It was considered humorous that the local could not imagine directing the tourist to another location, in order to find a direct road to his destination. When invited to contribute to this important series of posts on the future of Irish Republicanism, it occurred to me that this question, indeed this challenge, must be the essential starting point - can we get there from here?
The Good Friday Agreement is being widely celebrated with international events marking its twenty-fifth anniversary, because the agreement has achieved peace. Irish Republicans join in welcoming the achievement of peace, but we cannot be satisfied if we end up making British rule and partition permanent.
Objectives
The first objective of Irish Republicans remains that stated by Wolfe Tone:
British rule in its current configuration, means direct control of the six counties serving British, (which generally means English) interests, and the power to impose policies e.g. Brexit, which unleash major consequences on all of Ireland, while giving the Irish little say and less thought.
A united Ireland would permit an Irish national government to administer Ireland’s politics and economy in the interests of the Irish people as a whole. It could begin showing unionists they will hold full citizenship, equal rights, and fair political influence in a united Ireland, instead of being an almost inconsequential minority, to be trotted out or discarded as best served British interests on issues like Brexit or the Windsor Framework.
This is not to say that a united Ireland would automatically guarantee that Republican values or ethos would immediately come to the fore, but national freedom would at least open the door to make that possible.
Anthony McIntyre has predicted that “No one who ever fought in the ranks of the Provisional IRA will ever live to see a united Ireland.” While never a member of the IRA, his prediction would certainly eliminate me given my age category from living to see a united Ireland. He may well be correct.
Agreement We Have
The Good Friday Agreement is settled as the agreement we have. However anyone might wish it to have been written differently or amended to allow a less difficult path to a united Ireland, such wishful thinking will not change the facts. If Republicans are to break the connection with British rule and assert independence for all of Ireland, it will have to be done through the Good Friday Agreement.
Do we say that the barriers to a united Ireland in this era are now insurmountable and give up or do we try to adapt and plan new political strategies to help achieve and win the border poll provided under the agreement? The question, indeed the challenge remains can we get there from here.
My personal answer, perhaps more reflecting stubbornness than a strategic assessment, is that while Anthony McIntyre’s prediction may well prove completely accurate, I cannot give up hopes of living to see to freedom for all Ireland, against all odds.
Opportunities
Republicans should be mindful of being gifted with certain unexpected opportunities in this political battle. The first is Britain’s propensity to blunder into policies like Brexit.
Brexit is a gift that keeps giving. It began as a Tory party election gambit. The referendum was then carried by little Englanders worried about immigrants, Europe and the loss of England as imagined through their fog of nostalgia. It was England setting policies to serve English interests, no matter about Ireland. It has been a political fiasco and economic disaster.
Britain said the north’s majority vote against Brexit did not matter, then claimed that the lack of Unionist consent mattered so much that it entitled them to discard provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement they had negotiated.
British Prime Minister Sunak negotiates a Windsor Framework, which should have allowed Jeffrey Donaldson and the DUP political cover to return to Stormont, and finds the DUP will still not move because they are intimidated by what Jim Allister might say.
Brexit has shown those in Ireland who did not know or did not want to know, about the colonial attitude, arrogance and hypocrisy pervading British rule. Brexit will continue to provide opportunities.
Independent Republicans might look at the role played by Jim Allister. He is able to influence and restrict the actions of the larger Unionist parties just by voicing hardline Unionist positions and being ready to highlight any compromises on these positions. Could an independent Republican play a similar role?
Before closing I want to reaffirm my view that Republican strategies today should Not include armed actions. As someone who decades ago defended armed struggle in the conditions existing in those days, it is clear that the political situation, levels of support, capacity, possibility of success, place within an overall political strategy and other conditions that I believe justified armed struggle then do not exist today.
Without such a justification, armed actions become not only morally wrong but pragmatically wrong, hurting the political struggle.
The Good Friday Agreement is being widely celebrated with international events marking its twenty-fifth anniversary, because the agreement has achieved peace. Irish Republicans join in welcoming the achievement of peace, but we cannot be satisfied if we end up making British rule and partition permanent.
Objectives
The first objective of Irish Republicans remains that stated by Wolfe Tone:
to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my country.
A united Ireland would permit an Irish national government to administer Ireland’s politics and economy in the interests of the Irish people as a whole. It could begin showing unionists they will hold full citizenship, equal rights, and fair political influence in a united Ireland, instead of being an almost inconsequential minority, to be trotted out or discarded as best served British interests on issues like Brexit or the Windsor Framework.
This is not to say that a united Ireland would automatically guarantee that Republican values or ethos would immediately come to the fore, but national freedom would at least open the door to make that possible.
Barriers
As many contributors to this blog have written, the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, set out a path to secure Irish reunification. However this path is stacked with barriers that British officials confidently believe are enough to ensure that ending British rule will be forever an aspiration, never an actuality.
For a start, the agreement says that it is for the people of Ireland alone to exercise their right of national self-determination “without external impediment”. It then sets up the huge external impediment of a British secretary being empowered to deny a border poll simply by turning a blind (or should I say Nelsonian) eye towards evidence that a majority in the six counties want to live in a united Ireland.
Instead of one Ireland one vote, there are concurrent referenda north and south, allowing a tiny margin of voters in the six counties to veto an overwhelming majority of voters in the twenty-six counties about the future of their country.
Purported Stormont safeguards of parallel consent, cross-community requirements and weighted majorities which were supposed to lead to cooperation between Nationalists and Unionist politicians, have instead worked to harden divisions and heighten unionist fears about their place in a united Ireland.
British officials feel that with the above provisions, and some years of prosperity, they will never have to grant much worry about a border poll.
As many contributors to this blog have written, the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, set out a path to secure Irish reunification. However this path is stacked with barriers that British officials confidently believe are enough to ensure that ending British rule will be forever an aspiration, never an actuality.
For a start, the agreement says that it is for the people of Ireland alone to exercise their right of national self-determination “without external impediment”. It then sets up the huge external impediment of a British secretary being empowered to deny a border poll simply by turning a blind (or should I say Nelsonian) eye towards evidence that a majority in the six counties want to live in a united Ireland.
Instead of one Ireland one vote, there are concurrent referenda north and south, allowing a tiny margin of voters in the six counties to veto an overwhelming majority of voters in the twenty-six counties about the future of their country.
Purported Stormont safeguards of parallel consent, cross-community requirements and weighted majorities which were supposed to lead to cooperation between Nationalists and Unionist politicians, have instead worked to harden divisions and heighten unionist fears about their place in a united Ireland.
British officials feel that with the above provisions, and some years of prosperity, they will never have to grant much worry about a border poll.
Anthony McIntyre has predicted that “No one who ever fought in the ranks of the Provisional IRA will ever live to see a united Ireland.” While never a member of the IRA, his prediction would certainly eliminate me given my age category from living to see a united Ireland. He may well be correct.
Agreement We Have
The Good Friday Agreement is settled as the agreement we have. However anyone might wish it to have been written differently or amended to allow a less difficult path to a united Ireland, such wishful thinking will not change the facts. If Republicans are to break the connection with British rule and assert independence for all of Ireland, it will have to be done through the Good Friday Agreement.
Do we say that the barriers to a united Ireland in this era are now insurmountable and give up or do we try to adapt and plan new political strategies to help achieve and win the border poll provided under the agreement? The question, indeed the challenge remains can we get there from here.
My personal answer, perhaps more reflecting stubbornness than a strategic assessment, is that while Anthony McIntyre’s prediction may well prove completely accurate, I cannot give up hopes of living to see to freedom for all Ireland, against all odds.
Opportunities
Republicans should be mindful of being gifted with certain unexpected opportunities in this political battle. The first is Britain’s propensity to blunder into policies like Brexit.
Brexit is a gift that keeps giving. It began as a Tory party election gambit. The referendum was then carried by little Englanders worried about immigrants, Europe and the loss of England as imagined through their fog of nostalgia. It was England setting policies to serve English interests, no matter about Ireland. It has been a political fiasco and economic disaster.
Britain said the north’s majority vote against Brexit did not matter, then claimed that the lack of Unionist consent mattered so much that it entitled them to discard provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement they had negotiated.
British Prime Minister Sunak negotiates a Windsor Framework, which should have allowed Jeffrey Donaldson and the DUP political cover to return to Stormont, and finds the DUP will still not move because they are intimidated by what Jim Allister might say.
Brexit has shown those in Ireland who did not know or did not want to know, about the colonial attitude, arrogance and hypocrisy pervading British rule. Brexit will continue to provide opportunities.
Independent Republicans might look at the role played by Jim Allister. He is able to influence and restrict the actions of the larger Unionist parties just by voicing hardline Unionist positions and being ready to highlight any compromises on these positions. Could an independent Republican play a similar role?
Before closing I want to reaffirm my view that Republican strategies today should Not include armed actions. As someone who decades ago defended armed struggle in the conditions existing in those days, it is clear that the political situation, levels of support, capacity, possibility of success, place within an overall political strategy and other conditions that I believe justified armed struggle then do not exist today.
Without such a justification, armed actions become not only morally wrong but pragmatically wrong, hurting the political struggle.
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| Martin Galvin is long time Irish American activist. |
The Fenian Way Comments
ReplyDeleteThe Good Friday Agreement is settled as the agreement we have. However anyone might wish it to have been written differently or amended to allow a less difficult path to a united Ireland, such wishful thinking will not change the facts. If Republicans are to break the connection with British rule and assert independence for all of Ireland, it will have to be done through the Good Friday Agreement.
Do we say that the barriers to a united Ireland in this era are now insurmountable and give up or do we try to adapt and plan new political strategies to help achieve and win the border poll provided under the agreement? The question, indeed the challenge remains can we get there from here.
This observation is as interesting as it is challenging. Can we make the status quo work toward a republican agenda, or do we content ourselves with irrelevant opposition? A couple of examples spring to mind. Articles 2 & 3 were criminally neglected by Irish republicans to exert political pressure on successive Dublin Governments to pursue their ’constitutional imperative’ even to the point of advocating to the Irish people that their constitutional claim to sovereignty over the island should be removed as part of a so called ‘peace settlement’.
The DUP never signed up to the Good Friday Agreement yet use its terms to mercilessly pursue a unionist agenda. One thing I’ve learned from this series is that re-reading the submitted articles provokes ideas that the authors may not have necessarily meant to relay but nonetheless touched upon. Perhaps all this focus on a Border Poll is precisely where the British want us to be? All treaties and agreements have imperfections it would be remiss of republicans not to seek them out!
Perhaps the important question is what republicans should do in the event of a border poll?
ReplyDeleteThe strategic space has been so whittled down by the GFA and the dominance of constitutional nationalism that there seems no where for republicanism to ply its oppositional trade.
If, say a republican project was to campaign around a boycott of a border poll, would it make any headway other than deeper into marginalisation?