Introducing Irish Unionism

Introducing Irish Unionism

It has been a long-standing tradition in Ireland that to be a Unionist one had to be British. This notion has bedevilled relations between these two Islands for centuries. It is the contention of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein that to resolve the Irish problem unionism will have to change from Britishness to Irishness.

For this change to be realized the Crown would have to be reformed in relation to Ireland. The Irish will never do a U –turn in their history and revert to loyalty to a British Crown. However Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein contends that the Irish can return to loyalty to a reformed Crown with out doing an historical U-turn.

In principle a union between these islands is acceptable since the islands have a close historical connection especially having to do with the Crown, provided that such a union is democratically acceptable to the people. Had such a union been established in 1801 the history of the United Kingdom would have been a happy one free from discord, but being imposed and favouring the protestant ascendancy the United Kingdom was doomed to violence discord and failure. The United Kingdom remains military imposed in the six counties and has engendered violence and will end in failure. Right Wing Union Jack Unionism have betrayed the idea of the union in their collaboration in the Assembly with Late Sinn Fein who are the arch enemies and implacable foes of the Union and are out to destroy it. Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein holds that the idea of a new union is good in principle but that such a new unionism can only be realized in Irishness not in Britishness. Irish Unionism can be accepted by those in Ireland who are Irish to the core but who find no inconsistency in being loyal to a reformed Crown. For those Protestants in Ireland who cling to Britishness in the forlorn hope that the ascendancy can be preserved need to wake up to the cold fact that while the day of the ascendancy is now over, the notion of the union can be retained in the concept of a Federal Kingdom.

To establish a Federal Kingdom in these islands will require a written constitution for Ireland. This will require that the National Government of Ireland Act be written. This Act should give a written democratically acceptable constitution for the Federal Kingdom of The Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain. For a constitution to be democratic it must enjoy the overwhelming support of all of the people. This overwhelming support for the constitution is absent in the six counties. There the constitution has only the support of a marginal majority. In effect the six county constitution is imposed by a marginal majority on a resentful minority and maintained by an armed militarily garrison. This unwritten undemocratic constitution is then rammed down the throats of the minority by a public posturing by the Orange Order on the Twelfth of July and by the Apprentice Boys in Derry in August. That is how an unwritten constitution operates. Were such demonstrations solely religious in Nature they would be acceptable but since they are the expression of an imposed constitution they should not be found in a democratic state. This constitutional conflict is evident on the Garvaghy Road. The resolution of this historic conflict lies in the promotion of the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein with a written constitution for all Ireland in a Federal Kingdom context, the constitution being acceptable to all, be it the Catholics of Kerry or the Protestants of Derry. Irish Unionism in the National Government of Ireland Act can remove the walls of sectarian division in Belfast and make the painting of kerbstones red white and blue or green white and orange a thing of the past. It can transform fortress police stations into freely accessible democratic buildings open to an accepting population but above all else Irish Unionism can rid all of Ireland of its national sickness, sectarianism In all of this neither Catholic or Protestant have anything to fear but fear itself.

It was the constitutional claim of the late Brian Faulkner that Northern Ireland is the same as Yorkshire. There is an attempt by the British Establishment to treat the six counties, as the same as Yorkshire, since the Assembly was put in place but the dogs in the street know that to be a fallacy. The people of Yorkshire aren’t disputing the constitution and that dispute makes the six counties different and unique in these Islands but the Irish Unionism of Federal Unionism-Early Sinn Fein recognises the unique nature of the six counties and knows how to resolve it.


Michael Gillespie B.Ed BSc ( Econ) Dip. Ed D.A.S.E. M.A.(Ed)