Setting The Course of Irish Unity to the EU is a Dangerous Precedent

The ongoing rise in support for Irish Unity across Ireland undoubtedly owes part of this increase to those who are opposed to Brexit and want the North to remain as part of the EU and hence see Irish Unity as a way of achieving that.

This group of campaigners, and indeed certain sections of Big House Nationalism are facilitating this objective by claiming that Irish Unity is a way for Irish citizens in the North to maintain their EU citizenship.

I think this is a very dangerous direction for the Irish Unity campaign to advertise, as the recent socio-economic impact of the EU on Ireland is certainly not one to be celebrated or looked to as a long term vision.

For the past 11 years, the EU was the main component in forcing through devastating privatisation & austerity across Ireland in order to pay back the loans the EU used to bail out the banks following the 2009 Financial Crisis.

Working class people across the country were forced into financial chaos, misery, joblessness and homelessness while 10,000s of young people were forced to migrate, all at will of EU economic policy.

If we are to convince the majority to support Irish Unity then we need to offer something radically different. We need to give them a vision of a nation that looks completely socio-economically different to the current setup, and if that conflicts against EU membership then so be it.

Our future relationship with the EU needs to be part of the wider conversation about our national direction, it cannot be a shiny plaster that is automatically slapped onto the side of the Irish Unity bandwagon.

Irish Unity must deliver political accountability, economic fairness, social equality and environmental sustainability. If the EU cannot deliver, and in my view it cant deliver these promises then it has no future in Ireland. 

Joe Matthews, Yes For Unity

Click here to view our Britain out of Ireland, Ireland out of the EU policy document