Every once in a while the Northern Ireland corporate media get all 'excited' about asking someone with a modicum of profile about their thoughts about a 'United Ireland'. There have been a few of these again just recently - here's one of them.
It's not an unreasonable question to put to an interviewee, but it's always just the same old same old. The 'excitement' is only because the corporate media remains stuck in a political prism in which nearly every political issue is simplified into a kind of game in which two opposing teams face up against each other on a pitch, and one of them will win. At least it's not a blood sport any more, but it's a very limited mentality.
People change their nationality all the time – never for an impersonal cosmetic change like a flag or passport colour or a head of state, but always in pursuit of better opportunities and greater freedom. Only a lunatic would change their nationality for one with fewer opportunities and less personal liberty.
Some of my schoolfriends and my cousins left Northern Ireland for North America and became US or Canadian citizens, in order to have a better life. One of them has recently left California for Texas, in response to the deterioration of the former and the greater liberty of the latter. Migrants and refugees come here for the same reasons – seeking opportunities and freedoms, perhaps even escaping from life-endangering tyrannies. Very few want to return to the place they left.
In an Ireland context, you can even see this in the opening words of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant of 1912 –
"Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire..."
The safeguarding of stability, opportunity and liberty. Some readers might also see echoes of similar terminology in the 1916 Proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic (although that it solely blames an 'alien government' for 'fostering' the social 'difference' and 'division' in Ireland is quite the self-absolution).
So, would I ever change my nationality in pursuit of opportunity and liberty? Yes. Our ancestors did so. Appalachia would be great. Nationality is just a mechanism for liberty. But would the liberties and opportunities really improve, would my life really change that much? Most 'western' countries are in fact now pretty much the same – effectively borderless and entirely subject to the policies of the transnational forums they are members of, bound to international commerce and global tech corporations. Just remember what happened to Greece. The 'nation' is reduced to a cosmetic brand for its citizens to imagine, and remember, an attachment to.
If Northern Ireland were to one day become an authoritarian state which suppressed civil liberties then yes I'd be off like a shot, with my family. I would seek a place which protects liberty, not one which suppresses it.
Our neighbours in the Republic of Ireland look like they are heading in the very opposite direction. Some voices – like John McGuirk of Gript Media – are speaking out and opposing the endless state overreach. Here he is on the Niall Boylan Podcast. Really interesting in places, in particular the point that what were regarded as 'centrist' opinions circa 2008 could now be smeared as 'far right', thanks to the ever-shifting Overton Window. The crazy times we live in. The suppression of speech. Reducing liberties. This article in the Catholic Herald makes some strong observations of what may lie ahead in this new year of 2024. The eventual introduction of China-style 'social credit scores' in western nations is frequently hinted at these days.
To repeat the key point, only a lunatic would change their nationality for one with fewer opportunities and less personal liberty.
When the corporate media grapple with these things we might be getting somewhere. These are the real issue. Not nationality. Liberty. 
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• Have a look at this essay, 'The Conditions of Liberty', on the Dublin Review of Books by Adam Coleman, from September 2023
• Here's a link to the YouTube channel for the recent Ireland Uncensored event in Dublin
• Previous post here from back in July, re the Newstalk FM discussion with Ciara Kelly, about Ricky Gervais, quoting Nick Laird. Re-posting the video below:
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