Ireland and the German model of unity

Sir, – I read with interest Emma DeSouza’s insightful and thought-provoking article “Unity offers opportunity to create a new social fabric”, Opinion & Analysis, February 18th).

Many of her points are well made, especially when she emphasises that respect for difference and equality was a major factor that led to the end of the violence in Northern Ireland and ultimately the Belfast Agreement.

Her referencing of German unification as an example of how quickly unification can occur in the right circumstances, in the the context of Irish unity, is appropriate, but only to a point . I agree with her that German unification can, to some extent at least, act as a warning, and the findings that four in 10 East Germans feel like second-class citizens is obviously concerning .

However, citing issues such as wages, childcare, trust in political leaders and state institutions can equally apply to other societies. Many Irish people can relate to these issues but cultural identity does not play a role here, and the same I suspect would be the case in Germany.

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I part company though with Emma DeSouza in her comparison between German unification and a possible future united Ireland. No direct reference was made to cultural identity differences in Northern Ireland. At the start of the second World War in 1939, the people of eastern Germany would have considered themselves culturally German, and I would suggest that that was also the case after reunification in 1989. Yes, East Germans clearly had different postwar experiences but the DDR was still a German state, albeit a communist one, in contrast to liberal/free market western Germany. I would argue reunification did not fundamentally alter their cultural identity as Germans.

This I would respectfully suggest is not the case in Northern Ireland . A sizeable minority of the population consider themselves British, although, as recent polls have shown, these numbers appear to be declining. A case in point is clearly the present difficulties arising out the Northern Ireland protocol.

At the core of the unionist opposition to the protocol is the perception, real or otherwise, that their “Britishness” would be fundamentally altered if a trade border existed between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, the consequence of which could be their casting adrift from the UK “motherland”.

For many this would appear unfounded as the status of Northern Ireland within the UK is guaranteed but cultural identity can sometimes transcend economic self-interest. No such deep-seated cultural identity issues are apparent in Germany, despite lingering difficulties arising out of reunification. Although divisions still exist in Northern Ireland, there are grounds for optimism as the political landscape changes. Irish unity, in whatever form, is still, however, a long way away.

Germany on the other hand achieved unity relatively quickly and is now a stable, modern, functioning democracy, producing stable governments , absent “us” and “them” pervading their society, notwithstanding the social and economic challenges it faces, like any other western society. – Yours, etc,

GERRY MURPHY, BL

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.