Irish unification is still inevitable

As the concept of Irish unity continues to go mainstream, Kevin Meagher explores the state of the debate.

Although I have never read any of Lee Child’s ‘Jack Reacher’ novels, I have listened to lots of Elvis Costello over the years. Apart from the pair sharing an Irish background, the connection between them might appear tenuous. However, both were at Buckingham Palace recently to receive honours from the Queen. Perhaps incongruously given the setting, the two were also asked about their views on Irish unity.

‘I make no distinction between north and south and I really hope the island is unified soon,’ said Child, picking up a CBE for services to literature. ‘I hope that’s going to be the positive outcome of Brexit. It’s hundreds of years overdue.’ Irish unity was ‘an inevitability,’ according to Costello, picking up an OBE. ‘Maybe in my lifetime, in the lifetime of my children…’

During the dark decades of Northern Ireland’s troubles, voicing support for Irish unity, particularly as IRA bombs were going off, would have been a marginal pursuit, to put it mildly. But these are different times.

Neither man saw any contradiction between standing in front of the British Monarch to be honoured, while also supporting the peaceful reunification of the island of Ireland. A portent, perhaps, of how these…