BOOK OF THE DAY: Deagláin De Bréadún reviews Countdown to Unity: Debating Irish Reunificationby Richard Humphreys Irish Academic Press 228pp €24.95
THIS IS a moderate, thoughtful and stimulating book which gives a legal perspective on the issue of achieving Irish unity by peaceful means. It is a very worthwhile volume with many insights which deserves a wide readership among politicians, journalists, lawyers and academics on both sides of the Border and in both the nationalist and unionist communities.
The old saying that you can't judge a book by the cover is certainly true in this case. The photograph of a west Belfast republican mural is distinctly at odds with the measured tones of the author's carefully-written analysis. Nor does the title, with its overtones of "Six Hours; Six Divisions; Six Counties", reflect the humane and democratic spirit that is evident on every page.
As well as being a practising barrister, Richard Humphreys is legal adviser to the Parliamentary Labour Party and a candidate in the forthcoming local elections. As special adviser back in the 1990s to minister for equality and law reform Mervyn Taylor, he was involved in the successful campaign to lift the ban on divorce, so he knows about constitutional change both in theory and in practice.
As part of the Belfast Agreement concluded on Good Friday, 1998, nationalist Ireland agreed that unity could only come about with the consent of a majority in Northern Ireland. However, as former attorney general Rory Brady writes in his foreword to this volume:
"Unity may have been redefined by the new Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution, but it has remained as a constitutional imperative. The guarantee that violence will not be used to effect constitutional change is merely one commitment. In parallel to that, and of equal importance, is the duty to give effect to the firm will of the Irish nation 'to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland'."
Humphreys gives us a very useful legal and political commentary on the Good Friday document. The agreement provides for a Border poll to be called by Britain's secretary of state "if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland". There must be a seven-year gap between such polls. So it's all to play for - but only by peaceful political means.
Frankly, it is difficult to envisage a 32-county State unless Britain becomes a "persuader" for unity, as sought by Eamon de Valera in 1938. Humphreys teases out many of the legal and constitutional implications of a possible vote in favour of unity, not only for ourselves but also our larger neighbour: "For example, the name of the state would inevitably revert back to the 1707 name of 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain'. The national flag would again be likely to change by reverting to the 1707 model with the removal of the St Patrick Cross from the Union Jack. Northern Irish MPs would cease to be entitled to take their seats at Westminster."
Events will decide whether this book comes to be seen, in time, as a curiosity and an Irish republican version of Sir Thomas More's Utopia, or alternatively as a practical roadmap to a long-sought goal. Either way, it's a valuable contribution to current political debate.
• Deaglán de Bréadún is a political correspondent with The Irish Timesand author of The Far Side of Revenge: Making Peace in Northern Ireland, published by Collins Press (second edition, 2008)