Uniting Ireland becomes a very real problem for Micheál Martin

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Last January – God it seems so long ago – then Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan came up with an idea that became a determining factor in the general election. He suggested a commemoration for those from the Royal Irish Constabulary who had died during that decade where the sovereignty of the State was established.

There was an argument for something to be done. These were after all Irish men (mostly Catholic in the South). But the problems were many. For one, they were serving the Crown. And the senior positions in the force were held by non-Catholics. And it hardly had an unblemished record as a force when it came to the fair administration of justice.

And, of course, the hated Black and Tans were officially part of the RIC.

So it was a sensitive issue, there was no doubt about it. Any move towards commemoration would need to be done very carefully, and involve a lot of debate, a lot of discussion and a huge amount of context. If it was going to happen, it could really only happen within a larger conference discussing these events, where the positives were acknowledged as well as all the negatives.

So Flanagan’s decision to go ahead – unilaterally – turned out to be a tinder box that set off an electoral conflagration. While it was a Fianna Fáil candidate (Cathal Crowe in Clare) who was the first to respond negatively in public to the idea, it was Sinn Féin which ran with it for the election campaign. I’ve never heard ‘Come Out Ye Black and Tans’ played so many times outside of a Wolfe Tones concert.

Anyway, we know the impact it had on the election. We saw a dormant republicanism awaken in people, especially the young, that we had not seen before. We can take it that the vast majority of the many people who voted Sinn Féin were comfortable with the idea of a united Ireland. The Republic was more republican than we had suspected.

Fine Gael began describing itself officially as the ‘United Ireland Party’. Fianna Fáil emphasised its ‘constitutional’ republicanism, its commitment to the “peaceful reunification of the island of Ireland as a single political entity”. Labour spoke of a new all-island state in terms of it being best placed to deliver a good quality of life for all.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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