Tue Oct 13th, 7pm, Portcullis House, Westminster
How do we win an Irish Unity Referendum? Will people vote with their head or heart? Is the focus on a border poll date a distraction? Are debates around flags and emblems a distraction? If you are on the side of change are you on the harder side? Is building a nation and winning a referendum two different things? What will win over the Undecideds? How do we allow people to see the future? What does a positive Unity campaign look like?
To register – name to [email protected] .
Admission free but allow 20 mins to get through security.
Our Key Speaker Tiernan Brady has experience in winning referendums. He played a leading role in the successful marriage equality referendums in the Republic of Ireland and Australia. He now brings his wealth of experience to the Irish Unity project and winning a border poll. Tiernan thinks that to win a Unity Referendum a mindset shift is required – that we can’t think about it as beating the other side anymore. Do you agree?
Tiernan will be joined on the panel by Andrea Catherwood. She has made a number of recent documentaries on both Irish Reunification and The Union for BBC Radio 4. She tells us she is looking forward to posing some challenging questions to her fellow panellists on the night. Derry SDLP MP Colum Eastwood has provisionally confirmed. Sinn Féin will be represented by MP John Finucane. Chair for the evening is irishborderpoll.com editor Kevin Rooney.
Biographies.
Tiernan Brady is an LGBT rights campaigner. He was the political director of Ireland’s successful “Yes Equality” campaign which saw Ireland become the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality by a public vote. Three years later he was executive director of the Equality
Campaign in Australia, the successful national campaign for Australian Marriage Equality. Born in Enniskillen, he lives in Bundoran, Donegal and is a member of Fianna Fáil.
Andrea Catherwood is originally from Belfast. She is a radio and television broadcaster and currently presents ‘Feedback’ on BBC Radio 4. Andrea has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 about Ireland including ‘Does the Irish Republic want reunification” and “This Union: A Sea Between us” – a series exploring the future of the Union and Unionism. She is also a former ITN foreign correspondent and News presenter.
Colum Eastwood is SDLP MP for Foyle (Derry). He served as leader of the SDLP from 2015 to 2024. He chairs the New Ireland Commission, an initiative he established as SDLP leader to examine and build consensus on future constitutional arrangements for Ireland.
John Finucane is Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast. At the 2019 General Election he won the seat with 23,078 votes unseating the DUP candidate and former MP Nigel Dodds. John is the first ever Irish Nationalist MP in the history of the constituency. Like all of his fellow SF MPs he has never taken his seat in Westminster, due to his party’s longstanding policy of abstentionism.
Tue Oct 13th, 7pm, Portcullis House, Westminster
How do we win an Irish Unity Referendum? Will people vote with their head or heart? Is the focus on a border poll date a distraction? Are debates around flags and emblems a distraction? If you are on the side of change are you on the harder side? Is building a nation and winning a referendum two different things? What will win over the Undecideds? How do we allow people to see the future? What does a positive Unity campaign look like?
To register – name to [email protected] .
Admission free but allow 20 mins to get through security.
Our Key Speaker Tiernan Brady has experience in winning referendums. He played a leading role in the successful marriage equality referendums in the Republic of Ireland and Australia. He now brings his wealth of experience to the Irish Unity project and winning a border poll. Tiernan thinks that to win a Unity Referendum a mindset shift is required – that we can’t think about it as beating the other side anymore. Do you agree?
Tiernan will be joined on the panel by Andrea Catherwood. She has made a number of recent documentaries on both Irish Reunification and The Union for BBC Radio 4. She tells us she is looking forward to posing some challenging questions to her fellow panellists on the night. Derry SDLP MP Colum Eastwood has provisionally confirmed. Sinn Féin will be represented by MP John Finucane. Chair for the evening is irishborderpoll.com editor Kevin Rooney.
Biographies.
Tiernan Brady is an LGBT rights campaigner. He was the political director of Ireland’s successful “Yes Equality” campaign which saw Ireland become the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality by a public vote. Three years later he was executive director of the Equality
Campaign in Australia, the successful national campaign for Australian Marriage Equality. Born in Enniskillen, he lives in Bundoran, Donegal and is a member of Fianna Fáil.
Andrea Catherwood is originally from Belfast. She is a radio and television broadcaster and currently presents ‘Feedback’ on BBC Radio 4. Andrea has made a number of documentaries for Radio 4 about Ireland including ‘Does the Irish Republic want reunification” and “This Union: A Sea Between us” – a series exploring the future of the Union and Unionism. She is also a former ITN foreign correspondent and News presenter.
Colum Eastwood is SDLP MP for Foyle (Derry). He served as leader of the SDLP from 2015 to 2024. He chairs the New Ireland Commission, an initiative he established as SDLP leader to examine and build consensus on future constitutional arrangements for Ireland.
John Finucane is Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast. At the 2019 General Election he won the seat with 23,078 votes unseating the DUP candidate and former MP Nigel Dodds. John is the first ever Irish Nationalist MP in the history of the constituency. Like all of his fellow SF MPs he has never taken his seat in Westminster, due to his party’s longstanding policy of abstentionism.