IS a united Ireland inevitable? No, according to SDLP leader Claire Hanna, who added that it needs to be constantly worked at. Former Ulster Unionist councillor Linzi McLaren believes that a united Ireland is inevitable but not immediate. The only panellist who agreed wholeheartedly with the question during a Féile an Phobail debate at St Mary’s University College was Newtownards writer Claire Mitchell, who contended that a united Ireland is indeed inevitable.
Chaired by journalist Amanda Ferguson, such was the interest in the talk that there was an over-spill into another room where those in attendance watched proceedings on a big screen.
As an MP Claire Hanna spends a couple of days a week in London. She said it is her experience that Northern Ireland is "low down on the British government’s agenda" and combined with structural shifts within British politics “that they don’t want anything to do with us”. She said it is up to those who are in favour of a united Ireland to persuade and reassure people about the benefits of unity.
Claire Mitchell said she knows a lot of Protestants who are “unity curious”. She said those Protestants, like herself, who have become involved in discussions around a new Ireland – and who she described as happy Lundys – have gone to places that were once off limits and as a result have made friends with people who they previously hadn't had the opportunity to meet.
“Speaking for myself I have got such joy and feeling of liberation into my life,” she added.
Looking at the current political situation in Britain she predicted that any future government led by Nigel Farage would lead to more unionists looking to build a future in a new Ireland.
Speaking about her own political journey, Linzi McLaren said that when she was growing up crossing the border into the Republic was like going to a foreign country. One of the reasons she left the Ulster Unionist Party was because of its social conservatism.
She criticised unionist leaders who refused to talk about Irish unity, saying that they feared that if you start to talk about “a new Ireland and the possibilities that are out there” then it would open up conversations about how unhappy people are with their lot at the moment – both Protestant and Catholic – and that could build momentum.
She said that after tweeting support for the rebuild of Casement Park the online abuse that she received meant that she had to receive police protection.
“The potential that I see in a new Ireland for all the people of Northern Ireland and the people of the south is so incredible that it is worth every second of the abuse that I get,” she said.
The audience at the discussion on Thursday
She added: “I often say what will determine a border poll will definitely be demographics, but also the middle ground unionists with a small u who feel they are politically homeless because political unionism doesn’t represent them.
"It's too extreme for them, they don't particularly like loyalism, they have no interest in going to the bands or bonfires, are horrified by the race riots and the burning of homes, but who do they vote for? And also who are so fed up with politics that they have almost adopted an apathy towards politics and are sitting in the middle waiting for someone to convince them.
“And it is at political unionism’s peril to forget about those people because there are so many of us.
“Being a Protestant doesn’t automatically make you a Unionist, there are lots of Protestants in that middle ground who would be more than happy to have the conversation about a new Ireland, and actually more than happy to call themselves a Nationalist.”
Check out today's debates and discussions at Féile an Phobail.
