Irische Regierung wird beschuldigt, eine „Barriere“ für eine Einheitsumfrage errichtet zu haben

The Fine Gael to retirement grifter pipeline. Do nothing as taoiseach then complain about the current Taoiseach yet Varadkar did nothing to push for a border poll while Taoiseach himself

Failing to begin preparation for a border poll seems to be an act of great social and political negligence by the government given that the timing of the poll is not something they can control.

Given the catalyst of a Reform led UK and PM Farage in the immediate future it is necessary to begin preparations now so that when the time comes we don’t find ourselves completely unprepared and facing another Brexit-type situation

We need more mature conversations about unity. Right now some people down the south talk about it as if it’s more of annexation rather than a uniting. Look at some of the rhetoric surrounding Heather Humphreys background.

I agree with the comments that we better start preparing better, if we’re serious and not just paying lip service.

Fascinating piece in that

>However when pushed on the subject both she [Michelle Gildernew SF MP] and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson explicitly say that they believe murders were justified.

I await with baited breath to see certain commenters unironically laud Gildernew for her stance whilst simultaneously savaging Bryson for the same

It’s interesting though that the DUP during the Brexit discussion really gave Varadkar and Coveney a lot of flack and tended to see them as being republican in outlook, which I think most of us (including myself) dismissed as nonsense, given they were senior FG politicians etc etc. There was a lot of whining from Belfast that they were being too aggressive etc and the British Tory media were often painting them like Shinners which was slightly hilarious from an Irish politics perspective.

He’s now in the rather unusual position of having peaked in politics as Taoiseach, effectively seemed to retire politically, yet is only in his 40s and is still very actively publicly debating.

I mean it has to be an extremely big shift of pace and role, but I just wonder what he’s going to do? He’s definitely not going quietly retire to the golf course and he’s much younger than his predecessors were. He also doesn’t seem to have an outlet like moving into say political science academia, yet he’s also not really just looking like he’s going to just drift off into sitting on boards etc etc.

There is a colossal divide in approaches to the north (both sides of the border) depending on whether you were born before or after 1980. People who were old enough to vote on the GFA still want to see it working as it was intended to and reducing polarisation over time. People who’ve grown up with the GFA as the status quo see the dysfunction as baked-in and are looking for the next milestone.

The two groups end up talking at cross purposes, and they stereotype each other as crypto-partitionists or reckless accelerationists.