine what could be possible for our children and grandchildren to live contented and positive lives, and to ensure that they get the same resources as everywhere else to enjoy the “Border region” which we know and treasure, as an area populated by kind and decent people.