Unionists’ British identity will have to be respected rather than just tolerated in a united Ireland, a leading Sinn Féin figure has said in comments that will challenge many pro-unity advocates.
“I think we have to find a way to make sure that there isn’t just tolerance, and we’re not about tolerating, because if you start tolerating people then it’s very easy to come to intolerance” Senator Conor Murphy said during a speech in Dublin on Tuesday.
Saying he would be “rubbished” for naming just a few issues of concern to unionists, he highlighted the relationship they have with the royal family, the honours system and British universities.
“You have to embrace people, respect what they wish for, respect how they express themselves in a way obviously that isn’t intolerant of other identities and to ensure that there is space for that,” he told the Institute for International and European Affairs.
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However, he warned that the need for reconciliation cannot become a veto for unionists opposed to a united Ireland, saying that there would never have been a Belfast Agreement if that rule had been set then.
“What you need is a majority, but what we need to do is to make it as seamless and as painless as possible for people who have doubts and concerns about it, and to move in a very wholesome way to address those concerns,” he added.
The campaign for Irish unification will not be successful if it is dominated by any one party, but must instead, be “a project for the whole of the people on the island”, the former Stormont economy minister said.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had both committed before last year’s general election to “active preparation” for Irish unity, but speaking to the Dublin-based institute on Tuesday, Mr Murphy accused of both of having “retreated from that position since”.
The Irish Government “is not just best placed but it is duty-bound” to lead planning for unity,
said Senator Murphy, who was elected earlier this year to the Seanad.
Calling for an all-island forum to lay down the preparations, he said Sinn Féin “will bring our ideas to the table, and we will argue for them, as we’re entitled to do as a democratic political party, and others will do likewise.”
He continued: “The fears of the unionist community need to be addressed in a meaningful way. We need to look at what they mean when they say they are British and be willing to explore that and be open to new ideas.
“Respect and cooperation must be the cornerstone on which a new Ireland is built. And for unionists this means a new Ireland must be shared and integrated and that they play a key role in building it,” he said.
A united Ireland must be “a place where unionists have equal ownership, where there will be respect for their cultural identity and where it has been demonstrated to them that they are welcome, needed and belong”.
Two of the most significant dates in Irish history in the last 30 years saw the Belfast Agreement in 1998 and 2016 when the United Kingdom voted by a majority to exit the European Union.
However, that exit happened though “the people of the north of Ireland voted to remain inside the EU and reject Brexit, and yet the British government ignored that democratic will and forcibly removed us from the EU in January 2020”, Mr Murphy said.
“In both those referenda, large numbers of the unionist and Protestant population voted in favour of the Good Friday Agreement and against Brexit,” said Senator Murphy.
Criticising the effects of the partition of the island in 1921, he said it “disrupted the natural circuits of commerce in Ireland, discouraging investment, creating inefficiencies and hindering trade.
“An irony given that the British government gerrymandered the new Northern States to protect the privilege of a unionist ruling class, the North East of Ireland is now at the island’s weakest region economically,” he said.
Northern Ireland has today “slipped from being the most dynamic and industrial part of Ireland just before partition, to trailing the South on every measure of economic success and quality of life”.
