Irish unity becomes Brexit’s logical conclusion

Irish Unity: Time to Prepare by Ben Collins, Luath Press, £14.99.

Reviewed by Kevin Meagher.

Of course, it is always comforting to learn that you are not going mad and that others share the same opinion. Having written my own book explaining why I think the reunification of the island of Ireland is inevitable (A United Ireland: Why Unification is inevitable and how it will come about), I am delighted to find myself now part of a burgeoning sub-genre; and a welcome new addition comes in the form of Irish Unity: Time to Prepare, by Ben Collins. 

You will notice there is no question mark at the end of the title. This is not a book pondering whether it is time to start preparing for constitutional change on the island of Ireland; it is a declaration that we should be getting ready for it.

It is a welcome contribution for two reasons. First, this is a very good book. Collins has unavoidable novelty, given he comes from a Protestant-Unionist background, was briefly a member of the Ulster Unionist and Conservative parties, and, so, is not supposed to find himself making an argument like this. But make it he does, eloquently and constructively, remaking early on that Irish unity is, quite simply, ‘an idea whose time has come.’

But Collins is something else, too: a political professional, for want of a better description; a lobbyist who reads the political game shrewdly and, so, the argument he sets out is hard-headed and practical. 

It boils down to this: Brexit has opened a ‘Pandora’s Box’ and the ‘destabilising’ effects on Northern Ireland of the UK quitting the EU have ramifications for the constitution and economy alike. Increased talk of Irish unity is merely the ‘logical conclusion’ of that act of national self-harm and we can expect ‘rapid change’ in the next few years as a result.

Collins usefully reminds the reader that Northern Ireland was yanked out of the EU despite a clear majority of its inhabitants opting to remain. He argues that the response should be ‘NIREXIT from BREXIT.’ Indeed, he predicts that the UK will eventually tilt back towards Europe ‘when the full disaster of Brexit can no longer be ignored,’ but that it is likely to do so sans Scotland, Northern Ireland ‘and possibly even Wales.’

He makes the perceptive point that a government that is embroiled in exhaustive post-Brexit wrangling with the EU and fending off demands for Scottish independence ‘is unlikely to have the resources or energy to resist Irish reunification.’ The cumulative effect of two constitutional fires burning within the British state – with Brexit serving as an accelerant poured over dry tinder – may prove impossible for Westminster to extinguish.

Making sense of all this are moderate unionists, or ‘post-unionists’ as he calls them. They are now giving ‘serious contemplation’ to Irish unity ‘as a vehicle to regain full membership of the EU.’ Collins speaks to a silent constituency of perfectly reasonable people from the same background as himself. 

The Protestant farmer that has lost agricultural payments, or the unionist business owner whose small engineering company is part of a wider European supply chain are persuadable about the future. Realists are generally pragmatic and people like this will make a calculation about what is best for them and their families and what they can live with, rather than automatically adopting the fixed-in-the-past positions of their forefathers.

They will be decisive in deciding when, and in what circumstances, Northern Ireland votes itself out of existence. What might tip the balance is the invisible supplementary on any ballot paper: If you vote for Irish unity, you also vote for re-entry to the European Union.

Liberal Protestants recognise all too well that, from Westminster’s perspective, Northern Ireland is regarded as a ‘slightly embarrassing and truculent stepson’ inherited after a messy divorce. Not helped, Collins argues, by the Pavlovian instincts of political Unionism, where co-operation and pragmatism ‘do not come easily.’ 

He holds the DUP culpable for their current difficulties, having ‘actively campaigned’ for Brexit and while believing that there is ‘nothing inherently wrong’ with believing in the UK, there is a significant section of paleo-unionists that simply ‘believe[s] in supremacism’ over Irish nationalists and are thus incapable of confecting a convincing argument to retain the constitutional status quo.

Yet there is still some hard pedalling for those who want a united Ireland. There needs to be an ‘agreed approach,’ avoiding the ‘hideous’ lack of planning that characterised Brexit. ‘The unity campaign needs to emphasise that people on the island of Ireland have more in common than not,’ he says. ‘We do not share commonalities with the 70-year-olds in Sunderland who voted Leave to finally defeat the Germans.’

In terms of rolling the pitch, Collins argues that the Irish government needs to publish a green paper on the practicalities of unifying the island (much more likely if Sinn Fein forms part of the next Irish government). There also needs to be a series of sector-led groupings, exploring how issues like housing, health and agriculture can be successfully integrated between the two jurisdictions, creating a ‘New Ireland’ in the process. 

This, then, is how Northern Ireland will end. Not by soaring rhetoric, or armed struggle, but by the rash miscalculation of Brexiteers and the advocacy of a better, workable alternative.