SOCIETY both North and South is moving away from the majoritarian ethos, the Fianna Fail head of research, Dr Martin Mansergh, has said.
He was speaking at an Ogra Fianna Fail weekend conference in Dublin on the theme "Ireland - a Republican Party's perspective", which was attended by representatives of youth wings of the Ulster Unionist, Democratic Unionist, Alliance and UK Unionist parties. In April, members of Ogra Fianna Fail were in Belfast to respond to unionist speakers on a range of topics.
Dr Mansergh said dialogue was all the more important when tensions were high. "Anything that deconstructs the notion that we are mortal enemies because we have different long term political objectives helps. We all share a commitment, I believe, to the establishment of peace and stability in Ireland."
A sense of nationhood in Ireland went back centuries before modern nationalism. Throughout the 19th century people from both traditions worked together in the professions. While some landlords were callous during the Famine, others made great sacrifices in a joint effort to prevent starvation.
In the South, following partition, independent governments sought to fulfil Thomas Davis's ideals of economic self sufficiency and cultural integrity, though they largely ignored him on religion, even if a formal separation of Church and State was maintained.
Minority dominance of aspects of commercial, industrial and social life continued some time after independence, gradually giving way to equality and democratisation. The South today had moved away from a majoritarian ethos.
The influence of the churches on social legislation was more circumscribed. "Ireland today defines itself as pluralist, recognising the existence of many different types of minority. We have even recognised a Muslim school ahead of Britain and our reformed laws on homosexuality brought in by Maire Geoghegan Quinn as minister (for justice) are also more liberal and less discriminatory."
In Northern Ireland there was also a process of majoritarianism giving way to a recognition of two communities, with perhaps a third or middle element between them. But the transition from the majority ethos to partnership and power sharing could still create great friction.
Northern Ireland was still incontrovertibly part of a pluralist, multinational state - but to what extent did British tolerance and pluralism rub off in Northern Ireland during the summer? "I see little in common with the Britain I was largely brought up in," said Dr Mansergh.
Nations were evolving all the time, their composition and ingredients constantly changing. The Irish nation in that regard is no different from any other. In the modern world national boundaries have become fluid and less important. How people choose to define themselves is up to a point, a matter for themselves."
Senator Joe Lee, Professor of History at University College Cork, said that while much of what had changed was for the better we were still "prisoners of role massaging" in the way our ideas were formed.
We had largely dispensed with the authority of the Catholic Church but accepted the authority of a cluster of "media clerics". "In some ways we have gone from an authority based on moral code to opinion formers equally based on authority." We did not have genuine liberalism.
We had been much more successful in the way we handled the EU and had benefited more from it than poorer countries in southern Europe. That was a mark of our maturity.
Dr John Bradley, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute, said the island of Ireland formed a logical economic zone which would come to dominate economic welfare over time. It need not conflict with different cultural and political allegiances.
Mr Sean Haughey TD, who opened the conference, said it was taking place in an atmosphere of distrust between the two Northern communities. The decommissioning issue should not be allowed to bedevil the peace process. Disarming is part of the total talks process," he said.