There is a strain in Irish thinking that is immutably hostile to Britain. This is well illustrated by a recent Irish Times editorial.
It begins by suggesting that as the Belfast Agreement obliges a Secretary of State to offer a referendum in Northern Ireland on Irish unity if it appears likely there is a majority for this goal, the same principle should apply to Scotland. It then takes the Scottish nationalist line that circumstances have changed since the 2014 referendum because the UK left the EU against the wishes of Scottish voters. The Irish Times clearly thinks that Scotland should get another referendum merely because there are polls favouring independence and the SNP.
But there is no equivalent of the Belfast Agreement between Scotland and the other parts of the UK, nor indeed is there such an agreement between anywhere else in Europe. No part of France, Spain or Germany can claim a referendum to join or secede merely by expressing a majority to do so in an opinion poll. Parts of European countries such as Alsace Lorraine, South Tyrol or Southern Schleswig cannot demand a poll to rejoin Germany, Austria and Denmark. Nor can anywhere else. Nor for that matter does Ireland or Irish people encourage secession in other EU member states, only in Britain. Odd that.
The reason we have a Belfast Agreement is because there was thirty years of terrorism by the IRA and because Ireland claimed a part of British territory and wanted to annex it. Without that claim and that desire, the IRA would have had no campaign to fight. If Ireland had accepted that Northern Ireland was permanently part of the UK and had said that we don’t want it, then the IRA would have always known that its bombs would not achieve its goal. It was only because Ireland had the same aim as the IRA that there was an IRA war in the first place and only for that reason also was Ireland part of the peace process at the end of it.
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Brexit Britain Applying to Join 11-Nation Pacific Free Trade Pact
(2) The totalitarian creep of hate-speech laws
(4) They finally get it! Ireland could quit bloc as EU disrespect now clear – ex-diplomat
(5) Lie after lie after lie – nasty threat against UK is darkest stain on the EU’s soul so far