+34
Clarity required over ‘what the people are actually finally voting for’
’s recent pronouncement on the constitutional future of Ireland reveals the core deficiency and imbalance at the heart of the Belfast Agreement. In 1998, as Irish citizens across the island, in good faith, voted for the Agreement, and the compromises and ambiguities it contained, the power to initiate constitutional change would continue to be invested in whichever British MP holds the office of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
While the principle of consent was accepted by the Irish government in the Anglo-Irish agreement, was enshrined in the Downing Street Declaration and underpins the Belfast Agreement, there has been no equivalent “principle of agency” to determine explicitly how and when citizens in the North can determine their constitutional future. If the principle of consent established who will decide the future of Northern Ireland, then there is a need for a parallel principle of agency to give citizens the power of determining when.
Free education was a gamble that is still paying off All the lessons of the Brexit referendum suggest the “how” in the Belfast Agreement is deficient by defining a singular, ultimate Border poll as the mechanism. It is easy to consider a more managed, phased process triggered by a simple majority vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly followed by:An ultimate confirmatory all-island referendum.
Such a process could, necessarily, take years but delivers greater clarity of “what the people are actually finally voting for”. Such a mechanism removes the power for determining the “when” from the British Secretary of State and gives it to the people of Northern Ireland.
Sir, – Michael McDowell is wrong to support Andy Burnham’s ill-advised comment that “a border poll is off the table” suggests in relation to a Border poll that it would be more correct to refer to “reunification”, rather than “unification”. He forgets that we no longer seek merely “the reintegration of the national territory” as provided for in the original text of the 1937 Constitution, but instead “to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland”.
It seems to me that we have been a disunited people on this island for a long, long time – and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. To talk about “reunification” in these circumstances would, therefore, be somewhat disingenuous. – Yours, etc,Sir, – The relevant criterion to trigger a unity poll, under the Belfast Agreement, is impossibly nebulous. But we Nordies are notoriously pedantic.
I think Burnham meant that a poll is currently not on the table. To say it is “off the table”, presumes, that at some time, it has been on the table, but is now being removed. I really should take up a hobby.
Yours, etc,Patrick Bergin, co-star of Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy, seeks buyer for Offaly castleTroy Parrott goal sends Real Betis to victory against Real Madrid ‘I had an episode bigger than usual’: Patrick O’Donovan says life has changed ‘dramatically’ since falling ill in Brussels‘The Irish are the Brazilians of Europe’: Inside Dublin’s growing community from Brazil
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Knowing When to Change Your Career DirectionBusiness mentor Niamh Ennis advises women on how to recognize when they have outgrown their successful careers and explains that clarity comes through action rather than just thinking.
Read more »
Diarmaid Ferriter: One significant block to unity hasn’t changed: apathy and ignorance south of the BorderA Border poll was never really on the table, and that is where there is considerable Anglo-Irish agreement
Read more »
Scottish Man Sentenced to Prison for Role in Belfast RiotsReece Dunnett has been sentenced to 27 months for rioting and arson in Belfast following unrest sparked by events in Southport.
Read more »
Denmark, Netherlands and Greece sign migration pact to speed up returns to NigeriaDenmark, the Netherlands and Greece have signed a migration pact as part of a plan to prioritise returns to Nigeria, which is consistently one of the main countries of origin for people applying for international protection in Ireland. The new pact represents a much stronger returns arrangement than Ireland's pre-existing 2001 agreement with Nigeria, which was never formally ratified by the African country. Following more than a decade of negotiation, the EU earlier this year signed a new readmission and returns agreement with Nigeria, which could see thousands of Nigerians who are either economic migrants or unsuccessful asylum seekers sent back to their country of origin. Nigeria was offered greater access to the EU market and 288 million euros in healthcare funding. Nigeria will now be under fresh obligations to accept the swift return of their own nationals from EU member states. The Department of Justice expects the migration pact to speed up the enforcement of returns decisions against Nigerian migrants.
Read more »