The centenary of Northern Ireland is a time for joyful reflection on reaching such an important milestone, and London should say so

The UK government does indeed plan to celebrate the centenary of Northern Ireland.

The prime minister spoke about that intention yesterday on his visit to the Province.

The Northern Ireland Office minister of state Robin Walker writes on the opposite page about it (in the print edition, see alos link below). This is all welcome.

However, Mr Johnson’s visit highlighted how difficult mandatory coalition is under the current leadership of Sinn Fein.

Instead of staying largely quiet, and saying that republicans had a different take on the history of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill said that the country was “built on sectarianism, on gerrymandering, and an in-built unionist majority”.

This grievance mongering nonsense is often cited, but the deputy first minister of a place called Northern Ireland should either accept the entity, with all its imperfections, or make way for someone who does.

Her criticism is nonsense because partition of course tried to reflect the tribal divide. The Catholic population overwhelmingly supported independence (or at least Home Rule) a century ago, Protestants overwhelmingly did not, and so the island was split as closely as it could be to those allegiances.

Mr Walker’s article opposite is to a troubling extent hesitant.

Why is consensus needed for this? Those who do not like Northern Ireland are not forced to celebrate the anniversary.

The Republic did not change its 2016 commemorations because unionists think their state was founded on terrorism.

Next year should be a full celebration of the fact of Northern Ireland (as a different jurisdiction to what was for decades a Catholic state), of the history, of the prosperity pre Troubles era, of the industry, of the defeat of attempts to shatter the state, of the most famous people and their achievements but also of the population at large and their spirit, of the countryside and of our place as an integral part of that thriving nation state, famous and popular globally, the United Kingdom.

• Robin Walker: The centenary of Northern Ireland is a key anniversary for the whole of the United Kingdom

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