IN the dying hours of the 33rd Dáil, the Joint Oireachtas Committee for the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement published an extraordinary report with recommendations regarding women and the constitutional debate. It was extraordinary because it took the wider debate on the potential for constitutional change and focused on the necessary, practical steps to ensure women’s participation. That included recognition of the disproportionate impact of our conflict on women.
It was another indication that the constitutional future of Ireland is at the heart of all current Irish political and academic debate. Framed by the Good Friday Agreement and provisions for a border poll on both sides of the island, there is an unprecedented constitutional conversation which is exciting and challenging in equal measure.
What marks this phase of the discussion on our island’s future is the robust intent to ensure that whatever is to come in the short years ahead, it will be an inclusive process where all efforts are made to ensure that no-one is left behind. That includes the Diaspora.
In 2016 the British people decided to leave the European Union. Despite the overwhelming majority in the North of Ireland voting to remain in the EU and the implications for the Good Friday Agreement, a hard Brexit was pursued. The interests of the people living here, both British and Irish, were defended by the Irish government and the EU, with considerable support from the United States. That support meant that the worst excesses of Britain’s decision were mitigated on the island of Ireland.
The role of Irish America in protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the citizens living in the North of Ireland has been immeasurable and reaches to the highest echelons of Washington.
Currently victims and survivors rely on the interest of the United States Congress and Senate and Irish America. The constant and active protection of their rights as they face into the British Legacy Act, which denied them the most fundamental of human rights, is necessary and ongoing as the new Labour administration shows little intent to live up to its pre-election promise of “repeal and replace”.
The time has come for the same interest that defended citizens through Brexit and currently defends victims and survivors to be extended to the constitutional future.
The last time the people of the North of Ireland were given a constitutional choice was 50 years ago. The demographics in the North of Ireland have transformed since then. The economics on the island of Ireland are unrecognisable from what prevailed then. However, speak to anyone in their mid-20s and they will tell you how they have few friends left living here – forced to move due to economic and social policies which exclude them, foreign climes once again hold more opportunity than their own country. Rebuilding a new island needs to build a future for this exceptional generation.
The time ahead must be a preparatory period when the institutional frameworks of Ireland and Britain prepare for a constitutional referendum on the island, within the safe and democratic framework of the Good Friday Agreement. This work can be marked by building a shared understanding of the needs of all citizens. That will be an act of reconciliation, framed by the peace agreement.
Irish America and the international Diaspora have a huge part to play.
