This is the speech given by Kevin Meagher in the ‘Will we vote with the heart or head in a border poll?’ debate at the Féile an Phobail festival which took place on 1st August 2024 at St Mary’s College, Belfast.
Head or heart?
Let me start by offering the politician’s answer: It can and will be both.
Naturally, you can make the case for Irish unity on powerful, empirical grounds. Being part of one of the most dynamic economies in the world would transform lives, living standards and work opportunities for people in the North.
And this is the big change in recent years. The unification of the island of Ireland is often spoken about in a sensible, reasoned manner. Sometimes even a flat way. More PowerPoint presentation than soaring graveside oration.
And this is a strength. After all, United Irelanders have all the best arguments. Who wouldn’t want to be part of the Irish Republic? Liberal, modern, outward-looking, optimistic, internationalist – and well-off.
Has it got problems? Yes, but they’re the ‘right’ problems stemming from an overheating economy. But they are fixable, given Dublin’s buoyant public finances. So, like the Irish finance minister, the good fortune of United Irelanders is abundant.
But there’s another element I want to focus on. The politics of the heart.
It can seem to be the junior partner in this arrangement. Surely a politics of the head is always preferable? Head is fact; heart is fable. Head is truth; heart is belief. Head is rational; heart is impulsive.
But heart matters. It motivates. It inspires. It builds mighty cathedrals. Sends explorers round the world. Compels artists to paint masterpieces. ‘You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,’ as former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo famously put it.
Head or heart: Either are legitimate. Both have a place.
So, you can back Irish unity based on its utility. Or you can base a decision on family. Clan. Faith. Tradition. Place. Grievance. History. The past; real – or mythologised.
And the paradox is obvious: You can vote to remain in the UK on the same basis. And most people will.
The writer David Goodhart has characterised this phenomenon in British society, particularly when thinking about Brexit. There is a division between the people from ‘somewhere’ versus people from ‘anywhere.’
The people from somewhere take pride in tradition, certainty and place. While people from anywhere look outward, unphased by change. Emotional versus rational.
This is not to say one is right and the other is wrong; far from it. Identity and allegiance are complicated and often impervious to setback or evidence and seldom based on immediate gratification. Ask any Sheffield Wednesday fan.
The people from somewhere cling to their identity and beliefs regardless of fad, convention, modernity, peer pressure or received opinion.
As Kahlil Gibran put it in his poem ‘A Tear and a Smile’…
I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart
For the joys of the multitude.
He sounds like a DUP politician in 2032’s border poll… Or, perhaps, a nationalist during the 1973 version.
Defeat is a sweet sorrow. Irish patriots have long known this. And Ulster Unionists also feel it, as their political candle dims. But the politics of the heart endures.
Yet United Irelanders are fortunate. We have options. Our case can be made in poetry or prose. In terms both rational and emotional. Head and heart.
Alas for unionists, this is as good as Northern Ireland will ever get. Their argument will be primarily a politics of the heart. ‘Hold what we have.’ That will be enough for the unionist people of ‘somewhere’, but what about the ‘anywheres’ voting Alliance or Green? What’s the offer to them? A sclerotic economy and failing public services? A scratchy, divided society?
And what is the appeal to would-be United Irelanders? After we have spent the past week talking about the ‘scandal’ of a police car circling a roundabout in celebration at Armagh’s All-Ireland win?
Where is the appeal from unionists – to either head or heart – that is necessary to convince those persuadable about change that they should keep the status quo?
Now, I may appear to be an unusual choice to make this argument about the importance of heart. I’m the inverse of a West Brit. And there are millions like me. There are more people in Britain with an Irish grandparent or great-grandparent than there are on the entire island or Ireland.
So let me conclude by painting you an image of what will happen when this border poll arrives. There is something exhilarating about standing an inflection point in history. A once-in-a-century event. On the precipice of a new nation being born.
Every hotel, hostel, bed and breakfast, Air BnB, student dorm, spare bed, draughty floor, bashed-up caravan and leaky tent and will have a United Irelander in it.
They will be Northern nationalists and republicans. Old style-Irish patriots from the south. Sinn Feiners, SDLP-ers, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Aontú, Greens, liberals, socialists, libertarians, reactionaries, Australian backpackers, Celtic fans, Irish-Americans, European stoners, celebs and a Brit-Irish diaspora desperate to be part of the moment.
They will not come to discuss the finer benefits of integrating Ireland’s electricity supply grid or the return of EU agricultural subsidies, they will come because their hearts are filled with pride and hope at what this moment in history represents.
That’s what the politics of heart does. It moves people. It inspires big gestures. And it drives us to succeed.
This is the speech given by Kevin Meagher in the ‘Will we vote with the heart or head in a border poll?’ debate at the Féile an Phobail festival which took place on 1st August 2024 at St Mary’s College, Belfast.
Head or heart?
Let me start by offering the politician’s answer: It can and will be both.
Naturally, you can make the case for Irish unity on powerful, empirical grounds. Being part of one of the most dynamic economies in the world would transform lives, living standards and work opportunities for people in the North.
And this is the big change in recent years. The unification of the island of Ireland is often spoken about in a sensible, reasoned manner. Sometimes even a flat way. More PowerPoint presentation than soaring graveside oration.
And this is a strength. After all, United Irelanders have all the best arguments. Who wouldn’t want to be part of the Irish Republic? Liberal, modern, outward-looking, optimistic, internationalist – and well-off.
Has it got problems? Yes, but they’re the ‘right’ problems stemming from an overheating economy. But they are fixable, given Dublin’s buoyant public finances. So, like the Irish finance minister, the good fortune of United Irelanders is abundant.
But there’s another element I want to focus on. The politics of the heart.
It can seem to be the junior partner in this arrangement. Surely a politics of the head is always preferable? Head is fact; heart is fable. Head is truth; heart is belief. Head is rational; heart is impulsive.
But heart matters. It motivates. It inspires. It builds mighty cathedrals. Sends explorers round the world. Compels artists to paint masterpieces. ‘You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose,’ as former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo famously put it.
Head or heart: Either are legitimate. Both have a place.
So, you can back Irish unity based on its utility. Or you can base a decision on family. Clan. Faith. Tradition. Place. Grievance. History. The past; real – or mythologised.
And the paradox is obvious: You can vote to remain in the UK on the same basis. And most people will.
The writer David Goodhart has characterised this phenomenon in British society, particularly when thinking about Brexit. There is a division between the people from ‘somewhere’ versus people from ‘anywhere.’
The people from somewhere take pride in tradition, certainty and place. While people from anywhere look outward, unphased by change. Emotional versus rational.
This is not to say one is right and the other is wrong; far from it. Identity and allegiance are complicated and often impervious to setback or evidence and seldom based on immediate gratification. Ask any Sheffield Wednesday fan.
The people from somewhere cling to their identity and beliefs regardless of fad, convention, modernity, peer pressure or received opinion.
As Kahlil Gibran put it in his poem ‘A Tear and a Smile’…
I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart
For the joys of the multitude.
He sounds like a DUP politician in 2032’s border poll… Or, perhaps, a nationalist during the 1973 version.
Defeat is a sweet sorrow. Irish patriots have long known this. And Ulster Unionists also feel it, as their political candle dims. But the politics of the heart endures.
Yet United Irelanders are fortunate. We have options. Our case can be made in poetry or prose. In terms both rational and emotional. Head and heart.
Alas for unionists, this is as good as Northern Ireland will ever get. Their argument will be primarily a politics of the heart. ‘Hold what we have.’ That will be enough for the unionist people of ‘somewhere’, but what about the ‘anywheres’ voting Alliance or Green? What’s the offer to them? A sclerotic economy and failing public services? A scratchy, divided society?
And what is the appeal to would-be United Irelanders? After we have spent the past week talking about the ‘scandal’ of a police car circling a roundabout in celebration at Armagh’s All-Ireland win?
Where is the appeal from unionists – to either head or heart – that is necessary to convince those persuadable about change that they should keep the status quo?
Now, I may appear to be an unusual choice to make this argument about the importance of heart. I’m the inverse of a West Brit. And there are millions like me. There are more people in Britain with an Irish grandparent or great-grandparent than there are on the entire island or Ireland.
So let me conclude by painting you an image of what will happen when this border poll arrives. There is something exhilarating about standing an inflection point in history. A once-in-a-century event. On the precipice of a new nation being born.
Every hotel, hostel, bed and breakfast, Air BnB, student dorm, spare bed, draughty floor, bashed-up caravan and leaky tent and will have a United Irelander in it.
They will be Northern nationalists and republicans. Old style-Irish patriots from the south. Sinn Feiners, SDLP-ers, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Aontú, Greens, liberals, socialists, libertarians, reactionaries, Australian backpackers, Celtic fans, Irish-Americans, European stoners, celebs and a Brit-Irish diaspora desperate to be part of the moment.
They will not come to discuss the finer benefits of integrating Ireland’s electricity supply grid or the return of EU agricultural subsidies, they will come because their hearts are filled with pride and hope at what this moment in history represents.
That’s what the politics of heart does. It moves people. It inspires big gestures. And it drives us to succeed.