Unionists should be active in the debate about a new Ireland

After 100 years of independence, the dominant language in the Republic of Ireland is still English. That says a lot about cultural hegemony.

Instead of unionists fearing a united Ireland, unionists should be active in the debate about the specifics of how a united Ireland might function in the event of a majority or majorities deciding this is what they preferred.

Unionists, who would presumably be Malcontentists by default in a new Ireland, could bargain for favoured status within an all Ireland Dail Eireann. The Irish constitution already enshrines religious freedoms for all religions and that presumably includes Protestantism.

The Orange Order in Donegal seem to be able to follow their tradition without hindrance. It’s hard to banish hundreds of years of cultural conditioning, but we have worse things to fear than a vanishing border.

I also imagine that unionists in a united Ireland would have more equal status with their southern brethren than they had with their mainland compatriots as Northern Ireland has always been treated differently to the rest of the UK. As evidence I contend why there was the need for the Campaign for Labour Representation in the 1980s?

And there’s our ‘dear friend’ the NI Protocol!

Louis Shawcross, Hillsborough, Co Down