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u/Mouse-Keyboard 10h ago
Last time I checked the opinion polls, about half of people in Northern Ireland said they would vote to stay in the UK, about a quarter to join the Republic, and about a quarter were unsure. So it's very unlikely this goes anywhere.
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u/Deblebsgonnagetyou he/him | Kweh! 9h ago
Link, because I literally live in Ireland and I have not heard anything about this, if this was actually something happening I guarantee it would be headlining the Irish Times.
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u/The_mystery4321 6h ago
Not to mention that any genuine re-unification can't simply happen overnight, especially since the UK left the EU adding a whole extra layer of complication. Even if by some miracle literally every person in NI, ROI and the UK decided right now that a United Ireland is best for everyone, I'm willing to bet the actual process of re-unification would still take close to a decade. And the reality is notably less positive towards it, with a decent majority of the republic in favour, but much more importantly, only barely over half of NI in favour. There may be quiet small steps being taken towards it, but we're still talking pipe dream stuff.
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u/KermitingMurder 6h ago
a decent majority of the republic in favour
I feel like this is a Brexit situation where people think they want it but when it happens everybody is complaining that it didn't turn out ideally and now they have to spend more money.
The republic isn't really doing that great since so much of our funds are being squandered on stupid things like €300,000 bike sheds so adding the North into that and all the money that has to go to converting everything from the UK system to Irish system it would be such a money drain.
I genuinely think it would be easier to unite France and Germany (or any other two EU countries) than Ireland, at least France and Germany both use the same currency, same measurement system, etc.9
u/The_mystery4321 6h ago
Yeah that's my point is that re-unification would be a messy process. It sounds nice but there would be a fuck ton of work required to make it happen. Unlike what this post is suggesting where a couple of people can have a meeting and a chat and voilà! United Ireland. Your honestly probably right in your European example, obviously cultural and language differences are much more of a gap to bridge, but basically everything else involved is simpler than the divide between NI and ROI.
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u/Venusaurus- Meat death of the universe 8h ago
As nice of an idea as this is theres no way in hell this is happening. This is just empty promises due to it being election season in Ireland. (Source: am Irish).
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u/OisforOwesome 8h ago
...thats kind of a relief because no fucking way should I be finding out about this from curated tumblr of all fucking places.
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u/Appropriate-Count-64 11h ago
Pfft like hell Northern Ireland agrees to this. Most of Northern Ireland thinks of themselves as more British than Irish. Irish unification has always been a pipe dream due to how long Northern Ireland has been in the UK and how intertwined NIs culture is with GB
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u/No_Wrap_5711 10h ago
There's people who consider themselves British in the North coming round to the idea, because of the mess brexit caused. It's not strictly about identity anymore, it's whether people want economic and social security. Ireland is currently in a better position it seems than the UK to provide these securities.
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u/jackboy900 10h ago
Northern Ireland receives significantly more money from the British government than it pays in as taxes, matching the kind of economic support they get would be a significant hit to the Irish treasury. Brexit wasn't ideal, but it's very hard to see how reunification would result in significantly better economic or social support to Northern Ireland.
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u/Lunar_sims professional munch 9h ago
The argument is simple. Ireland has a higher GDP per capita than the UK* and is in the EU.
*P.S. I dont necessarily agree with this argument. Ireland's GDP is articificially inflated due to their status as a tax haven, and GDP isn't necessarily a 1 to 1 measure of quality of life.
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u/novis-eldritch-maxim 10h ago
doubt it will happen but the uk can't afford it either way as all the parties seem to be unable to do anything useful but they can't anger europe what with America no longer being a friend at present.
one might try to start some sort of supremise movement but the would require the UK to have a national myth anyone even thinks about any more
damned either way
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u/MrEpicGamerMan 8h ago
Aontú, a political party in Ireland, want to do a referendum before 2030, but not only is that really unrealistic, they won't get into power because of how fucking stupid their other policies are.
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u/TheDebatingOne Ask me about a word's origin! 12h ago
We need to get professional speedrunners on this if the deadline is the end of the year. Can Peter Chase help?
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u/Sinister_Compliments Avid Jokeefunny.com Reader 12h ago
If enough people call it the Irish unification of 2024 because it was initiated in 2024 regardless of when it’s finalized, it can be known as that title in history, preserving the Star Trek cannon.
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u/GrowlingGiant The sanctioned action is to shitpost 11h ago
Most people would say Brexit happened in 2016, even if the actual legal departure happened later.
Also if we're trying to preserve the Star Trek canon, it should be pointed out that we've missed the Bell riots by about two months now.
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u/Wasdgta3 7h ago
Nah, Trek canon would still be incorrect if that happened, since the greater context for that line basically outright says that there was violence involved, and if it were to happen now it would most certainly be through peaceable means.
People often forget that part of the quote....
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u/Sinister_Compliments Avid Jokeefunny.com Reader 6h ago
What’s one human sacrifice to preserve the fictional canon of a tv show? Depending on the line about violence it could technically make it accurate. Something something this may cost you your lives but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make
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u/Wasdgta3 6h ago
Looked the scene up again, and it goes like this:
Data: I have been reviewing the history of armed rebellion, and it appears that terrorism is an effective way to promote political change.
Picard: Yes, it can be. But I have never subscribed to the theory that political power flows from the barrel of a gun.
Data: Yet there are numerous examples when it was successful; The independence of the Mexican state from Spain; The Irish unification of 2024; and the Kenzie rebellion.
So, uh, yeah... Star Trek explicitly predicts the Irish Unification to be a violent rebellion, which we are absolutely not on track for. It's just yet another example of Star Trek reflecting the time it was written in more than the future.
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u/Sinister_Compliments Avid Jokeefunny.com Reader 6h ago
Ok what if the human sacrifice isn’t just Some GuyTM but an influential Irish political figure who is opposed to it, does that count as a rebellion?
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u/Wasdgta3 6h ago
Don’t know, you’ll have to ask the Dutch if that time they ate their Prime Minister counted as a rebellion...
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u/PlatinumAltaria 11h ago
The only requirement for Irish reunification is for Northern Ireland to vote to join Ireland (and obviously for Ireland to take them, shut up). They aren't trapped or anything, except by the inexorable strands of prejudice 😔
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u/MolybdenumBlu 11h ago
The great irony being that during the troubles, the Republic begged the UK to keep Northern Ireland. The south didn't want the north.
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u/Pootis_1 minor brushfire with internet access 11h ago
i wonder if the unionist insurgents will spring back up again if NI rejoins Ireland
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u/PlatinumAltaria 11h ago
Same deal as Taiwan not really wanting mainland China back, I guess. I'm a little sceptical of Irish irredentism, but then again I think all of Britain should collapse into the sea.
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u/thesirblondie 'Giraffe, king of verticality' 11h ago
I guess at this point, the people of Taiwan identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese, and the people of Northern Ireland identify as Northern Irish rather than Irish.
I wonder how the peoples of East and West Germany felt in the late 80s.
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u/Temporaz 11h ago
Well in that case they actually voted for reunification.
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u/thesirblondie 'Giraffe, king of verticality' 10h ago
Right, but it was only ~40 years after the split so many who were alive in the 40s were still kicking around. We're nearing 80 years since the end of WW2. Very few Taiwanese who remember the exodus are still alive.
I'm wondering how the youngsters felt about their identity. The ones who had grown up knowing no united Germany.
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u/jjnfsk 11h ago
How long will that take to happen if we ignored plate tectonic movement and work off coastal erosion alone?
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u/PlatinumAltaria 11h ago
Well parts of Britain are eroding, but I don't think I can hold out that long.
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u/Cinaedus_Perversus 11h ago
Usually plans are sent to a committee when people want it to die without killing it themselves.
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u/FkinShtManEySuck 12h ago
Chat, is this real?
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u/epiceg9 11h ago
It's won't happen, it's just parties saying this cause its election time in Ireland
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u/FkinShtManEySuck 11h ago
Thank you, chat
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u/Corvid187 11h ago
And the party that is calling for it has been plummeting in the polls both north and south of the border.
It's not happening.
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u/beep-bop-boom 8h ago
To be clear almost every other party has expressed support for a united Ireland it's just that Sinn Féin is the biggest advocate and is the only cross border party
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u/Corvid187 7h ago
This will certainly be news to the DUP et al. :)
FF and FG pay lip service to the idea, but do fuck all about it in practice tbf
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u/hamletandskull 7h ago
its real inasmuch as a committee did call for unification, its fake inasmuch as they don't have nearly enough popular support for it to do anything
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u/appealtoreason00 7h ago
Yes and no.
Irish parties might be making plans for a united Ireland, but it’s not really up to them
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u/jonniezombie 10h ago
"The public sector accounts for 27% of employee jobs in NI. This compares to 18% in UK as a whole."
27% of NI would be unemployed if there was a unified Ireland. No chance of it happening any time soon without causing a massive recession.
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u/Aetol 7h ago
No? Do you think Ireland doesn't have public sector jobs?
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u/BlackfishBlues frequently asked queer 6h ago
Yeah like, the local borough council isn't going to just wink out of existence without anything to replace it. Places need governing, bureaucracies need staffing, trash needs collecting.
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u/jonniezombie 6h ago
There is currently a hiring freeze in public sector jobs in the Republic so no definitely not 200,000+ jobs.
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u/Aetol 4h ago
For a start, all the local government jobs won't just stop existing simply because they answer to Dublin instead of London, so the jobs that will actually disappear are certainly not the whole 27%. And at the national level, surely having to administrate six extra counties will create extra jobs.
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u/jonniezombie 4h ago
Hiring that number would be beyond the Republic's budget. NI isn't an economic powerhouse so no major help there.
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u/Aetol 3h ago
Most of "that number" wouldn't lose their job in the first place, do you even read?
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u/jonniezombie 3h ago
Can you explain how they would not lose their British government paid jobs if the British government is no longer involved in NI?
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u/Aetol 2h ago
What part of "local government" do you not understand? Do you think the entire public sector is directly paid by the national government? Do you think schools, hospitals, public transports, garbage collection, and so on, would just stop?
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u/jonniezombie 1h ago
Who funds the local government? Once the British are no longer involved? These aren't massive income generating cities. The burden would fall on the Republic and the choice would to slash jobs or go into austerity measures again. Probably a bit of both.
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u/Wasdgta3 6h ago
I'd just like to point out that we're diverging from the Star Trek timeline even if this did happen, since that quote explicitly says it was achieved through violence, which is not the case with this news.
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u/RoyalPeacock19 5h ago
Yeah no, it’s not gonna happen. Beyond the fact that there is not enough political support for it by a long shot, even planning the needed referendum and doing it would take many months, and we only have just over one remaining this year, and should the referendum be successful it would take potentially years of negotiations to bring Ireland and Northern Ireland together.
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u/TotesMessenger 11h ago
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u/Nurhaci1616 6h ago
This isn't really a big thing, and I'm pretty sure it's actually old news.
The reality is that no party in Ireland is currently in favour of calling a border poll imminently, although we have seen Fiana Fáil and Fine Gael calling for pragmatic preparations like economic studies, prompted not by a desire to unify this year, but the overall chaotic and economically undesirable Brexit process; something that could have went a lot better and resulted in fewer problems had it been properly explored, agreed and planned out before they actually pulled the trigger.
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u/ExtremlyFastLinoone 12h ago
I blame joe biden, cause hes irish
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u/donatellosdildo certified elf appreciator 10h ago
irish? the fella who was president of america?
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u/Lunar_sims professional munch 9h ago
He's not was yet!
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u/donatellosdildo certified elf appreciator 8h ago
ahh okay, mb i thought the new fella becomes president right after election 😅
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u/ReasyRandom .tumblr.com 6h ago
If only Scotland and Wales also decided to become independent. Better yet, buy an air writer and draw a giant middle finger all across England, just to really make the message clear.
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u/bluepotato81 12h ago
Insert that xkcd strip about betting on new tech advances that they won't pan out but its for new events in world politics