Sir, – Mary Lou McDonald has said that she has not made a potential border poll for a united Ireland a red-line issue for future coalition talks (News, February 4th).
This is a welcome clarification. However, much of the discussion around this issue, on all sides, and irrespective of whether the parties think it a good or a bad idea, appears based on the misconception that this is a matter for the Government to determine.
It would of course be theoretically open, if pointless and counterproductive, for a referendum to be held in the South whenever the Oireachtas might decide to do so, irrespective of what was happening, or not happening, in the North.
However, under the provisions of the Belfast Agreement, given effect by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, it is for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to decide that a referendum be held in Northern Ireland. No doubt the two governments would consult very closely, but it would not in the end be our decision.
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While legally that decision could be made at any time, an obligation to do so would only arise if it appeared likely to the Secretary of State that a majority would vote in favour of a united Ireland. It is hard to see, not least given that just under 40 per cent of Northern Ireland voters in the December elections supported candidates running on pro-unity platforms, that a clear basis for such a judgment would emerge in the next five years, regardless of how Brexit proceeds.
I agree that scoping out, analysis and discussion of the myriad procedural and substantive questions surrounding the future of the island would be helpful. It is good that some academic and civil society initiatives have been launched.
But such a process should be low-key, non-partisan, deliberate, respectful, and open-minded.
Meanwhile, the focus of our next government should at this stage be exclusively on promoting reconciliation and co-operation through the newly restored institutions of the Belfast Agreement.
I write as someone who very much wishes to see a united Ireland achieved one day, in the words of Article 3 of our Constitution, “in harmony and friendship”. – Yours, etc,
RORY MONTGOMERY,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.