@wotermelon_do people outside if the uk really think royal family run the country? Is that the perception like how people think irish are aggressive drunks or americans are all fat?
@@J-VasaDo people inside the UK really think the EU runs any country? No of course not, neither Charles or the EU run any country directly so the comparison is apt.
It doesn't matter much either way for NI, considering the Windsor framework and that pretty much everyone born in the North to British/Irish parents can get an Irish passport
@@bretonneux3389 NI only remains in the Single Market for goods, not Services, and NI is not in the Customs Union. It also lost its EU funding by UK not being in the EU.
Irishman here, I just wanted to say I came to this video expecting a slightly biased British perspective on this matter and I'm Pleasantly surprised that this wasn't the case. Very well researched and balanced. Well done TLDR
Why should there be a unification when Northern Ireland has been under UK control for over 400 years? US isn’t even 300 years old to put this in perspective for you
@@danielwebb8402 At this present time Northern Ireland trades more with the occupiers but in the near future, when they Re-Unify, ( the "Re" being the important word), greater freedoms, prosperity and easier trade will usher in a better future for the Irish people.
@@danielwebb8402Since Brexit, NI is increasingly trading more with the republic than Great Britain (UK), whether this would continue depends on if the UK wishes to align itself more with Ireland and the EU. Plus what products can a 60 million country have that a 450 million trade block can’t? A lot of NI trade is based on politics, businesses operating UK-wide, but once that changes they’ll adapt quickly.
@@freneticness6927 While simultaneously being easier to import from the actual island of Ireland (if you can technically import from your own home state) and the EU, along with the hundreds of trade agreements the EU has with other countries.
As an Irish fella who gets very annoyed at inaccuracies, mistakes, and oversimplifications in relation to NI and reunification - I have to say, you did a great job here imo. Very objective and fact driven. No glossing over atrocities and no sugar coating. Great content, cheers.
Activities like IRA assassinations and bombings you mean? Like not accepting that Northern Ireland didn’t want to be part of the Republic and trying to force it on them?
@@oliversherman2414in the sense that Ireland was always meant to be free of British rule and to this day we still hope for that day to come. For example the Israelis think killing Palestinians is the way to claim back their land while any actions against them is terrorism while Ireland have come to the conclusion that if Ireland is to become one again it must be through the northern Irish wanting it themselves. It’s very enlightened of us I must say.
0:24 Fun fact, because of that line, this particular TNG episode was banned in the UK at the time. This was before the Good Friday Agreement, of course.
They also banned/cut an episode of the simpsons that not many people know about. In it a british place with british flags blows up and Homer celebrates with Irish people in a drunken haze, its during a St patricks day part.
but its wrong at a vital point ...the IRA was formed when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by Brit Army .They were marching for human rights and equaly opportunity in their own country.
I saw young people in NI claim their Irish EU passport after Brexit. One girl said her grandfather had fought on the side of the Union during the troubles but she had grown up under the GFA so didn’t have the same views. I wonder how many people in NI also now have an Irish EU passport and see themselves as Irish? If the people don’t view themselves as British then that will end the Union
I know quite a few that got the Irish passport at the time of Brexit to have more unrestricted travel freedoms. I imagine a diehard loyalist would never do so.
Born in England here and moved to N ireland. I want unification. This is how most immigrant English feel now because they didn't grow up in the troubles. Most people agree tho that economically it would be bad, however with the uk economy going up in smoke that attitude is changing
@@JamesHardaker Agreed, but I think most are just being cautious, economically I think it would be amazing for the north. Ireland and the EU would have no choice but try and make the north the biggest success story on the planet. I think overnight you would see money flow in from the USA/EU, places like google opening up satelite offices in belfast because its so cheap. Its so easy to get to from Dublin that Belfast could just poach half the business in Dublin, hell if they pushed for it hard they could get half the govt of Ireland to move up there. They could easily host the department of eudcation, agriculture. How many US companies would want to have their name aligned with a unified Ireland? Unionists have the land up there, instead of an Northern Ireland amazon site they could get an island of ireland amazon site, have belfast airport handle the air cargo cheaper than Dublin can.. etc etc.
Having an Irish passport and seeing yourself as Irish are two very different things. If you are entitled to an Irish passport then you might as well apply for one and get all the benefits of EU citizenship, regardless of how you identify. People applying for Irish passports after Brexit did so pragmatically, not because of any feeling of Irish identity.
@wotermelon_ I don't hate the Irish. And they're not better than anybody. But reuniting Ireland back into the UK would be far better for both the UK and Ireland. At the moment, Ireland is not doing well, neither is Britain. Together they would do much better. The UK should then rejoin the EU afterwards.
@@filipe5722 Well, there are relatively recent examples for both directions. Germany 1990 went pretty smoothly, all things considered - Catalonia on the other hand... well... So, let's hope.
Thank you for pointing out that the troubles began as a civil rights issue for Catholics and not a fight for reunification. This is a fact that even the Irish get wrong.
I would recommend putting the "earlier" columns on the left and the "later" column to the right in your comparisons of Census and polling results. Butting 2021 first then 2011 second looks wonky in a left-to-right language like English.
Linguistically this comment is right. If it were an Arabic graph, perhaps it would be appropriate, but in this order the graphs are simply more confusing
@@firstname4865Ireland has one of the highest gdp per capita rates in the world. Also Ireland isn’t one of the countries with the most national debt, uk has more.
Only 4 of the counties in N. Ireland had loyalist majorities. The 2 that didn't were added because the British thought N. Ireland would be otherwise too small.
@rob "Only 4 of the counties in N. Ireland had loyalist majorities"? Now it's down to two, Down and Antrim. While Belfast is now a Catholic/Nationalist/Republican(CNR) majority city....
@@oneroomboy yes, they gave back those counties but two others should have also been given back but weren't. The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster: four counties with unionist majorities - Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Derry/Londonderry - and two counties with slight Irish nationalist majorities - Fermanagh and Tyrone.
@@oneroomboy Fermanagh and Tyrone also had Catholic majorities. Nationalists in these counties couldn't believe they were thrown in to make Northern Ireland viable.
The U.K. parliament has lots of Scottish nationalists in it, the local parliament in Northern Ireland are now run by an Irish party and England doesn’t even have a national parliament. I mean, can it get anymore ridiculous.
Sinn Féin are the largest party but they definitely aren’t ‘running the local parliament’. The NI Executive (which is what I’m guessing you meant) is formed through mandatory coalition, so currently it’s run by Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, and the UUP.
England has no national parliament because the Tories are dead set against devolution of any sort. They refused to allow regional assemblies: the nearest we have is regional mayors based in a few of the largest cities. That's because they want decision making to stay in London, where the money is. If there was an English Assembly in the middle of the country it would be in Coventry.
We tried that in Scotland in 2014 but the British government, civil service and MI5 all worked illegally to make sure it wasn’t a fair or legal ballot. Also helps when all media is London owned and controlled from there. England loves its colonies!
Fermanagh and Tyrone had clear Catholic majorities at the time of partition. Armagh and Derry were almost 50/50. Down and Antrim had clear protestant majorities. Today, Antrim and Down are still majority protestant and still mostly unionist (with the exception of Belfast).
@@thomasoflaherty3520 Catholics I work with and know said they wouldn't vote because it was alot cheaper and less hassle they said with the amount of paper work that would be required would kill most of their small businesses
In a poll conducted in 2022 and published by the times newspaper, 21% of catholics in Northern Ireland said they would vote to stay in the union, 55% would vote for reunification, 3% were undecided and 21% replied don't know.
What truly Needs to be in the Heads and Hearts of the Irish..is simply this in a Republic minority rights ARE protected.. in a Democracy you vote daily if they are under protection.. Example ,you have one sheep and two Wolves. And they get to vote what's for dinner. But in a Republic minority rights are protected. I'm of Irish Decent and Love Ireland..
I'm an Irish Republican, an activist, in my final year of my history degree that has focused very heavily on this and here's my view - read to the end before leaving a hate comment and check the sources. Although it seems "inevitable" that we'll reunify, the current parties in government don't really want it. The people in the Republic do - many polls have shown that and recent polls in the North have too (by slim majority) - but no concrete steps have been taken nor will be taken by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, or any parties allied to them as they are too aligned with the UK. They also say it's not "profitable" which is true in its current state but the economic situation is more complicated than that, too much so for a RUclips comment. The biggest hurdle is the history that haunts the North today which has not been dealt with at all. The "peace" was essentially a ceasefire before a referendum that never came, not a real peace. The walls that divide neighbourhoods are still up, the cross-community initiatives stopped when the DUP took power, and the DUP are essentially a British supremacist organisation that promotes hatred. They funnelled money into the bonfires on July 12 last year where they burned effigies of Irish people, many of whom died during the conflict or are peace activists. Not all people who identify with Britain support the DUP of course, but too many people do for reunification to be a smooth and peaceful process. The only way to overcome this is to teach history as it happened and to call a spade a spade, but any time you try and discuss how the conflict really started or how partition really happened you are immediately called sectarian, an extremist, and in regards to partition some republicans say you're actually a Brit because you're questioning the nationalist myth. Let me be very clear: the conflict in the north known to some as The Troubles would not have started without 3 things: continued British colonisation/occupation, the imposition of Unionist rule at the expense of Irish communities (who did not have the right to vote or equal opportunities to jobs and housing), and violence from both police AND the general unionist communities. These are difficult ugly facts we need to face. In 1968 civil rights marches were attacked by loyalist mobs on a regular basis which resulted in Sinn Féin stewards holding hurls (a sort of hockey stick) - and ALL of the people holding these hurls went on to hold guns at said marches by 1969 and then formed the Provisional IRA (split from the Official IRA). The conflict could have stopped at various points with different concessions from both sides and is a far more complicated matter but that is why it started. Both the UUP and DUP were hateful organisations that treated the Irish as subhuman throughout nearly all of the conflict. The DUP still paint Irish people as subhuman in many circumstances. Until people learn about this, until the wounds of the past are healed, until we allow space to discuss this without screaming "SECTARIAN!", and until the communities realise that both Sinn Féin and the DUP are fucking them over and don't have their best interests at heart - then reunification cannot happen. Maybe the border will fully disappear but there will still be two communities with deep divisions and a rise in Unionist paramilitaries. I don't care if we're one state and two peoples who hate each other - that's not unity. If you want to learn more I'll leave the three most accessible sources on the start of the conflict: The Provisional IRA - Patrick Bishop and Eamon Mallie The Lost Revolution - Brian Hanley and Scott Millar A Broad Church parts 1 and 2 - Gearóid Ó Faoleán
Great post that I think sums up the whole situation very well. What I would add is that even if reunified what is now Northern Ireland, I think, would still have to have quite a bit of devolved power to try and persuade those either not in favour of, or skeptical of unification to try and make it work. Otherwise you'd just see increased violence only that it would be for Ireland to deal with not the UK, and I'm not sure the leaders in Dublin really want this to happen. I'm still very skeptical that any British Prime Minister will ever agree to their being a border poll in NI, even if there's a majority in polls for unification. I think there'll always be an excuse for not holding one.
It's been over 30 years since german reunification and while some things have improved the differences and problems definitely still exist. Things like this are never easy or clear-cut.
"continued British colonisation / occupation" - the difficult "ugly" facts you need to face are the history of the world is the history of different tribes fighting over territory. The Irish were more than happy to raid England and Wales for slaves and colonise Scotland way back when. According to the rules of human history then the Ulstermen won that land fair and square and they had every right to refuse to be ruled by a different people from the south. England's been colonised three times, we haven't constructed an epic victim complex out of it. While Protestant fanatics did indeed start the Troubles, no one did more to engender hate than the IRA and its terror campaign which killed and maimed the majority of casualties in that conflict, including many of their own people. It could all have been wrapped up if the gloves had properly been taken off the British army and the SAS in particular. Personally I am interested in the theory that MI5 deliberately kept the conflict going for their own ends and perhaps the ends of certain financial interests in the British Establishment at a time of economic strife in Britain. Irish republicans spend all day every day on the internet painting the British as being the most evil people in human history regurgitating the most extreme lies about British history and spreading them around the world. Despite the fact that it was the British state which forced the Loyalists to accept legal equality and despite the fact that millions of Irish have emigrated to Britain and made good lives there. Despite the fact the British Establishment knew back in 1918 that it could not fight hard to hold onto Ireland because it didn't have the support of the British public (Churchill once said "I could defend the British empire against anyone except the British public") - the same British public which organised one of the world's first relief efforts during the famine and yet whose descendants today are painted as being the inheritors of a deliberate "genocide". Ireland has only ever been unified under the British and so it's most likely that if unification is forced, it will turn out to be a farce not just due to loyalist intransigence but also because of the extreme demographic changes taking place in Ireland (and Britain) due to mass immigration foisted on the native people and because the economic model that Ireland (and Britain) are following - allowing our countries to be parasitised by multinational corporations and banks - is about to run its course. I personally think British and Irish people are better off confronting the international forces ranged against them plus the traitors in their midst and putting away these historical grievances. Having visited NI and seen how both sides could start a fight in an empty room, I propose that we make them a third country, buy some popcorn and sit back and watch them deal with it between them.
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rpYou’re offensively ill informed. Visiting NI doesn’t give you any special insight. And your precious SAS were operating in NI. The woolly notion that the British army could’ve sorted it out if they were let might keep you warm at night but short of a genocide, they were never going to achieve what you seem to think they could.
It's interesting that after the war counties Tyrone and fermanagh want to join the Republic but Britain kept them as they feared the block would be too small to become viable
Unionist greed a century ago led to their shooting their descendants in the foot. The historic province of Ulster had nine counties, four of which had a Protestant majority. Putting six counties into Northern Ireland meant there was a substantial Catholic minority. Fermanagh and Tyrone had mainly Protestant landowners and mainly Catholic labourers. A bit like the old East Prussia with its Protestant Junkers? They minimised the effect of the Catholic numbers by gerrymandering. NI had extra votes for owning another house and for owning a business for decades after those privileges were abolished in Great Britain. Those rules have gone now in NI too. The rich in NI were mostly Protestant so they had most of the extra votes.
@@robert6106 I would be surprised if the majority of the poor in a Catholic-majority county of Northern Ireland were Protestant, considering that the main reason for holding onto it was their Protestant landowners.
What is most important if there is to be a united ireland, us that you need to tear up "them joining us & us joing them" and the whole politucal structure hasbto be changed to a United Ireland not "north joining republic". This state must ensure that it is inclusive of all residents, including protestants.
5% of the Republics population is Protestant, have you ever heard any of them complaining about exclusion? The sectarian divide isn't a thing in the rest of Ireland.
There are 7 million people on the island of Ireland, 6 million identify as Irish that's 85% of the people on the island and that figure is increasing annually....Ireland is heading towards unification and there is little anyone Unionist or otherwise can do about it.
No! Irish people are for the most part politically moderate, there are a few head bangers around but they are confined to the fringes and their dangerous narrative only available on social media. In a United Ireland those British Unionists will be respected and involved but after a generation or two it is likely that they will be absorbed in the general Irish population.@@lighting7508
They do have peace and prosperity, pushing for something that basically only politicians want is going to end that peace. I'll guess you don't live here and just took some guys video as basis for your comment.
@@Lolp821 Literally "I hope it's all done peacefully" nice sentiment but what is that supposed to mean and how does it relate? Speaking as if we are still living through the troubles 😂 People will hardly be out on the street shooting each other when NI is united with the South, it'll just happen, some people will be very happy, some people will be very angry and upset, for the most part, that will be that. I swear, it's mostly Americans that talk as if we're still in the troubles.
Tyrone and Fermanagh had Catholic majorities from the start in 1920. Now Armagh and Derry also have Catholic majorities. So 4 out of the 6 counties of NI have a Catholic majority, 7/9 Ulster counties and 30/32 counties on the island of Ireland have Catholic/Nationalist majorities.
Many English people do not know that Ireland (the Republic) is actually politically separate from the UK....I know an English guy who could not understand why Ireland had not got a day off for the late Queens funeral!.
In a twist of Irony Northern Ireland now has a more Celtic population than Ireland kek. Dublinistan is Germanic (Scandinavian) and it shows, that's why it's a parody of londonistan. Anywhere vikings touch town and influenced are turning into the middle east
That’s not how it works. Let’s say even 75% of the Irish vote to unify… that’s 25% of the country who just had their country democratically voted out of existence. There’s zero chance that doesn’t lead to violence and it’s a pretty huge ethical question if you can just vote countries out of existence to begin with. Referendums are effectively just mob rule. Who has the most boots in the ground. Direct democracy like that in reality just leads to tribalism like the Brexit debacle. An Irish referendum is a childish solution to a complicated problem. If an Irishman wants to live in Ireland he can already do that without needing to culturally erase a country.
@@spoonkus5893The Unionists gave up that right when they chose to blindly support a Brexit referendum without knowing what that meant, and then begging an ambivalent Tory party to do something much too late to ineffectively change anything. Holding government up indefinitely doomed the Unionists, and there’s no changing the trends. Happy St Patty’s Day, btw.
@@davidpeterson5647 They gave up the right to have cultural autonomy when they voted in a referendum to get more cultural autonomy? Do you ever actually think or do the words just tumble out of your mouth wtf?
From a British point of view I've always assumed it would. Should never have been divided and of course there should be a united Ireland. It's best for the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
A key consideration is demographics. A majority of those under 45's want unity while over 70% of OAPs identify as unionists. Unionists are dying (due to old age) at a far higher rate than nationalists. They are replaced as voters by those turning 18 - who tend to support reunification. In 20 years, support for reunification would be overwhelming (everything else being equal), however, the point at which a majority would support reunification (in principle) is likely to be reached during the coming decade.
I don't think it will happen for a long time, if ever. NI joining the Republic is so complicated. Does NI stay devolved but in the Republic? What do you do about all the angry unionists that may be a minority but still a minority that refuse to be Irish? Even getting to a referendum would require probably many years of 60% plus saying in opinion polls they want to join the Republic. And the centrist, not strongly republican or loyalist, type of person has reason to fear the turmoil of leaving the UK and joining the RoI which makes them er toward staying in the UK.
50%+1, that's what the treaty says. Turmoil? It's been nothing but turmoil for 100 years because it was designed as a apartheid sectarian statelet. They'll actually have stability for a change when it's run like a normal country again.
Absolutely agree and for some reason people are overlooking that very very key point... Theres a lot of people living in the north that dont want to be part of the Republic..Doesnt matter why...Thats irrelivant !!! What are you going to do.. Tell them your no longer a british citizen ? Or better yet ask them to leave and move to England ?? !!! Dont think so...
False. The GFA is very clear on the threshold, which is a majority. So 50+1. It’s Happening, it’s happening soon, and anyone who thinks otherwise has their head in the sand. In from a unionist background but my wife’s from south as are most of our friends. I don’t fear it, plus f*ck it, means my £40k student loan won’t be paid. By me at least. Edit: Petrokemikal. The situation you described as being unlikely already happened when the North was partitioned. Catholics were told if you don’t like it move South.
The situation you describe between catholics been told to leave is somthing akin to walking around a building site in the 70s with no hard hat and no boots.. That wont work in todays culture..Those days are gone Mate..@@JayM-wg7dd
It's worth noting that while the signing of the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921 created the Irish Free-State, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 had already split Ireland into two separate territories.
Indeed. But the 1921 Anglo Irish Treaty was for the whole island, North and South of the border. However, NI opted out, as it was entitled to do under the treaty.
I think, had the Government of Ireland Act 1920 been passed in 1912 all of Ireland would still be in the UK. But the Loyalists were too stubborn about home rule, which pushed the rest of the island towards independence.
It would perhaps have remained in the UK for perhaps a few decades more but ultimately Ireland would have gone it's own way.@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125
@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125 "the Loyalists were too stubborn about home rule" And who'd have thought over 110 years later and THAT would still be the main f'ing problem!
That wouldn't work unfortunately, however you'll likely get lots of Protestant/unionist/loyalists that left britain centuries ago going back your direction.
If you are a UK citizen, we have always been able to live, work and study within the Republic of Ireland. If you stay there for 5 years you can apply for Irish citizenship.
One last point, SF didn’t increase their vote numbers by any significant margin to claim top spot. The DUP voters stayed home in protest of their handling of the Brexit negotiations. They were down over 60,000 votes; more than enough to leapfrog SF. The issue is that their base is pro-Brexit, but the party funders are pro-EU, leading the party to be very quiet during negotiations. Most DUP voters I know "hold their nose" while voting, just as long as the party "do, as best they can, to protect [their] place in the Union."
@miakeogh6844 could you be more specific, please? What do you mean by the "English"? What do you mean by "could not care less"? I lived in England for 6 years in various places, both North and South, and never met anyone that wished to see Northern Ireland removed from the Union against its will. In fact, whenever the subject came up, a lot of the English were very passionate about making sure we had the right to stay. Thirdly, what does this have to do with my point?
@@gabealtf As an American, I can kind of understand what the opening comment was saying with regard to a region being a headache in a way that counters the whole fighting over it issue. We in the United States have been trying to give Puerto Rico independence for years (it currently sits in a become state, become independent or status quo). If Puerto Rico had an armed revolt for independence, we'd fight those people over that. However, if they voted to leave us we'd probably have a sigh of relief. The UK seems to want to dump NI in the way we want to dump PR. For you, NI is part of the UK despite the UK giving them plenty of referendums to leave. For us, PR keeps wanting to join as an official state even though we give them every chance for an out. So yeah, I can understand what they mean.
They thought they still had the commonwealth and that counted for something. The commonwealth is a fantasy most countries are who they are as a country now, not based on who their settlers were. They have moved far away from that in time and space.
Just FYI, That's not where Dublin is. Also, the Republic government is required to provide funding and work cross border. So the A5 money isn't us trying to bring a poll closer.
Just to troll :D because people always pull this to the Palestinians "Why don't the neighbouring countries take them as refugees" But seriously, why don't those who identify as British come back to the main island or go to Scotland.
Thinking Irish Unity is "inevitable" is the most dangerous attitude that an Irish Nationalist can take. Irish Unity is not going to just drop in your lap.
Great to see a well informed and objective piece of journalism which for a British media outlet is refreshing and new. Pity about some of the comments tho...
Funny how the English populace are never asked if they want NI to continue to be part of the UK. As someone born in England I would be very happy to see unification with Ireland.
Why would the English populace get a say on the future political status of Northern Ireland? The role of the English populace has already been defined, cough up £13bn per annum to keep Northern Ireland afloat. If you want a bigger say, then that will obviously come with a higher price tag.
@@IrishSon"Why would the English populace get a say on the future political status of Northern Ireland?" Give them a break. They're English. They can't help it. 😔😉🤣
@@sigmascrublol, English have a superiority complex and can’t help themselves. They need to fall very far before they wake up and realise their ignorance
For the love of God if the Gallagher brothers can get back together (for now) surely Ireland can. It's not like the British army is going to invade you these days.. you just have to want it.
what does Northern Ireland have to gain by being with the UK at this point? the UK is in the middle of a recession AND a cost of living crisis, helmed by a hilariously incompetent conservative government. if they join with Ireland, they'll at least get their EU membership back
What does it have to gain? the question should what does it have to lose, and it can lose so so much. Currently the UK government puts millions/billions into NI, which is why you see it is a much better position in terms of government funding compared to the rest of the UK. This includes road work, includes funding for police and hospitals as well. Furthermore NI is unique in that it attains its education system primarily through grammer and state schools, which are significantly cheaper than the GB system, where grammer schools are dying, and this has worked in there favour as usually non-private/public schools perform best in NI. With all the situations the UK has, NI would experience it worse within a united Ireland for the moment as the south has a significantly worse housing crisis, and cost of living, such as in Dublin is far and beyond that of most cities in GB. Economic reasons are enough for some people to support remaining, giving NI is a cash-cow system country within the UK. Once it crosses over, economically things will get worse. If it does get unified, there will be a process of an intermediate period to adjust to the changes, similar to HK's transfer from the UK to China in 1997. Even though Ireland is in the EU, I welcome you to ask the people on their economic situation and how they feel independent of whether they are in the EU or not. It is worse there than the UK!
@@Teag_Brohman15 I'm neither unionist or a republican. I'm an ethnic minority born in Belfast. What I say is what I have experienced being in Dublin, it is an incredibly expensive place to live and economically I do feel it will be worse as NI receives a huge amount from the UK government (which is probably unfair given its only populated with 2 million people max). I'm sure if it unifies with ROI, everything will increase in price especially property and health care won't be public anymore. This is my take as an observation. I do believe people complain more financially in Dublin than Belfast. Note I'm not using this as a reason to justify it should not unify its notnmy part or place to say. I'm simply responding to your question on what benefit NI has in terms of staying.
@@Teag_Brohman15 - Gives a valid and fair response. -"You're a Unionist aren't you?" Unironically shut up kid, just because you don't like what he had to say doesn't mean you can just throw it all under the bus. I live in Northern Ireland and I am so sick of random people throughout the world shouting about reunification like its as simple as getting 51% of a vote or something. These are valid concerns that MUST be addressed or the whole thing will come crumbling down. And before you ask; no, I'm not a Unionist. I voted Alliance, my dad is from here and my mum is English, so I am about as 50/50 split as you can get. All I care about is what's best for my country, in whatever form that takes.
The other main thing that changed, is that for the first time again, the Republic of Ireland has become the bigger union, as it part of the EU, and the richer country. Heck, there is even immigration from other UK parts to Dublin, mostly based on economic factors. While Scotish independence has become a little less likely in recent months again, the UK is still in a process of shooting itself repeatedly in the foot, and not even just with Brexit related policies, and threatening to tear itself apart. In comparison the Republic of Ireland has become much more stable and pluralist in comparison to the past, removing also fears of negative consequences of a reunification. There are still extreme positions on this in significant parts of the population on both ends of course. At the moment an outright flip for reunification without any issues by 2030 seems a bit ambitious, but unless the UK, and let's be honest that mostly means England in this context, changes course significantly, it seems eventually inevitable. Then again, I don't think even most people in England think things can continue the way they have gone, as polls also clearly show. Maybe we are going to see the Tories disappear first, or even EU rejoining, at which point the exact details of whether NI is or isn't part of the Republic of Ireland would matter much less again, and it would be less of a priority as well.
@@gothicgolem2947huh? There are sections of gdp? The only thing that matters when it comes to gdp is the amount per capita ppp, and the ginincoefficient. You will find numerous countries that leave the UK (far) behind, Ireland especially.
I wouldnt say ROI is the bigger union, the uk is still one of the richest countries in the world and thats not gonna change any time. I highly doubt northen ireland will join ROI it will cost ROI i imagine taxes would go up, some have even est that it would cost the goverment €6.7 billion to €15.7 billion annually.
Ireland is not as rich as it seems, I moved here last year and the infrastructure is shockingly bad, no metro in Dublin, very little rail service, complete over reliance on buses. Rent is insane, and people here have a lower quality of life than people in many other EU countries
As I commented in another place I believe that if the UK and USA provided serious funding for say 10years after unification, I believe the Unionists could be brought to the table to negotiate a new Ireland which protected their interests.
It wasn't. Or, if it was, someone didn't get the memo. I watched it in 1987 in England I recall it distinctly because I thought it probably a good idea at the time.
I got the chance to visit Northern Ireland (and also the Republic of Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland) about 15 years ago, and the sense I got from people was that the status quo was fine, much better than the violence of the Troubles, and while some people wanted reunification and some wanted to stay part of the UK, the sentiment was very much that making that decision should be a peaceful and democratic choice. Brexit threw a wrench into things, because when the UK was in the EU, travelling between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was quite easy, they were different nations, but they were part of the same union and as a result, the different administrations wasn't honestly a huge deal. There was a lot of concern that brexit would cause a lot of problems at the RI/NI border, and it seems they've managed to handle that situation reasonably well so far, while there may be problems there, none of them have been so severe that the news made it to an outsider like myself. My read on the situation is that Northern Ireland would be better off with reunification and being part of the EU than continuing with the UK post brexit, but the difference isn't so huge as to be worth creating or escalating tensions. I think as long as the UK honors its commitment to letting the people of Northern Ireland decide, Ireland will eventually reunify, which will be a good thing. In the meantime, Northern Ireland appears to be doing ok as part of the UK, they are not facing the oppression of times passed, so until a majority wants to reunify, things as they are are fine enough.
Missed out on the very important point that when you take the over 65 voters out of the polling data there is overwhelming support for a UI. The 18-30 vote is overwhelmingly in favour of a UI. This suggest a trend as older voters pass away and younger people become eligible to vote then in 5-10 years there will be a significant swing and growing momentum for a UI
@@Kobe-s2i this isn’t true. Hospital care is free. There is a charge to visit a gp which is subsidised for those who cannot afford it. Free education, no rates (which are going up in Ni), basically all social and economic outcomes are better for a kid in Louth as opposed to a kid in Armagh, unfortunately
I am a Brexit supporter. I don’t see a United Ireland happening soon being honest. I don’t think the majority in the North would vote for a United Ireland,and the biggest reason is the NHS as there isn’t one in the Republic. As for the Northern Ireland protocol I think in all honesty it is probably as good as it will get,and the Windsor Framework I think has made the protocol more palatable and was a good piece of work by Rishi Sunak. I think the United Kingdom will remain intact with little or no change. And the U.K. will not rejoin the EU.
@ From what I have read it is not the best health service but again only from what I have read,and absolutely correct our NHS is in difficulty and not particularly great.Though it can be said many public health services aren’t particularly good either.
Well we have ( or had) 3 leaders from the sub continent who seen very keen to break up the UK. Revenge for partition ? Having been to India a few times I got to know that people of a certain age pass down the stories of partition and not from a positive view point
Just a production critique: your bar graphs aren't intuitive. You're talking about increases, but the dates read from right to left. I think having 2011 on thr left and 2021 on the right makes more sense when you're talking about increases or decreases over time.
If we did this now we’d probably be one of the poorest nations with some of the worst infrastructure in all of Europe. ATP I’m convinced half the reason thatcher and the Tory’s don’t develop the north is because it means they can continue to fuck us over knowing that we can’t do anything about it.
I lived in Geordieland for a few years so all power to your elbow. I come from the land of the Angles but we don’t want to be part of anything that includes Norfolk
I just want a prosperous & safe country for my children to grown up in. If that means a reunification of Ireland then I'm all for it. I've never see Northern Ireland as ‘poor’ as it is right now
The state of Northern Ireland is not Irelands problem, it is Westminsters problem. Unification will not fix Northern Ireland. For Ireland, unification with Northern Ireland is neither inevitable nor necessary. It is not something that I would vote for. Better to build a wall and give the DUP the Brexit they want.
Unification with the republic is the answer, but I would give it another decade. The republic does not have the levels of absolute poverty that the UK has a the present time. People in the republic live longer than NI people, which is probably the best measurement of a prosperous society.
@@taintabird23 a decade? 😂😂😂 For the Irish Government unification isn’t even on the radar. Why would Ireland risk stability for unification with a region where there is a significant portion of the population that hates us? Why stir the pot? Leave them be. Let them sort out their own problems. We have enough problems that our Government needs to focus on, namely housing and health. Northern Ireland has never been a part of our country and I don’t see any reason why that should change.
This video was OK as far as it went...but it didn't go far enough. What I'd like to know more about are the underlying economic, social and cultural drivers of the changes discussed.
Hopefully Ireland and Northern Ireland will someday unite but I don't think much of the idea that a political entity should drastically change its status because on a particular day 51% of the people who turned out and voted said that they wanted drastic change. When change is going to be complicated, expensive, wrenching and very difficult to reverse one should have a solid majority voting for that change - 60% or at least 55% - not 51% or 50% plus one vote meaning that if another vote was held a few days later the results might very well be reversed. Brexit was an example in which it was absurd to go ahead with it and turn everything upside down and cause chaos based on a tiny majority yes vote which was so close that by the time Brexit was implemented enough yes voters had died off that they had become a minority. Another example is the Quebec independence referendum of the 1990s in which by a couple of percentage points Quebec residents voted against independence or sovereignty association or the right of the Quebec government to try to negotiate sovereignty association with Canada (whatever that means). If the Quebec vote had changed by a couple of percentage points then based on a tiny percentage majority Quebec might have separated, a result that might have been reversed if another vote had been held the week before or the week after. One thing that concerned people who wanted Quebec to stay in Canada was that the 1990s referendum was the second Quebec referendum on independence and they wondered if pro-separation Quebec politicians would just keep holding referendums until they got the result they wanted and then they would ignore all the referendums in which they lost and demand the right for Quebec to separate. What if over time there are three straight referendums in which the voters of Northern Ireland reject joining Ireland and then in a 4th referendum 51% of the voters of Northern Ireland vote to join Ireland. Is that enough of a mandate to make such a major change?
What doesn't get a mention is the growing animosity toward the UK by the English themselves. England isn't united; there's a clear north/south divide that has been an issue for many generations.
@@Carl-hs420athe dirty secret is the south has been shafted by Westminster too! Only the rich southerners are thriving most of us normal people can’t afford to do anything in the south. Tell your average homeless southerner about the “north-south divide”. Mind you it definitely exists, I’m just saying that as a people we should unite on class rather than region.
I'm not Irish or European but I do hope they reunify! Just like Korea or Cyprus. I just hope people can live in peace together as in these cases they were all separated due to idiology/religion.
Don't assume reunification will bring peace. Things are as peaceful over there now as they have been. For all the slightly warmer words from SF towards the Loyalists in recent years, reunification could very easily kick the Troubles off again. And I doubt the Garda will cope. But at least the British Army won't be going back in to crank up the tension.
Re unify would imply they were united previously and that was never the case. The reason NI is in the state it's in is cause it chose to be part of the UK 🇬🇧. People should really do there history and get it from unbiased sources. If they unite it will be a new unification and a new Ireland 🇮🇪. That will come with new requests from the North that might be a bitter pill for the republic to swallow. Also I agree with the previous comment, just cause they unity doesn't mean it will be peaceful. This will be a watch and wait moment.
@@hey12542 wow you mentioning people should really do their history and get it from unbiased sources is ironic. Ireland was majority Catholic and united before protestant settlers from Scotland and England were planted in the northeastern part of the island to bolster the authority of the English Crown. Ireland was united before being part of the UK. I can say the same comment as you that people should really do their research before commenting on subjects. You and the previous comment agreeing/saying to don't assume peace with reunification, when did I assume it? If something I clearly said I just *hope* they could reunify and live peacefully. Not affirming, just hoping. Not really following how a comment wishing the wellbeing and peace for both united ended with these response but whatever floats your boat.
You sound extremely ignorant. Who are you to tell the northern Irish people what would bring them peace? Only they can decide. Right now they want to be in the UK if that changes we have an agreement to fulfil their wishes.
This is a very one sided post obviously you haven't got a clue about the Irish side of things and forget the Irish were here first. The biggest act of war was carried out by the UVF/DUP where they bombed Dublin/Monaghan 1974 and killed 36 maimed 300+. If you educate yourself about Irish history this would be a better. As for a reunification of Ireland since Brexit that has become more of an issue now.
Thanks to the DUP for doing more for Irish unity than 100 years of armed insurgency
@wotermelon_oh no! I have to print one of the best currencies ever and have strong diplomatic relations with my neighbors! The tyranny!
@wotermelon_ Lick=Licking. der.
There homophobia doesn't help them either. @wotermelon_
@wotermelon_do people outside if the uk really think royal family run the country? Is that the perception like how people think irish are aggressive drunks or americans are all fat?
@@J-VasaDo people inside the UK really think the EU runs any country? No of course not, neither Charles or the EU run any country directly so the comparison is apt.
One question, if Northern Ireland unifies with the Republic of Ireland, does that mean Northern Ireland is automatically in the EU?
Yes, it will become part of Ireland as just another 6 counties
Yes. Assuming they join Ireland. Happened with Germany as well.
yes. Although technically, Northern Ireland already enjoys all the benefits of being in the EU thanks to Sunak's Windsor deal
It doesn't matter much either way for NI, considering the Windsor framework and that pretty much everyone born in the North to British/Irish parents can get an Irish passport
@@bretonneux3389 NI only remains in the Single Market for goods, not Services, and NI is not in the Customs Union. It also lost its EU funding by UK not being in the EU.
An epsiode of Star Trek the BBC were so scared of they banned the whole episode from being aired at the time of release.
Because in Star Trek it is explicitly said it was reunified by terrorism?
@@tombee9785 Boo Hoo, you can't opress people without them getting mad. I feel so sorry for poor little Britain.
@@wta1518LARRRRRPPPP
@@wta1518larping
@@wta1518LARPPPP
Irishman here, I just wanted to say I came to this video expecting a slightly biased British perspective on this matter and I'm Pleasantly surprised that this wasn't the case. Very well researched and balanced. Well done TLDR
Be as biased as you want the pro-British side is led by a "historic sex offender"
I want to share this sentiment - this was surprisingly well done from a British presenter
I think you’ll find that English people by and large are either ambivalent towards unification or are in favour of it.
Why should there be a unification when Northern Ireland has been under UK control for over 400 years? US isn’t even 300 years old to put this in perspective for you
@BigRed2 because a large proportion of population want unification. We call that democracy.
Ali G: _Is you Irish?_
Sammy Wilson: No I'm British!
Ali G: _So is you here on holiday?_
That episode was hilarious 😂
😂😂gold
@@Irishman0855 Gonna be gold when all the Ali's run Ireland and the UK . You will laugh and laugh .
THIS WAS ABSOLUTE COMEDY GOLD!?!
@@parabot2 who put a euro in you?
Anyone who says Brexit didn’t help anyone never spoke to Sinn Fein 🇮🇪 😂
Absolutely bang on! 😂😂
I am wondering how radical unionists would handle an Irish reunification
Maybe the weak Irish state doesn't mind Brussels telling them how to run their country, but the UK chose sovreignty
@@t.c.4321😂😂😂
@@t.c.4321And how's that going for us
It certainly would make Brexit related customs deals a lot easier
But Northern Ireland trades multiples more with the rest of the UK than it does with EU. So this trade woukd become.... a lot harder?
@@danielwebb8402 At this present time Northern Ireland trades more with the occupiers but in the near future, when they Re-Unify, ( the "Re" being the important word), greater freedoms, prosperity and easier trade will usher in a better future for the Irish people.
@@danielwebb8402Since Brexit, NI is increasingly trading more with the republic than Great Britain (UK), whether this would continue depends on if the UK wishes to align itself more with Ireland and the EU. Plus what products can a 60 million country have that a 450 million trade block can’t? A lot of NI trade is based on politics, businesses operating UK-wide, but once that changes they’ll adapt quickly.
It really wouldnt as it would become actually more difficult to import stuff from britain.
@@freneticness6927 While simultaneously being easier to import from the actual island of Ireland (if you can technically import from your own home state) and the EU, along with the hundreds of trade agreements the EU has with other countries.
As an Irish fella who gets very annoyed at inaccuracies, mistakes, and oversimplifications in relation to NI and reunification - I have to say, you did a great job here imo.
Very objective and fact driven. No glossing over atrocities and no sugar coating.
Great content, cheers.
Activities like IRA assassinations and bombings you mean? Like not accepting that Northern Ireland didn’t want to be part of the Republic and trying to force it on them?
Except Ireland isn’t un-unified… we’re waiting for the north 6 counties to be freed from Britain.
There’s a difference.
@@phylk4683 ?
@@phylk4683Define "free". The people of Northern Ireland don't live in slavery
@@oliversherman2414in the sense that Ireland was always meant to be free of British rule and to this day we still hope for that day to come.
For example the Israelis think killing Palestinians is the way to claim back their land while any actions against them is terrorism while Ireland have come to the conclusion that if Ireland is to become one again it must be through the northern Irish wanting it themselves. It’s very enlightened of us I must say.
0:24 Fun fact, because of that line, this particular TNG episode was banned in the UK at the time. This was before the Good Friday Agreement, of course.
because, fun fact: england has never been a democracy. what a farce
They also banned/cut an episode of the simpsons that not many people know about. In it a british place with british flags blows up and Homer celebrates with Irish people in a drunken haze, its during a St patricks day part.
It's also cos of the 'terrorism works' angle to the discussion.
@@spankeyfishOne side's terrorists are another side's freedom fighters.
@@Kalenz1234 So then tell me how that altitude turned out for all of us with the 1980s Taliban?
That was one of the best quick explanations of Northern Ireland's history I have seen on a RUclips video.
Clover hat
Totally left out the IRA and the terrorism and all that….
@@Agtsmirnoffthey mentioned it? Lmao.
but its wrong at a vital point ...the IRA was formed when 13 unarmed civilians were shot dead by Brit Army .They were marching for human rights and equaly opportunity in their own country.
@@Rofflestomper timestamp?
I saw young people in NI claim their Irish EU passport after Brexit. One girl said her grandfather had fought on the side of the Union during the troubles but she had grown up under the GFA so didn’t have the same views. I wonder how many people in NI also now have an Irish EU passport and see themselves as Irish? If the people don’t view themselves as British then that will end the Union
Nope
Some Irish people see themselves as Irish but wants too keep their monarch
I know quite a few that got the Irish passport at the time of Brexit to have more unrestricted travel freedoms. I imagine a diehard loyalist would never do so.
Born in England here and moved to N ireland. I want unification. This is how most immigrant English feel now because they didn't grow up in the troubles. Most people agree tho that economically it would be bad, however with the uk economy going up in smoke that attitude is changing
@@JamesHardaker Agreed, but I think most are just being cautious, economically I think it would be amazing for the north. Ireland and the EU would have no choice but try and make the north the biggest success story on the planet. I think overnight you would see money flow in from the USA/EU, places like google opening up satelite offices in belfast because its so cheap. Its so easy to get to from Dublin that Belfast could just poach half the business in Dublin, hell if they pushed for it hard they could get half the govt of Ireland to move up there. They could easily host the department of eudcation, agriculture. How many US companies would want to have their name aligned with a unified Ireland? Unionists have the land up there, instead of an Northern Ireland amazon site they could get an island of ireland amazon site, have belfast airport handle the air cargo cheaper than Dublin can.. etc etc.
Having an Irish passport and seeing yourself as Irish are two very different things. If you are entitled to an Irish passport then you might as well apply for one and get all the benefits of EU citizenship, regardless of how you identify. People applying for Irish passports after Brexit did so pragmatically, not because of any feeling of Irish identity.
I'm an American, and I don't even claim to understand Irish politics. Your channel is so far, to me, the best to explain things evenly.
I was just about to post the same thing.
Brexit has certainly sped up the cause of Irish unification, thanks Unionists 👏🇮🇪
Look at the polls and it tells a much different story lol
@@Patrick-y4d1z invading a sovereign country? Like Russia you mean?
@wotermelon_
I don't hate the Irish. And they're not better than anybody.
But reuniting Ireland back into the UK would be far better for both the UK and Ireland. At the moment, Ireland is not doing well, neither is Britain. Together they would do much better.
The UK should then rejoin the EU afterwards.
@@jamessteel9016
What are you talking about? I never said to invade. I'd like Ireland to reunify diplomatically.
@@Patrick-y4d1zlol Ireland isn't doing well? Mate salaries in Manchester are half that of Dublin, you're absolutely decades behind us these days
If only to make Star Trek TNG correct.
2024, this is the year...
Just hope they aren't correct about other stuff.. don't fancy ww3, the eugenics wars in the 90s were rough enough
Hopefully without the terrorism, though.
@@filipe5722 Well, there are relatively recent examples for both directions. Germany 1990 went pretty smoothly, all things considered - Catalonia on the other hand... well...
So, let's hope.
@@daled4191 No sanctuary districts yet, wonder what Gabriel Bell is up to.
Thank you for pointing out that the troubles began as a civil rights issue for Catholics and not a fight for reunification. This is a fact that even the Irish get wrong.
No its not a fact that even us Irish get wrong ! Are you actually Irish yourself ? 🤐🤐🤐
I would recommend putting the "earlier" columns on the left and the "later" column to the right in your comparisons of Census and polling results. Butting 2021 first then 2011 second looks wonky in a left-to-right language like English.
Not really. It doesn’t take more than a second to check the wording underneath the bars.
But what if you're driving on the left side of the road?
Linguistically this comment is right. If it were an Arabic graph, perhaps it would be appropriate, but in this order the graphs are simply more confusing
As a Data Analyst I agree 💯
@@wilhelmbittrich88
Even in Asia they put it left to right when its a date that goes from old to new, are you that daft?
Really appreciate you referring to it as REunification
Why do you think by default Northern Ireland would join republic of Ireland and not be independent?
@@firstname4865cause it would crash and burn otherwise idiot?.
@@firstname4865 they have nothing to gain and much to lose from being an independent country
@@burp2019 Ireland has one of the highest gross debts in the world
@@firstname4865Ireland has one of the highest gdp per capita rates in the world. Also Ireland isn’t one of the countries with the most national debt, uk has more.
Only 4 of the counties in N. Ireland had loyalist majorities. The 2 that didn't were added because the British thought N. Ireland would be otherwise too small.
@rob
"Only 4 of the counties in N. Ireland had loyalist majorities"?
Now it's down to two, Down and Antrim.
While Belfast is now a Catholic/Nationalist/Republican(CNR) majority city....
Didn't they all have loyalist majorities and the UK gave back the counties with the majority catholic populations ie Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan
@@oneroomboyno, rob is correct
@@oneroomboy yes, they gave back those counties but two others should have also been given back but weren't. The new autonomous Northern Ireland was formed from six of the nine counties of Ulster: four counties with unionist majorities - Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Derry/Londonderry - and two counties with slight Irish nationalist majorities - Fermanagh and Tyrone.
@@oneroomboy Fermanagh and Tyrone also had Catholic majorities. Nationalists in these counties couldn't believe they were thrown in to make Northern Ireland viable.
Anyone who has the chance to get out of Great Brexitannia and back into the EU, should grab it with both hands.
The U.K. parliament has lots of Scottish nationalists in it, the local parliament in Northern Ireland are now run by an Irish party and England doesn’t even have a national parliament. I mean, can it get anymore ridiculous.
Sinn Féin are the largest party but they definitely aren’t ‘running the local parliament’. The NI Executive (which is what I’m guessing you meant) is formed through mandatory coalition, so currently it’s run by Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, and the UUP.
England has no national parliament because the Tories are dead set against devolution of any sort. They refused to allow regional assemblies: the nearest we have is regional mayors based in a few of the largest cities. That's because they want decision making to stay in London, where the money is. If there was an English Assembly in the middle of the country it would be in Coventry.
The Parliament that sits in London is England's national Parliament. Always has been and always will be.
@@warrenpaineit’s fundamentally such a flawed system and I say that as a guy from London/Essex 😂
@@faithlesshound5621And now they've changed how regional mayors are elected to a FPTP system so that they can win without majority support. 🤮
I hope they can make a decision based on the clear preference of the majority and peacefully pursue that decision.
Whatever that means
@@YoungDefiant369not hard mate just best to avoid another 30 years of conflict
@@danielb.3515why would that happen ?
@@YoungDefiant369 England
We tried that in Scotland in 2014 but the British government, civil service and MI5 all worked illegally to make sure it wasn’t a fair or legal ballot.
Also helps when all media is London owned and controlled from there. England loves its colonies!
Fermanagh and Tyrone had clear Catholic majorities at the time of partition. Armagh and Derry were almost 50/50. Down and Antrim had clear protestant majorities. Today, Antrim and Down are still majority protestant and still mostly unionist (with the exception of Belfast).
People forget a how many Catholics want to stay in the Union.
@@catfootball592 How many? Tell us where you've attained that information.
Yes yes, my young Fenian friend. But you seem oblivious the quality of the grouse shooting in Fermanagh and Tyrone, what what!
@@thomasoflaherty3520 Catholics I work with and know said they wouldn't vote because it was alot cheaper and less hassle they said with the amount of paper work that would be required would kill most of their small businesses
In a poll conducted in 2022 and published by the times newspaper, 21% of catholics in Northern Ireland said they would vote to stay in the union, 55% would vote for reunification, 3% were undecided and 21% replied don't know.
What truly Needs to be in the Heads and Hearts of the Irish..is simply this in a Republic minority rights ARE protected.. in a Democracy you vote daily if they are under protection.. Example ,you have one sheep and two Wolves. And they get to vote what's for dinner. But in a Republic minority rights are protected. I'm of Irish Decent and Love Ireland..
I'm an Irish Republican, an activist, in my final year of my history degree that has focused very heavily on this and here's my view - read to the end before leaving a hate comment and check the sources.
Although it seems "inevitable" that we'll reunify, the current parties in government don't really want it. The people in the Republic do - many polls have shown that and recent polls in the North have too (by slim majority) - but no concrete steps have been taken nor will be taken by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, or any parties allied to them as they are too aligned with the UK. They also say it's not "profitable" which is true in its current state but the economic situation is more complicated than that, too much so for a RUclips comment. The biggest hurdle is the history that haunts the North today which has not been dealt with at all. The "peace" was essentially a ceasefire before a referendum that never came, not a real peace. The walls that divide neighbourhoods are still up, the cross-community initiatives stopped when the DUP took power, and the DUP are essentially a British supremacist organisation that promotes hatred. They funnelled money into the bonfires on July 12 last year where they burned effigies of Irish people, many of whom died during the conflict or are peace activists. Not all people who identify with Britain support the DUP of course, but too many people do for reunification to be a smooth and peaceful process. The only way to overcome this is to teach history as it happened and to call a spade a spade, but any time you try and discuss how the conflict really started or how partition really happened you are immediately called sectarian, an extremist, and in regards to partition some republicans say you're actually a Brit because you're questioning the nationalist myth.
Let me be very clear: the conflict in the north known to some as The Troubles would not have started without 3 things: continued British colonisation/occupation, the imposition of Unionist rule at the expense of Irish communities (who did not have the right to vote or equal opportunities to jobs and housing), and violence from both police AND the general unionist communities. These are difficult ugly facts we need to face. In 1968 civil rights marches were attacked by loyalist mobs on a regular basis which resulted in Sinn Féin stewards holding hurls (a sort of hockey stick) - and ALL of the people holding these hurls went on to hold guns at said marches by 1969 and then formed the Provisional IRA (split from the Official IRA). The conflict could have stopped at various points with different concessions from both sides and is a far more complicated matter but that is why it started. Both the UUP and DUP were hateful organisations that treated the Irish as subhuman throughout nearly all of the conflict. The DUP still paint Irish people as subhuman in many circumstances. Until people learn about this, until the wounds of the past are healed, until we allow space to discuss this without screaming "SECTARIAN!", and until the communities realise that both Sinn Féin and the DUP are fucking them over and don't have their best interests at heart - then reunification cannot happen. Maybe the border will fully disappear but there will still be two communities with deep divisions and a rise in Unionist paramilitaries. I don't care if we're one state and two peoples who hate each other - that's not unity.
If you want to learn more I'll leave the three most accessible sources on the start of the conflict:
The Provisional IRA - Patrick Bishop and Eamon Mallie
The Lost Revolution - Brian Hanley and Scott Millar
A Broad Church parts 1 and 2 - Gearóid Ó Faoleán
Cheers for the insight. Many of us who grew up during the Troubles often don't get the full picture.
Great post that I think sums up the whole situation very well. What I would add is that even if reunified what is now Northern Ireland, I think, would still have to have quite a bit of devolved power to try and persuade those either not in favour of, or skeptical of unification to try and make it work. Otherwise you'd just see increased violence only that it would be for Ireland to deal with not the UK, and I'm not sure the leaders in Dublin really want this to happen.
I'm still very skeptical that any British Prime Minister will ever agree to their being a border poll in NI, even if there's a majority in polls for unification. I think there'll always be an excuse for not holding one.
It's been over 30 years since german reunification and while some things have improved the differences and problems definitely still exist. Things like this are never easy or clear-cut.
"continued British colonisation / occupation" - the difficult "ugly" facts you need to face are the history of the world is the history of different tribes fighting over territory. The Irish were more than happy to raid England and Wales for slaves and colonise Scotland way back when. According to the rules of human history then the Ulstermen won that land fair and square and they had every right to refuse to be ruled by a different people from the south. England's been colonised three times, we haven't constructed an epic victim complex out of it.
While Protestant fanatics did indeed start the Troubles, no one did more to engender hate than the IRA and its terror campaign which killed and maimed the majority of casualties in that conflict, including many of their own people. It could all have been wrapped up if the gloves had properly been taken off the British army and the SAS in particular. Personally I am interested in the theory that MI5 deliberately kept the conflict going for their own ends and perhaps the ends of certain financial interests in the British Establishment at a time of economic strife in Britain.
Irish republicans spend all day every day on the internet painting the British as being the most evil people in human history regurgitating the most extreme lies about British history and spreading them around the world. Despite the fact that it was the British state which forced the Loyalists to accept legal equality and despite the fact that millions of Irish have emigrated to Britain and made good lives there. Despite the fact the British Establishment knew back in 1918 that it could not fight hard to hold onto Ireland because it didn't have the support of the British public (Churchill once said "I could defend the British empire against anyone except the British public") - the same British public which organised one of the world's first relief efforts during the famine and yet whose descendants today are painted as being the inheritors of a deliberate "genocide".
Ireland has only ever been unified under the British and so it's most likely that if unification is forced, it will turn out to be a farce not just due to loyalist intransigence but also because of the extreme demographic changes taking place in Ireland (and Britain) due to mass immigration foisted on the native people and because the economic model that Ireland (and Britain) are following - allowing our countries to be parasitised by multinational corporations and banks - is about to run its course.
I personally think British and Irish people are better off confronting the international forces ranged against them plus the traitors in their midst and putting away these historical grievances. Having visited NI and seen how both sides could start a fight in an empty room, I propose that we make them a third country, buy some popcorn and sit back and watch them deal with it between them.
@@OnlineEnglish-wl5rpYou’re offensively ill informed. Visiting NI doesn’t give you any special insight. And your precious SAS were operating in NI. The woolly notion that the British army could’ve sorted it out if they were let might keep you warm at night but short of a genocide, they were never going to achieve what you seem to think they could.
It's interesting that after the war counties Tyrone and fermanagh want to join the Republic but Britain kept them as they feared the block would be too small to become viable
Unionist greed a century ago led to their shooting their descendants in the foot. The historic province of Ulster had nine counties, four of which had a Protestant majority. Putting six counties into Northern Ireland meant there was a substantial Catholic minority. Fermanagh and Tyrone had mainly Protestant landowners and mainly Catholic labourers. A bit like the old East Prussia with its Protestant Junkers?
They minimised the effect of the Catholic numbers by gerrymandering. NI had extra votes for owning another house and for owning a business for decades after those privileges were abolished in Great Britain. Those rules have gone now in NI too. The rich in NI were mostly Protestant so they had most of the extra votes.
@@faithlesshound5621 The majority or the poor where also protestant.
@@robert6106 I would be surprised if the majority of the poor in a Catholic-majority county of Northern Ireland were Protestant, considering that the main reason for holding onto it was their Protestant landowners.
What is most important if there is to be a united ireland, us that you need to tear up "them joining us & us joing them" and the whole politucal structure hasbto be changed to a United Ireland not "north joining republic". This state must ensure that it is inclusive of all residents, including protestants.
5% of the Republics population is Protestant, have you ever heard any of them complaining about exclusion? The sectarian divide isn't a thing in the rest of Ireland.
@@yermanoffthetelly for sure, but sinn fein need to make this point to the undecided voters clearly as they will be those that get this over the line
@@yermanoffthetellyit will still be a bit of a shock for the ROI. Unification might mean a violent lurch to the right… that’s the simple truth
There are 7 million people on the island of Ireland, 6 million identify as Irish that's 85% of the people on the island and that figure is increasing annually....Ireland is heading towards unification and there is little anyone Unionist or otherwise can do about it.
No! Irish people are for the most part politically moderate, there are a few head bangers around but they are confined to the fringes and their dangerous narrative only available on social media. In a United Ireland those British Unionists will be respected and involved but after a generation or two it is likely that they will be absorbed in the general Irish population.@@lighting7508
As a Palestinian, I support the reunification of Ireland. One Ireland, free of the English. One Scotland, free of the English.
kaboom Palestine where is that its recognised as Israel
Well done guys, you handled what is a sensitive topic very well.
The problems created by the British continue...
I hope it does and I hope it’s all done peacefully. Ireland deserves peace and prosperity from all the struggle they have gone through.
They do have peace and prosperity, pushing for something that basically only politicians want is going to end that peace. I'll guess you don't live here and just took some guys video as basis for your comment.
The Irish need to take revenge against the loyalists after the brits leave.
It's the people who decide the people vote for the man date the politicians lay out in their manifesto
@@Lolp821 Literally "I hope it's all done peacefully" nice sentiment but what is that supposed to mean and how does it relate? Speaking as if we are still living through the troubles 😂 People will hardly be out on the street shooting each other when NI is united with the South, it'll just happen, some people will be very happy, some people will be very angry and upset, for the most part, that will be that. I swear, it's mostly Americans that talk as if we're still in the troubles.
@@Lolp821"only politicians want" what are you smoking?
Tyrone and Fermanagh had Catholic majorities from the start in 1920. Now Armagh and Derry also have Catholic majorities. So 4 out of the 6 counties of NI have a Catholic majority, 7/9 Ulster counties and 30/32 counties on the island of Ireland have Catholic/Nationalist majorities.
Dublin, in general, is not that keen on Roman Catholics though. Dublin is a good city, Dublin was good when I went there in 2011.
I would suggest the vast majority of English people could not give a toss one way or the other
Indeed, most little Englanders don't care for or know much of anything outside England.
@@stevoc9930kek absolutely this
Many English people do not know that Ireland (the Republic) is actually politically separate from the UK....I know an English guy who could not understand why Ireland had not got a day off for the late Queens funeral!.
@@fitzstv8506😂😂😂😂😂
In a twist of Irony Northern Ireland now has a more Celtic population than Ireland kek. Dublinistan is Germanic (Scandinavian) and it shows, that's why it's a parody of londonistan. Anywhere vikings touch town and influenced are turning into the middle east
The most accurate description of the situation in Northern Ireland I have ever seen 👍
If that's what the people living there want 🤷 so be it, it should be their choice
It isn't. Look at the polling.
@@malehumanperson7901it is. Look at the polling.
@@malehumanperson7901 colonialist bot, proceed to ignore
Don't get mad at me. Get mad at the polling data.@@MajoraWaffle
@@MajoraWaffle Just because of what he said doesn't make him a colonialist bot, just a british person, what's wrong with that?
Thanks!
As a brit I think it should be upto the irish to decide if they wanna remain in the UK they should get a referendum, a fair choice
UlsterProts have the right to self determination, there is no logic in sacrificing that right for a group that already has its own nation
That’s not how it works. Let’s say even 75% of the Irish vote to unify… that’s 25% of the country who just had their country democratically voted out of existence. There’s zero chance that doesn’t lead to violence and it’s a pretty huge ethical question if you can just vote countries out of existence to begin with. Referendums are effectively just mob rule. Who has the most boots in the ground. Direct democracy like that in reality just leads to tribalism like the Brexit debacle.
An Irish referendum is a childish solution to a complicated problem. If an Irishman wants to live in Ireland he can already do that without needing to culturally erase a country.
@@spoonkus5893The Unionists gave up that right when they chose to blindly support a Brexit referendum without knowing what that meant, and then begging an ambivalent Tory party to do something much too late to ineffectively change anything. Holding government up indefinitely doomed the Unionists, and there’s no changing the trends. Happy St Patty’s Day, btw.
@@spoonkus5893you know Ireland has freedom of religion
@@davidpeterson5647
They gave up the right to have cultural autonomy when they voted in a referendum to get more cultural autonomy? Do you ever actually think or do the words just tumble out of your mouth wtf?
Great report as usual guys, keep up the good work.
From a British point of view I've always assumed it would.
Should never have been divided and of course there should be a united Ireland.
It's best for the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
Ireland for the IRISH!
Been divided for too long
According to STar Trek this is the year of the Bell Incidents and the Irish Reunification
It may indeed be an ugly year for America
Self-fulfilling prophecy’s gonna self-fulfil
@@purgruv yes, lest The Time Wars begin again
Unless the Borg invade and assimilate everyone into the collective. "It's Life Jim but not as we know it".
It is natural for Ireland to become united.
A key consideration is demographics. A majority of those under 45's want unity while over 70% of OAPs identify as unionists. Unionists are dying (due to old age) at a far higher rate than nationalists. They are replaced as voters by those turning 18 - who tend to support reunification.
In 20 years, support for reunification would be overwhelming (everything else being equal), however, the point at which a majority would support reunification (in principle) is likely to be reached during the coming decade.
I don't think it will happen for a long time, if ever. NI joining the Republic is so complicated. Does NI stay devolved but in the Republic? What do you do about all the angry unionists that may be a minority but still a minority that refuse to be Irish? Even getting to a referendum would require probably many years of 60% plus saying in opinion polls they want to join the Republic. And the centrist, not strongly republican or loyalist, type of person has reason to fear the turmoil of leaving the UK and joining the RoI which makes them er toward staying in the UK.
50%+1, that's what the treaty says. Turmoil? It's been nothing but turmoil for 100 years because it was designed as a apartheid sectarian statelet. They'll actually have stability for a change when it's run like a normal country again.
Deport them to Belfast.
Absolutely agree and for some reason people are overlooking that very very key point... Theres a lot of people living in the north that dont want to be part of the Republic..Doesnt matter why...Thats irrelivant !!! What are you going to do.. Tell them your no longer a british citizen ? Or better yet ask them to leave and move to England ?? !!! Dont think so...
False. The GFA is very clear on the threshold, which is a majority. So 50+1. It’s Happening, it’s happening soon, and anyone who thinks otherwise has their head in the sand. In from a unionist background but my wife’s from south as are most of our friends. I don’t fear it, plus f*ck it, means my £40k student loan won’t be paid. By me at least.
Edit: Petrokemikal. The situation you described as being unlikely already happened when the North was partitioned. Catholics were told if you don’t like it move South.
The situation you describe between catholics been told to leave is somthing akin to walking around a building site in the 70s with no hard hat and no boots.. That wont work in todays culture..Those days are gone Mate..@@JayM-wg7dd
It's worth noting that while the signing of the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921 created the Irish Free-State, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 had already split Ireland into two separate territories.
Indeed. But the 1921 Anglo Irish Treaty was for the whole island, North and South of the border. However, NI opted out, as it was entitled to do under the treaty.
I think, had the Government of Ireland Act 1920 been passed in 1912 all of Ireland would still be in the UK. But the Loyalists were too stubborn about home rule, which pushed the rest of the island towards independence.
@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125 You're probably quite correct.
It would perhaps have remained in the UK for perhaps a few decades more but ultimately Ireland would have gone it's own way.@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125
@@konstantinosnikolakakis8125 "the Loyalists were too stubborn about home rule"
And who'd have thought over 110 years later and THAT would still be the main f'ing problem!
Another result of Brexit. Another British own goal.
The Star Trek fans are gonna love this.
Honestly. If NI unifies with the ROI I might ship myself over to regain EU citizenship lol.
That wouldn't work unfortunately, however you'll likely get lots of Protestant/unionist/loyalists that left britain centuries ago going back your direction.
@@andrewbroderick983it would work if he has Irish grandparents.
Me too
If you are a UK citizen, we have always been able to live, work and study within the Republic of Ireland. If you stay there for 5 years you can apply for Irish citizenship.
Well the UK doesnt need any more traitors...
gotta love that the video threw in that "banned" phrase from Star Trek: The Next Generation
I'm going to be alive when Ireland unifies, what a day to be alive!!!
Good video. Just one nitpick: all violent struggles are also political, because they involve humans having grievances against other humans.
One last point, SF didn’t increase their vote numbers by any significant margin to claim top spot. The DUP voters stayed home in protest of their handling of the Brexit negotiations. They were down over 60,000 votes; more than enough to leapfrog SF. The issue is that their base is pro-Brexit, but the party funders are pro-EU, leading the party to be very quiet during negotiations.
Most DUP voters I know "hold their nose" while voting, just as long as the party "do, as best they can, to protect [their] place in the Union."
778 when will the DUP and all the other unionist parties realise that the English could not care less about them
@miakeogh6844 could you be more specific, please? What do you mean by the "English"? What do you mean by "could not care less"? I lived in England for 6 years in various places, both North and South, and never met anyone that wished to see Northern Ireland removed from the Union against its will. In fact, whenever the subject came up, a lot of the English were very passionate about making sure we had the right to stay.
Thirdly, what does this have to do with my point?
British have been looking to dump it for years, it's been a headache ever since it's beginning, the southerners would be crazy to take on that place
If that were true, we wouldn’t have had to fight hard to get that piece of paper that said "one day maybe"
@@gabealtf As an American, I can kind of understand what the opening comment was saying with regard to a region being a headache in a way that counters the whole fighting over it issue. We in the United States have been trying to give Puerto Rico independence for years (it currently sits in a become state, become independent or status quo). If Puerto Rico had an armed revolt for independence, we'd fight those people over that. However, if they voted to leave us we'd probably have a sigh of relief. The UK seems to want to dump NI in the way we want to dump PR. For you, NI is part of the UK despite the UK giving them plenty of referendums to leave. For us, PR keeps wanting to join as an official state even though we give them every chance for an out. So yeah, I can understand what they mean.
@@Americium-120 You talk as if the Puerto Ricans aren't Americans themselves.
England thought Brexit would lead to a resurgence of nationalism and a return of the empire. In reality it tore the nation to pieces.
They thought they still had the commonwealth and that counted for something. The commonwealth is a fantasy most countries are who they are as a country now, not based on who their settlers were. They have moved far away from that in time and space.
Just FYI, That's not where Dublin is. Also, the Republic government is required to provide funding and work cross border. So the A5 money isn't us trying to bring a poll closer.
The Republic doesn't fund NI Britain funds it.
Casement park
Irish Border? It's the British imposed border in Ireland.
They should have put the Star Trek clip of what Data said in the section titled, "What Does the Data Say?"
Just to troll :D because people always pull this to the Palestinians "Why don't the neighbouring countries take them as refugees"
But seriously, why don't those who identify as British come back to the main island or go to Scotland.
The demographics of Northern Ireland make it inevitable particularly as the people of Northern Ireland come to see the advantages of being in the EU
Thinking Irish Unity is "inevitable" is the most dangerous attitude that an Irish Nationalist can take. Irish Unity is not going to just drop in your lap.
@@warrenpaineOr in your head?
Great to see a well informed and objective piece of journalism which for a British media outlet is refreshing and new. Pity about some of the comments tho...
Funny how the English populace are never asked if they want NI to continue to be part of the UK. As someone born in England I would be very happy to see unification with Ireland.
Why would the English populace get a say on the future political status of Northern Ireland?
The role of the English populace has already been defined, cough up £13bn per annum to keep Northern Ireland afloat. If you want a bigger say, then that will obviously come with a higher price tag.
@@IrishSon"Why would the English populace get a say on the future political status of Northern Ireland?"
Give them a break. They're English. They can't help it. 😔😉🤣
Little Engerlander your country is ivet run with Muslims and foreigners. You have more important things to concern your self with😂😂
@@sigmascrublol, English have a superiority complex and can’t help themselves. They need to fall very far before they wake up and realise their ignorance
For the love of God if the Gallagher brothers can get back together (for now) surely Ireland can. It's not like the British army is going to invade you these days.. you just have to want it.
I remember when that episode of Star Trek got banned in the UK.
It wasn’t banned, they edited out the line.
@@Vaultboy-ke2jjThat's worse.
@@Possib1yurdaad I don’t think I said it was or wasn’t, I’m correcting the false statement
@@Vaultboy-ke2jj actually? thats so sad for a "free" country
@@fkz0303 oh yes so terribly sad, oh no, I didn’t get to hear one line of dialogue “muh freedoms!”
Tons of dialogue gets edited out ffs
what does Northern Ireland have to gain by being with the UK at this point?
the UK is in the middle of a recession AND a cost of living crisis, helmed by a hilariously incompetent conservative government.
if they join with Ireland, they'll at least get their EU membership back
What does it have to gain? the question should what does it have to lose, and it can lose so so much. Currently the UK government puts millions/billions into NI, which is why you see it is a much better position in terms of government funding compared to the rest of the UK. This includes road work, includes funding for police and hospitals as well. Furthermore NI is unique in that it attains its education system primarily through grammer and state schools, which are significantly cheaper than the GB system, where grammer schools are dying, and this has worked in there favour as usually non-private/public schools perform best in NI. With all the situations the UK has, NI would experience it worse within a united Ireland for the moment as the south has a significantly worse housing crisis, and cost of living, such as in Dublin is far and beyond that of most cities in GB. Economic reasons are enough for some people to support remaining, giving NI is a cash-cow system country within the UK. Once it crosses over, economically things will get worse. If it does get unified, there will be a process of an intermediate period to adjust to the changes, similar to HK's transfer from the UK to China in 1997. Even though Ireland is in the EU, I welcome you to ask the people on their economic situation and how they feel independent of whether they are in the EU or not. It is worse there than the UK!
@@Dublinby you're a Unionist, aren't you?
@@Teag_Brohman15 I'm neither unionist or a republican. I'm an ethnic minority born in Belfast. What I say is what I have experienced being in Dublin, it is an incredibly expensive place to live and economically I do feel it will be worse as NI receives a huge amount from the UK government (which is probably unfair given its only populated with 2 million people max). I'm sure if it unifies with ROI, everything will increase in price especially property and health care won't be public anymore. This is my take as an observation. I do believe people complain more financially in Dublin than Belfast. Note I'm not using this as a reason to justify it should not unify its notnmy part or place to say. I'm simply responding to your question on what benefit NI has in terms of staying.
Tories and Labour are two sides of the same coin in terms of mass immigration, and Ireland proper is no better
@@Teag_Brohman15 - Gives a valid and fair response.
-"You're a Unionist aren't you?"
Unironically shut up kid, just because you don't like what he had to say doesn't mean you can just throw it all under the bus. I live in Northern Ireland and I am so sick of random people throughout the world shouting about reunification like its as simple as getting 51% of a vote or something. These are valid concerns that MUST be addressed or the whole thing will come crumbling down.
And before you ask; no, I'm not a Unionist. I voted Alliance, my dad is from here and my mum is English, so I am about as 50/50 split as you can get. All I care about is what's best for my country, in whatever form that takes.
If that’s what the majority there desires, then the vast majority of Brits have no problem with it.
StarTrek predicts all, even the most unlikely
I wish there was a local Irish or northern Irish-based RUclips channel that made similar, high quality, explainer videos about local politics.
If the Romulans and Vulcans can do it I'm sure the Irish can do it
The other main thing that changed, is that for the first time again, the Republic of Ireland has become the bigger union, as it part of the EU, and the richer country. Heck, there is even immigration from other UK parts to Dublin, mostly based on economic factors. While Scotish independence has become a little less likely in recent months again, the UK is still in a process of shooting itself repeatedly in the foot, and not even just with Brexit related policies, and threatening to tear itself apart. In comparison the Republic of Ireland has become much more stable and pluralist in comparison to the past, removing also fears of negative consequences of a reunification. There are still extreme positions on this in significant parts of the population on both ends of course. At the moment an outright flip for reunification without any issues by 2030 seems a bit ambitious, but unless the UK, and let's be honest that mostly means England in this context, changes course significantly, it seems eventually inevitable. Then again, I don't think even most people in England think things can continue the way they have gone, as polls also clearly show. Maybe we are going to see the Tories disappear first, or even EU rejoining, at which point the exact details of whether NI is or isn't part of the Republic of Ireland would matter much less again, and it would be less of a priority as well.
Richer only in one section of gdp in the other the Uk is far ahead
@@gothicgolem2947huh? There are sections of gdp?
The only thing that matters when it comes to gdp is the amount per capita ppp, and the ginincoefficient.
You will find numerous countries that leave the UK (far) behind, Ireland especially.
I wouldnt say ROI is the bigger union, the uk is still one of the richest countries in the world and thats not gonna change any time. I highly doubt northen ireland will join ROI it will cost ROI i imagine taxes would go up, some have even est that it would cost the goverment €6.7 billion to €15.7 billion annually.
Ireland is not as rich as it seems, I moved here last year and the infrastructure is shockingly bad, no metro in Dublin, very little rail service, complete over reliance on buses. Rent is insane, and people here have a lower quality of life than people in many other EU countries
Uk membership of the EU is at least 30 years away.
Sound like Irish reunification will be done and dusted way for that .
One day we'll return here when the Belfast child sings again - Simple Minds
Only a matter of time... and the end of a headache for Britain.
The beginning of a bigger headache.
@@lervish1966won't be Great Britain's problem though
@@FionanUaMurchadha Removing the Irish Catholics from Britain and taking refugees from Ireland would be a big problem.
@@FionanUaMurchadha it will. Because it’ll fuel Scottish and Welsh independence as well as English independence.
@@alynwillams4297 Thats their problem because its their Island, Northern Ireland is my problem because it is on my island
We might get a unified Ireland before we get GTA6
Good job. Nicely put and balanced.
As I commented in another place I believe that if the UK and USA provided serious funding for say 10years after unification, I believe the Unionists could be brought to the table to negotiate a new Ireland which protected their interests.
Instant like for the TNG reference. (It was originally banned from BBC 2 broadcast, before the peace process)
It wasn't. Or, if it was, someone didn't get the memo. I watched it in 1987 in England I recall it distinctly because I thought it probably a good idea at the time.
I got the chance to visit Northern Ireland (and also the Republic of Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland) about 15 years ago, and the sense I got from people was that the status quo was fine, much better than the violence of the Troubles, and while some people wanted reunification and some wanted to stay part of the UK, the sentiment was very much that making that decision should be a peaceful and democratic choice.
Brexit threw a wrench into things, because when the UK was in the EU, travelling between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was quite easy, they were different nations, but they were part of the same union and as a result, the different administrations wasn't honestly a huge deal. There was a lot of concern that brexit would cause a lot of problems at the RI/NI border, and it seems they've managed to handle that situation reasonably well so far, while there may be problems there, none of them have been so severe that the news made it to an outsider like myself. My read on the situation is that Northern Ireland would be better off with reunification and being part of the EU than continuing with the UK post brexit, but the difference isn't so huge as to be worth creating or escalating tensions.
I think as long as the UK honors its commitment to letting the people of Northern Ireland decide, Ireland will eventually reunify, which will be a good thing. In the meantime, Northern Ireland appears to be doing ok as part of the UK, they are not facing the oppression of times passed, so until a majority wants to reunify, things as they are are fine enough.
Your analysis is better and more honest than the analysis of some from either Northern Ireland or the Republic.
what a time to be alive lads
I hope so - and I say that as an English person.
I pray there will be a united Ireland. It would be a great thing.
Unify Ireland, one of the nicest country and people ever. Its the only logical choice.
RE-Unify Ireland, under Republican Irish rule, as it should have always been.
Missed out on the very important point that when you take the over 65 voters out of the polling data there is overwhelming support for a UI. The 18-30 vote is overwhelmingly in favour of a UI. This suggest a trend as older voters pass away and younger people become eligible to vote then in 5-10 years there will be a significant swing and growing momentum for a UI
Until they need to go to the hospital and realise they'd have to pay for it themselves
Until they own their own home and don't want to pay ROI taxes
ROI doesn't have any kind of home taxes
@@Kobe-s2i this isn’t true. Hospital care is free. There is a charge to visit a gp which is subsidised for those who cannot afford it. Free education, no rates (which are going up in Ni), basically all social and economic outcomes are better for a kid in Louth as opposed to a kid in Armagh, unfortunately
@jimmyryan5880 everything has sky high taxes in ROI
The sooner the island is united the better. Then we can get on with things and forget about the disaster that was Northern Ireland.
For 'colonisation' read 'militarily driven genocide'.
If both sides want to then they should.
Absolutely agree. If all done freely and democratically then let it be.
I am a Brexit supporter.
I don’t see a United Ireland happening soon being honest.
I don’t think the majority in the North would vote for a United Ireland,and the biggest reason is the NHS as there isn’t one in the Republic.
As for the Northern Ireland protocol I think in all honesty it is probably as good as it will get,and the Windsor Framework I think has made the protocol more palatable and was a good piece of work by Rishi Sunak.
I think the United Kingdom will remain intact with little or no change.
And the U.K. will not rejoin the EU.
Fair comment but from personal experience the Irish health system is far advanced of Britain's
@ From what I have read it is not the best health service but again only from what I have read,and absolutely correct our NHS is in difficulty and not particularly great.Though it can be said many public health services aren’t particularly good either.
@@Robbiewa-bg4luNHS was the best in the world during Blair. Declined a lot for various reasons.
UVF was formed in 1966, before the IRA resumed its activities
And the Troubles ended in 1998. Let the dead lie.
Not the point. The average Brit thinks it just happened in a vaccum.
The IRA killed people in the 1950s and early 60s
Was it not 1913?
Well we have ( or had) 3 leaders from the sub continent who seen very keen to break up the UK. Revenge for partition ? Having been to India a few times I got to know that people of a certain age pass down the stories of partition and not from a positive view point
Just a production critique: your bar graphs aren't intuitive. You're talking about increases, but the dates read from right to left. I think having 2011 on thr left and 2021 on the right makes more sense when you're talking about increases or decreases over time.
I want Northumbria to be its own country like it once was
Yes, but then you'd have to take Yorkshire (Cumbria, Lancashire and Lincolnshire) with you. Are you ready for that? 😅
Greetings from Mercia.
If we did this now we’d probably be one of the poorest nations with some of the worst infrastructure in all of Europe.
ATP I’m convinced half the reason thatcher and the Tory’s don’t develop the north is because it means they can continue to fuck us over knowing that we can’t do anything about it.
Kernow/Cornwall. Englands first and last colony! Language and culture destroyed in the process.@@johnm2714
I lived in Geordieland for a few years so all power to your elbow. I come from the land of the Angles but we don’t want to be part of anything that includes Norfolk
Ireland will unite!!!!!!!!!!
I just want a prosperous & safe country for my children to grown up in. If that means a reunification of Ireland then I'm all for it. I've never see Northern Ireland as ‘poor’ as it is right now
The state of Northern Ireland is not Irelands problem, it is Westminsters problem.
Unification will not fix Northern Ireland.
For Ireland, unification with Northern Ireland is neither inevitable nor necessary.
It is not something that I would vote for. Better to build a wall and give the DUP the Brexit they want.
Unification with the republic is the answer, but I would give it another decade. The republic does not have the levels of absolute poverty that the UK has a the present time. People in the republic live longer than NI people, which is probably the best measurement of a prosperous society.
@@taintabird23 a decade? 😂😂😂
For the Irish Government unification isn’t even on the radar.
Why would Ireland risk stability for unification with a region where there is a significant portion of the population that hates us? Why stir the pot? Leave them be. Let them sort out their own problems.
We have enough problems that our Government needs to focus on, namely housing and health.
Northern Ireland has never been a part of our country and I don’t see any reason why that should change.
This video was OK as far as it went...but it didn't go far enough. What I'd like to know more about are the underlying economic, social and cultural drivers of the changes discussed.
The video is simplified. The channel is literally about simplifying news, its in the name.
Maybe The Economist or a recent book might have that kind of information. Or a think tank type website.
Hopefully they will get their independence once and for all, they are overdue on independence, stand for freedom and independence 😊
Hopefully Ireland and Northern Ireland will someday unite but I don't think much of the idea that a political entity should drastically change its status because on a particular day 51% of the people who turned out and voted said that they wanted drastic change.
When change is going to be complicated, expensive, wrenching and very difficult to reverse one should have a solid majority voting for that change - 60% or at least 55% -
not 51% or 50% plus one vote meaning that if another vote was held a few days later the results might very well be reversed.
Brexit was an example in which it was absurd to go ahead with it and turn everything upside down and cause chaos based on a tiny majority yes vote which was so close that by the time Brexit was implemented enough yes voters had died off that they had become a minority.
Another example is the Quebec independence referendum of the 1990s in which by a couple of percentage points Quebec residents voted against independence or
sovereignty association or the right of the Quebec government to try to
negotiate sovereignty association with Canada (whatever that means).
If the Quebec vote had changed by a couple of percentage points then
based on a tiny percentage majority Quebec might have separated,
a result that might have been reversed if another vote had been
held the week before or the week after.
One thing that concerned people who wanted Quebec to stay in Canada
was that the 1990s referendum was the second Quebec referendum on independence
and they wondered if pro-separation Quebec politicians would just
keep holding referendums until they got the result they wanted
and then they would ignore all the referendums in which they lost
and demand the right for Quebec to separate.
What if over time there are three straight referendums in which the
voters of Northern Ireland reject joining Ireland
and then in a 4th referendum 51% of the voters of Northern Ireland
vote to join Ireland.
Is that enough of a mandate to make such a major change?
Ireland northern will be loyal ylto uk because of Protestant haritage Magna Carta glorious revolution
You get bonus points for the Star Trek reference
Would be great. Fed up with the whole Northern Ireland bollocks it's Ireland
Why not? Like the rest of the UK it’s been shafted by Westminster in favour of the south of England.
What doesn't get a mention is the growing animosity toward the UK by the English themselves. England isn't united; there's a clear north/south divide that has been an issue for many generations.
South east*
@@Carl-hs420athe dirty secret is the south has been shafted by Westminster too! Only the rich southerners are thriving most of us normal people can’t afford to do anything in the south. Tell your average homeless southerner about the “north-south divide”.
Mind you it definitely exists, I’m just saying that as a people we should unite on class rather than region.
The English really screwed themselves with the whole Brexit thing
I'm not Irish or European but I do hope they reunify! Just like Korea or Cyprus. I just hope people can live in peace together as in these cases they were all separated due to idiology/religion.
Don't assume reunification will bring peace. Things are as peaceful over there now as they have been. For all the slightly warmer words from SF towards the Loyalists in recent years, reunification could very easily kick the Troubles off again. And I doubt the Garda will cope. But at least the British Army won't be going back in to crank up the tension.
Re unify would imply they were united previously and that was never the case. The reason NI is in the state it's in is cause it chose to be part of the UK 🇬🇧. People should really do there history and get it from unbiased sources.
If they unite it will be a new unification and a new Ireland 🇮🇪. That will come with new requests from the North that might be a bitter pill for the republic to swallow. Also I agree with the previous comment, just cause they unity doesn't mean it will be peaceful. This will be a watch and wait moment.
@@hey12542 wow you mentioning people should really do their history and get it from unbiased sources is ironic. Ireland was majority Catholic and united before protestant settlers from Scotland and England were planted in the northeastern part of the island to bolster the authority of the English Crown. Ireland was united before being part of the UK. I can say the same comment as you that people should really do their research before commenting on subjects. You and the previous comment agreeing/saying to don't assume peace with reunification, when did I assume it? If something I clearly said I just *hope* they could reunify and live peacefully. Not affirming, just hoping. Not really following how a comment wishing the wellbeing and peace for both united ended with these response but whatever floats your boat.
Ireland's the only one of those 3 that has any chance of reuniting peacefully
You sound extremely ignorant. Who are you to tell the northern Irish people what would bring them peace? Only they can decide. Right now they want to be in the UK if that changes we have an agreement to fulfil their wishes.
This is a very one sided post obviously you haven't got a clue about the Irish side of things and forget the Irish were here first. The biggest act of war was carried out by the UVF/DUP where they bombed Dublin/Monaghan 1974 and killed 36 maimed 300+. If you educate yourself about Irish history this would be a better. As for a reunification of Ireland since Brexit that has become more of an issue now.