Perhaps the Ulster Unionist parties should consider invading the south of Ireland to take back what they lost at the partition of the island. While that soundss like a crazy plan, what Sinn Fein does today, Unionists tend to do tomorrow.
And now Unionists are being advised to follow the example set by Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and begin the political process of asserting themselves in the economically crippled Republic of Ireland.
Adams has announced he is to give up his House of Commons and Northern Ireland Assembly seats and attempt to win the Louth seat in the Dáil for Sinn Fein. This audacious switch is regarded as potentially one of the best tactical moves a Northern Ireland politician could make. If Adams succeeds in Louth, some Unionists may conclude they should take a chance and try to make some headway in the “occupied 26 counties”.
The Celtic tiger has been neutered. As a close neighbour and trading partner of the Irish Republic, Britain should have a key role to play following the humiliating multi-billion-euro bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The bailout talks have sparked jokes the British have probably got enough cash for the United Kingdom to buy back the southern border counties of Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan and Leitrim for a start. Even Ian Paisley senior, now Lord Bannside, used a speech in the House of Lords to make a quip about a united Ireland under royal rule.
There is a view that what southern Irish politics needs is some good old-fashioned Unionist discipline. The argument is that this eventually enabled Unionists to get devolved government back to the north of Ireland after IRA violence resulted in power being removed from Stormont in 1972.
Next year’s general election should see Taioseach Brian Cowen and his Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition removed from office. They are deemed to have messed up the Irish Republic in big way. But they will leave their mess behind them, so what next?
Five years ago, when the Celtic Tiger was at its peak and roaring, suggestions of a closer partnership between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom would have been met with derision.
But Irish politics has shown it can make a good fist of attempting the art of the impossible in recent years. The proposal that the Irish Republic should join the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has slightly more credence since the credit crunch hit the southern property market.
As far as those who make this proposal are concerned, the Republic has demonstrated what happened around the globe after the British gave up their empire. When the natives take over, they return to their old tribal past and cripple the nation. It may have taken almost 90 years, but that has happened in the south of Ireland, so the argument goes.
If Britain could guarantee its economic survival, what would the Irish Republic be prepared to accept? The Irish crisis is even more serious than the Greek tragedy.
Gerry Adams’ southern venture is not just about raising Sinn Fein’s profile. Does he fear the only hope of an Irish political and economic revival – and perhaps even survival – involves closer ties with Britain.
There has long been big talk in nationalist circles about establishing a united Ireland by 2016 – the centenary of the Easter Rising. Given the scale of the south of Ireland’s decline, the united island may be more likely to involve the British Isles.
It is ironic that Adams unveiled his “invasion” plans just before the silver jubilee of the Anglo-Irish Agreement which gave the south of Ireland its first say in the running of the north’s affairs since the 1920s. A quarter of a century later, the boot is on the other foot. The north of Ireland now has the chance to have a significant influence in the south.
Adams has recognised that southern Irish voters want to see genuine and fundamental political change. Even Ian Paisley senior is a hero among some southern citizens.
For a growing section of Unionist opinion, the south is no longer the bogeyman. These Unionists thinks it is time for some economic common sense and the Protestant work ethic to get the Republic of Ireland back on its feet.
Could we one day again see the union flag fluttering over Dublin Castle? “Never, never, never”, many will say. And that’s just what Ian Paisley senior told more than 100,000 Unionists in 1985 at Belfast City Hall about doing business with Sein Fein. But Paisley did do business with Sinn Fein, just as Peter Robinson, his successor as Northern Ireland’s First Minister, still does.
