SOME claim that the people on this small island can never agree. It’s a claim with some supporting evidence. Conflict within Ireland and between Ireland and England has been going on for centuries. But there is one thing that all parties north and south, regardless of attitude to partition, are agreed on: There is going to be a border poll.
 
The recent Claire Byrne programme on RTÉ  made that clear. Even Gregory Campbell accepted that there would be a border poll at some point. The question is when.
 
Michael McDowell, who claims to be a nationalist, recently wrote that to talk about a border poll before reconciliation in the north and throughout Ireland is to put the cart before the horse. The Good Friday Agreement, he says, made it clear that any attitude towards the union with Britain – for or against – is legitimate. From this Michael argues that the views of those different from our own must be treated with respect. He then adds a third leg to the stool of his argument and says that talk about a border poll is to show disrespect for those who differ from you. 

Which leaves us in a bit of a pickle, not to say totally stymied. If Unionists in the north or in Dublin 4 have only to cry 'Disrespectful!' when any attempt is made to put flesh on the bones of a reunited Ireland programme, then discussion of/planning for a united Ireland will never begin.

How a top barrister like McDowell can, with a straight face, offer an argument with such a shaky third leg is astonishing. Just as it is legitimate for unionists to argue for the benefits of the union and their argument should be respected, so it is equally legitimate for nationalists/republicans to argue for the benefits of a reunited Ireland. To deny them this right would be not just absurd but equally disrespectful. Besides, almost on a daily basis there are reports of people talking about a border poll, some passionately in favour of it, some doggedly opposed to it.
 
So if it’s legitimate and respectful to argue for a border poll, when should it take place? People like Michael McDowell and Fintan O’Toole – the articulators if not the shapers of the Dublin 4 view on the North – see any border poll which hasn’t been preceded by years of reconciliation and planning as a recipe for disaster. Some nationalists and republicans, north and south, would share this view. They point to the degree to which the DUP is already spooked, tense,  tending to jump at sudden noises and emit high-pitched yelps. We must avoid that, they say.
 
Nationalists/republicans who keep harping on the need for a border poll risk triggering a loyalist backlash. And what sort of united Ireland would want to cope with a violent group of loyalist paramilitaries within its borders? 

Which leaves us in a bit of a pickle, not to say totally stymied. If Unionists in the north or in Dublin 4 have only to cry 'Disrespectful!' when any attempt is made to put flesh on the bones of a reunited Ireland programme, then discussion of/planning for a united Ireland will never begin.
 
 But whatever about some unionists, the GFA makes clear that nationalists/republicans are absolutely entitled to speak about and plan for a reunited Ireland and how it should look.
 The core problem is how room and respect for unionist identity might be protected within this new Ireland. Some unionists, not unreasonably, argue that if you establish a reunited Ireland, you have collapsed the central pillar of unionism. How could a unionist, whose core belief is union with Britain, be content to live in a new Ireland where that union with Britain has been dissolved?
 
 Or is unionism something beyond simple political unity with Westminster? Can unionist identity and culture be protected within a united Ireland?  We have a lot of difficult questions to answer in planning for a border poll. Which is why we should start, not next year or next month, but now.