Working towards Irish Unity

Tuesday May 20th, 7pm
Grimond Room Portcullis House
Westminster, London SW1A 2JR

Speakers

SDLP MP Colum Eastwood
Sinn Fein MP Pat Cullen
Kevin Meagher Author, commentator and writer for irishborderpoll.com
Ireland’s Future invited

We are living in the end days of partition and must prepare for unity referendums this decade, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald declared at an Easter Commemoration in April. The same month Taoiseach Martin banished all suggestions of a border poll by 2030 insisting reconciliation must come first. For the avoidance of doubt Tanaiste Harris followed up, insisting Irish Unity is not a priority for this Irish Government. Facing no  pressure from Dublin, PM Keir Starmer also rejects any move towards a Unity Referendum in the North.

How then do we chart a path to a border poll and United Ireland when the Dublin government impedes rather than promotes Unity? 

Colum Eastwood argues the southern establishment`s attitudes to unification must be challenged. In particular, the creeping normalisation of the demand that reconciliation be a prerequisite for constitutional change. He will tell us about the work of his New Ireland Commission and the work  required to make Unity a reality.

Pat Cullen will update us on the work of the SF Commission on the Future of Ireland and how we put more va-va-vroom into the Unity project. We will ask Pat for her response to recent criticism in the Belfast Irish News from academic Derirdre Heenan – that Sinn Fein  appear happy to tell everyone else to plan and prepare for Irish Unity but produce no concrete, ambitious, inclusive blueprint themselves?

Kevin Meagher will explain how positive voting results for Pro-Unity parties in the next Assembly and local elections are key to the success of the Unity project. He argues that if Pro-Unity parties win more votes than Pro-Union parties  – momentum towards a border poll is unstoppable.

Admission free and everyone welcome. To register –  email your full name to [email protected]