The past 10 days have seen three noteworthy interventions in the ongoing debates over political reform in Northern Ireland and constitutional change on the island as a whole. Addressing Alliance’s annual conference, Tánaiste Micheál Martin expressed support for the party’s proposals to replace the effective veto which Sinn Féin and the DUP currently exercise in the Assembly. Announcing the launch of its New Ireland Commission last week, the SDLP confirmed its own support for Stormont reform and commitment to achieving Irish unity through partnership and co-operation.
This enthusiasm for reconciliation and for making the North’s institutions work contrasts with the vision laid out by another policy document published this week by Ireland’s Future, the high-profile non-party advocacy organisation. In uncompromising language, the document, Ireland 2030, sets out the necessary steps to be taken in advance of a unity referendum, the conditions for which, it argues, will be in place by 2030.
Ireland 2030′s call for a “broad political and civic coalition” is belied by some of the language elsewhere in the document. Pointing out correctly that under the terms of the Belfast Agreement a majority of 50 per cent plus one would be sufficient for change, it goes on to state that reconciliation need only come after such a vote has taken place. And it argues that ministers in the next government will be constitutionally required to advocate actively for unity. This is a prescriptive if not doctrinaire interpretation of the Constitution.
How seriously should such arguments be taken? Ireland’s Future has had some success in defining the parameters of debate around these issues. Its public events have attracted contributions from a range of public figures. The views expressed in its new document are legitimate and no doubt are held by many.
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But as political parties prepare their general election manifestos, it will be revealing to see how many heed any of Ireland’s Future’s list of demands, many of which hew so closely to Sinn Féin policy as to be indistinguishable.