Taoiseach criticises assertion Irish unity is ‘inevitable’ as he promises new initiative

Taoiseach Micheál Martin promised to deliver a new initiative on Irish unity in a speech on Wednesday night.

That initiative should scope out what is required for possible different “constitutional futures”, including unity, Martin said. He was speaking at the launch of Irish or British or Both: The Long Road to Good Friday and the Future beyond it by former Irish diplomat Noel Dorr.

The announcement comes shortly before Fine Gael is due to unveil its “blueprint for a unified island”, promised during the summer by Simon Harris, at its ardfheis next week.

In his speech, Martin was critical of assertions of the inevitability of unity, which he said has marked recent commentary and is “implicitly sidelining persuasion or change as prerequisites for unification”.

“In this there is a sense of the old historical mistake being repeated, where nationalists gather together to agree how right we are and how everything will be fine,” he added.

However, Martin also laid out how he believed the unity agenda could be advanced, something he has been reluctant to do in the past.

He said that there were “three core elements of how we need to proceed”.

The first, he said, was the Shared Island initiative, which promotes co-operation and research outside the constitutional agenda. The second is reform of the Northern institutions, which needs close engagement with the British government.

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The third is the new initiative that he proposes. While he was scant on detail in his speech, the Taoiseach promised: “I will address this more comprehensively in the near future.”

He did say, however, that what was needed is “action to define and develop a rigorous, independent and dispassionate base of knowledge on which you can have a credible discussion about constitutional futures”.

“A new initiative is required to do the significant work required,” he said. “This must ensure that the public has access to independent, trustworthy and comprehensive information about the practical implications – legal, social, economic, cultural and political – of different possible constitutional frameworks.”

Research to date has “begun to fill some gaps”, he said, but a “comprehensive programme of work” is required in order to address the impact of constitutional change at national, community and personal levels.

“All evidence from research on referendums internationally, including independence referendums, shows that information which is seen as one-sided, which tries to avoid genuinely tough questions such as financial costs, economic development and 100 years of divergence across many sectors, undermines the case being made,” he said.

“Any process established to achieve a particular outcome and involving only one side would achieve nothing and would lead to the repeat of past errors.”