Originally published in the Financial Times.

Economist David McWilliams argues that demography, finances and the fallout of Brexit are reviving the idea of one Ireland

It seems incredible now, but in 1990 an episode in the third series of Star Trek: The Next Generation was deemed so incendiary that it was censored in Britain and Ireland. In that episode, “The High Ground”, the Starship Enterprise’s android officer Data, musing on terrorism, noted from the vantage point of the year 2364 that Ireland had been reunified in 2024. The episode was pulled for fear that it might encourage more political violence; 1990 was the year the IRA bombed the London Stock Exchange, assassinated Conservative politician Ian Gow and when 81 people on both sides of the conflict were murdered in Northern Ireland.

Read the full article in the Financial Times.