Is northern ireland discussed in Irish politics at all or is reunification a fringe issue for most political parties?
SF is the only party in the south that talks about it.
>>475732117>>475732117Yeah it is discussed and it is the key issue with the party Sinn Fein which is making huge gains in the Republic. 2/3 of Irish people want a united Ireland. 1/3 that dont mostly because of economic reasons. Ireland became rich in the 90s by being a stable english speaking tax haven for big US tech companies. Northern Ireland did not get that kind of foreign capital because of the troubles so NI has a much lower GDP per capita. However, NI has the British NHS whereas the Republic's healthcare is shite due to the taxes being so low. Unification would be difficult from an economic perspective. Moreover, the republic would have to deal with tonnes of angry protestants in the north who would chimp out and blow shit up. Unification would have to have a tonne of recognition of the autonomy of protestant ulster scots communities in north maybe with their own schools where they teach Ulster Scots instead of Irish and dont have to do any catholic stuff. The Irish simply dont have the security forces to deal with the UDA protestant militias kicking off. Culturally speaking, an independent Ulster (separate from both republic of Ireland and UK) is unironically the best solution for everyone. Economically though they could just not hack it on their own. Sad state of affairs all round. Shame that James VI did the whole Ulster plantation but they have been there for 400 fucking years now so they have claim to it I suppose.
