The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, will tonight urge nationalists to reassure unionists that there is no "inevitable" constitutional arrangement in the Ireland of the future.
Dr Reid will return to the "cold place for unionism" theme in Galway this evening. He is to tell a banquet at the New University of Ireland in Galway tonight that "anyone who thinks simple demographics will solve the problems of Northern Ireland is destined to relive a mirror image of the past".
This comment follows some recent republican claims that the Catholic population will exceed the Protestant one, thus "inevitably" leading to unification.
Dr Reid is to appeal to his academic audience to "challenge the historical assumptions which drive the conflict in Northern Ireland". "You can reach out to unionists and convince them that their history is valuable and their identity is inalienable," he will say.
And in a reference to the prospects of a united Ireland Dr Reid added: "You can reassure unionists that what matters is a peaceful, just, democratic, and richly diverse island, not an ancient constitutional struggle. You can reassure them there is no inevitable constitutional arrangement for this island, that the future is genuinely open."
Dr Reid will state that "violent republicanism and violent unionism have failed. Both are prisoners of history - because their visions of the future are based on wishes that the past had been different.
"And both threaten each other because they proclaim a future in which the other does not exist. But there are signs that things are changing. Straws in the wind that suggest old battle cries are being quietly abandoned."
