Reunification of Ireland

Subject: Reunification of Ireland.

Listening to the popular program, "Any Questions" which this week comes from Northern Ireland one is immediately struck by the vitriol which comes across between the various Irish speakers. Political antipathy one understands, religious tribalism one understands but the apparent total disdain between one Irishman and another is beyond reason. 

The history of Ireland is splattered with violence, not only the violence between the Irish and outside nations wishing to invade the emerald land. The Vikings were a major thorn in their side, the Scots also rampaged with force across the Irish Sea and of course the old enemy, the English, were all fought with good reason but the major source of conflict was, and still is, between the Irish themselves. 

Their family based tribalism, the O'Connor's, the O'Rourke's, the O Brian's were all families who spent all their energies and the blood of their followers in trying to defeat each other. It went on decade on decade, centuries even, with one family gaining ground only to loose it as an alliance between another group of powerful families formed.
Antiquity tells us that the Irish were ungovernable.  Not, as is normally recognised ungovernable, because an outside force has stepped in and tried to rule the Irish but ungovernable because the people themselves do not get on. Centralised governance seems to have been impossible.
Having recently had a short holiday in Ireland I was struck by the under laying friendliness of the people and yet also the under laying political strain in their conversation if, as an Englishman, you sought to offer opinion. In pubs, famous for their rough justice by the nationalists, one was aware that there were men in the pub who had a deep reservations for no other reason than that I was from England. We were fortunate that we were the guests of a well known local family who's influence was sufficient to ensure we were well received but without their blessing I wonder if I would have been as lucky. Their is a ruthless tension in the Irish which contradicts the humour they are famous for, a threat which makes their presence (outside sporting events) a watchful experience. 

It was for good reason that Sinn Fein were feared both in Ireland and in England. They held an almost masochistic delight in inflicting pain on people who crossed them. The infamous kneecapping, crippling someone from the 'other side', left a trail of terror within the society of Northern Island, a fear which still remains even though the Northern Ireland Assembly is in place and Sinn Fein are the second largest party on its benches. They still carry the threat of violence on the street.
Martin McGuinniss represented the ideological embodiment of Irish Politics. His logic had a short fuse and his history of using any means to get what he wanted,(Home Rule), made him a feared adversary. The Nationalist cause is littered with people like him as is the history of Ireland. From the time of the Easter Rising and before the extremists seem to hold sway over the population on both sides as, tit for tat atrocities were carried out regularly. It wasn't a polite Catalan banner waving parade but guns and explosives and above all, terror waged within the ordinary community.

The Tony Blair "Good Friday Peace Agreement" was a concessional political deal which brought the factions together around a table and eventually into a formal Parliamentary setting where old enemies could cross each other with words not bullets. The leverage to obtain an agreement meant that Sinn Fain, the Unification of  Ireland party had their violent past buried, much to the unhappiness of the victims of that terror. A truce was brokered by Blair which, tenuous as it is, lasts to this day but a new fly in the ointment has been the issue of Brexit and how it effects the boarder between Northern and Southern Ireland. The hope of Sinn Fein is that the difficulty of setting up a proper boarder between North and South will drive the parties to consider the reunification of Ireland as a solution.