Sir, – Aoife Lord’s “fear of [Irish] unity” derives from her view that Northern political parties hold “extreme views” and that it would in any event cost too much.
Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that “fear always springs from ignorance”; and Ms Lord’s partitionist “othering” makes the North sound more interesting than it is. In fact, the SDLP, Sinn Féin and Alliance are mere centre-left parties. The DUP and the UUP are mere centre-right parties. Arguably, none of them are as far left as, say, PBP in the South or as far right as Fine Gael on some economic matters. While they tend to proclaim their respective constitutional allegiances in fairly-strident terms, there is nothing inherently “extreme” in being either a nationalist or unionist; and their underlying social and economic politics largely are unremarkable. None of this is news to anyone with any first-hand knowledge of the North.
The economic case for unity is something to be debated calmly; not unthinkingly dismissed on the basis of “fear” or the self-serving pessimism of partitionist ideology.
I wonder has Ms Lord read the report entitled Modelling Irish Unity by German and Swiss economists (Hübner, Van Nieuwkoop et al) published in 2015? It predicts that the combined Northern and Southern economies could grow by more than €30 billion if Ireland reunified. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN Mac CANN,
Trillick,
Co Tyrone.