@Jack Cassady: Centuries of oppression in Europe perhaps. The Irish oppression over the past century could be described as ‘self harm’.

@Heroin Chic:
Some people seem to insist that, now that the brexit vote has happened, the polls that happen now are all that matters.

Except brexit hasn’t yet happened. The vote was a change, this move by the EU is another change and there will be a LOT of changes to come when the true details of brexit come forward. That’s before the implementation of whatever the final brexit deal – which will be a series of changes all of which will effect NI.

The above is exactly the reason that there is no major push right now for a border poll. Those who will ask for a border poll have the sense that you can do it but if you fail you’d have to leave it alone for a while.

Once the true implications of brexit come in – if they happen to be negative, that will be the time to push a border poll.

@Big Lee: Four green fields, A nation once again. North men, South men, Comrades all. Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Donegal. Love upsetting the Haters and Traitors, No need to name them, they know who theyare.

@Heroin Chic: They said the same about peace in the North.

@Jack Cassady: Oh Jesus the irony of it all.Poor auld Maggie must be doing cartwheels now…..

@Jack Cassady: rubbish! There is a little matter of NI people voting to join the South. Think they would exchange the NHS for the third world HSE? Not to mention the rafts of new taxes the crooked, corrupt government would lay on them.Get real! Until the Republic’s standard of living is better than theirs it wont happen.

@Just Me: in your dreams

@Gus Sheridan: you’re forgetting that life under the Tories in NI who are hell bent on austerity is no bed of roses, and the NHS is not the be all and end all either

@Gus Sheridan: wtf gus having lived in both u r miles off NHS is a disaster just like our hse

@Dave Harris: i have used both the NHS and the HSE, the gulf between them is enormous! Our nearest A&E is now 90 kilometers away after FG closed down our local one. Joining the south would be crazy for the foreseeable future, maybe one day..

@richard fennessy: the NHS is in a different class, I have had experience if both.

Where did you get the majority fact from?

@Gus Sheridan: I’d say it’s your nightmare.

@Pat Lonergan – more like Maggie’s doing Catherine wheels now given she’s likely on fire for all eternity. Ding-Dong.

@Big Lee: Will Enda Kenny now be blamed for Irish Unity

@Jack Cassady: they don’t want northern Ireland and have been trying to offload it for decades, it’s a massive spiral of debt for whoever owns it.

Read this Gus and stop spouting lies and nonsense

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-mcwilliams/star-trek-boldly-predicting-return-of-the-north-in-2024-might-yet-come-to-pass-35664966.html

@Scundered: northern Ireland should go out on its own sort out its own mess before joining the south, pure disaster the north

@Gus Sheridan: The state of the HSE is appalling, we all know that. But the NHS is catching up fast. I have two friends that suffered knee injuries that require surgery and their waiting time is awful. One had an accident in November 2016 and the earliest date for surgery is September 2017! She’s on crutches and in agony. The other hurt herself in February and her date for surgery is December!

@Just Me: CLub RCC would be rubbing their greedy hands together. How many hospitals and schools and land would they be “gifted” up north should a thing like that ever happen+

@Big Lee: when you say ‘again’ what period are you referring to?

@prop joe: so Irish people are happy to join a Superstate with no influence, run by the people who came second in WWII,ended in tears for them and it will again. Remember we signed up for the EEC and not this superpower.

@prop joe: At last Angela Merkel is consistent

@Avina Laaf: don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Britain to leave. I have family there who are all remainers and I am on the remainers side. But the leavers seem to have this over blown idea that Europe will not go on without them and have an over inflated idea of self worth and the bubble is going to pop.

@Fred Jensen:
I wouldn’t really say that. Ireland’s second biggest export market (and that excludes tourism – uk visitors are our biggest overseas market).

@Avina Laaf:

I just told you, they’re only 11% of 2016 exports.

Brexit will have no implications for tourism whatsoever. Unless the British become much poorer and the pound plummets further.

@Fred Jensen: That’s the point – a weakened Britain will see reduced tourism and less money coming into Ireland.
Exports to Britain are worth close to €20bn – you don’t think losing a sizeable chunk of that isn’t going to have a negative impact on our economy??

Add to that, Britain has always been a net contributer to the EU. When that money is gone the remaining net contributers will have to cough up more (leaving less money circulating in their own economies) whilst the net recipients will inevitably receive less (ditto), all of which will further impact Ireland’s economy.

You’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think our economy isn’t going to be impacted by Brexit.

@Fred Jensen: not correct to focus on %. high value low volume goods skew the data. agri is lower on margin but higher on the number of workers. the uk is irelands biggest export market for agri. the uk imports 45bln in agri from the Eu. 10% of that ie. 4.5bln from ireland alone. the uk market is crucial for ireland.

@Avina Laaf: Yeah but there’s still the common travel area so I wouldn’t worry too much about tourism from the UK tbh.

There are loads of effects for Ireland and people keep going on about the trade between the UK and Ireland. Personally I don’t think there’s much to worry about here. Either your local Tesco stays cheap or people start buying more from Aldi & Lidl.

I can also see the EU making moves to support Ireland a bit more in terms of finding ways to offset some issues that will affect Ireland. Things like encouraging other EU countries to promote their products through Cherbourg/Rosslaire more or looking at Ireland as a potential location for some of the things the UK will lose.

@Fred Jensen:
Trade between Britain and Ireland is 1 billion a week.

@gregory: That won’t change to much. The EU doesn’t have the Agri land to support itself, they literally can’t produce enough to feed themselves so they will continue to need imports from the EU.

@Francis Devenney: Sorry the UK doesn’t have the Agri land to support itself,

@Tony Canning:
With respect Tony, I think you’re missing the point re. tourism. It’s not about whether there is or isn’t a common travel area, it’s about UK tourists having reduced spending power meaning that inevitably many of them will choose to stay and holiday at home where their money goes further instead of travelling to Ireland where they’ll find everything expensive.
Also it isn’t about whether people shop in Tesco’s or Aldi, it’s about Irish exports to the UK being reduced.

@Francis Devenney:
That’s not quite true. Although the UK currently imports 40% of it’s food (much of which is the type of food that simply cannot be produced there, eg. bananas etc.) most analysts have concluded that with changes in practice there is ample land available to feed the current uk population.

@Avina Laaf: Yes, but those who won’t get as much for their money on going further afield may instead come to Ireland. Some of these things are swings and roundabouts that nobody can definitively say.

As for our exports. The ferry goes both ways from Rosslaire.

@gregory:

The UK market is not as crucial as is made out. The ROI exported €117 billion in total in 2016. Just 11% of that went to the UK. You seem to be giving agriculture some special status, as though its more important than the other sectors of the economy. It’s not. In fact, it’s the other sectors particularly tech, finance and pharma which is what have driven improvements in our standard of living.

@Fred Jensen:
80% of all our exports go to/through the UK so if we are going to get along “just fine” as you predict then what’s all the fuss about?

@Fred Jensen: no mention of any socialist anything! And not only will an inch have to be given but many miles of concessions and changes. Police/Military/Education/Health/Transport/Government/Social Welfare and many more would need to be reimagined and redesigned. Like it or not I can’t see the PSNI just merging into AGS or the NHS in the north becoming part of the HSE can you?

@John Cotter:

NI would adopt the euro and be a part of the ROI, just like Connaght and just like Munster. No difference. Why would anything have to be redesigned, the people of NI would have voted to become part of the ROI. We would have to give them what they desire.

@Fred Jensen: but could the referendum not be to reunify under a new constitution? Why do we in the north have to become part of the ROI when a new constitution makes much more sense?

@John Cotter: IT may well be the opportunity to shake the tree,we need a bill of rights ,we need open and transparent local and central government ,and we need a judicial system that takes pride in its work ,judges appointed on merit not cronyism .yes it could be the beginning of a long sought after modern democratic republic

@Niall Campbell: I’m sure that would be all worked out before a unity vote.

@Niall Campbell:

Niall – because NI would require billions of euros in subsidies by the government in Dublin. In such a situation, you don’t have much leverage to change anything about the 26 counties.

@Anthony Gallagher:
We need that now never mind if we had a UI!

@Fred Jensen: East Germany was only separated from the west from 1945 onwards and NI has been separated for nearly 100 years. On top of that, the country was united under foreign rule for hundreds of years and the population oppressed. Germany and Ireland, are not the same and are totally different situations.

@Anthony Gallagher: you cannot really expect to get on open and transparent govt here, since when in the past 8 years especially there hasnt been any sign of it ….

@John Smith: The EU is far from united, look around, the Visegard block for example Hungary, Czechs, Slovakia, Poland, they are not cow towing to Merkels EU, Greece and Italy the Elephant in the room, and now Brexit.. The EU needs a major rethink.

@John Smith: Wait until it becomes the USE then watch it become like Trumps America. Be careful what you wish for.

@Chris Kirk: Stability, have you seen what her open border policies have done for Europe over the last two+ years?? Blackmailed by Erdogan through the immigration deal, she’s no leader, she’s weak.

@Chris Kirk: Actually Merkel has only interest is a Europe with Germany in power dictating all European policy. You are actually deluded if you think Merkel gives a toss about our little island. Merkel & co showed what they thought of us with the austerity we were forced to suffer. She is really popular in Greece too. Angela only wants the Euro as currency because the Mark would make German exports too costly not because it benefits any other country. She couldn’t get enough undocumented migrants into Europe regardless of the cost because she needed to boost the population in her own country not because she had suddenly turned into Mother Theresa & now Europe is suffering with lives as well as economically.Angela is no friend of Ireland regardless of how much ass kissing Enda does to her

@Just Me:

I’m happy to federalise Europe. What you need to do is look outside the EU and name a place better than it. You won’t.

The problem with people who want the EU dismantled is they lack education and try to see the world based on emotion and pale half-truths and spin. They wouldn’t be happy if they were given a gold egg laying goose, they wallow in negativity, they moan and complain their way through life waiting for something they don’t know they want, blinkered like a pack animal, a real drain on the party. If you don’t like it you can leave, close the door on your way out to your mythical utopia. Xandu is not real.

@Lepanto: the vast majority of terrorist attacks in Europe have been carried out by people that were in Europe long before Merkel did anything

@John Smith: Thenn how come we have a two tir health system and suicide is rampant because life is unbearable for thousands here. How come unemployment in real terms is a disaster. How come we have 200 billion of debt that came from the bankers. How come the richest bankers and developers are now bailed out scott free continuing the disastrous property bubble that caused the collapse only to now have a new one. Wake up and smell the coffee. But wait you are probably well off so you have no idea what suffering at the bottom of the heap is like living in Ireland today. A two tier Ireland of haves and have nots where the gap between rich and poor gets wider and wider daily. An EU that made us sell our natural assets to pay massive interest rates on foreign bankers debts. Thats just for starters. Come down out of your ivory tower and join the real world.

@Christopher Gardiner:

I suggest you look to countries outside the EU and compare. Employment is up, inward investment is huge, we just came out of the worst recession ever terribly managed by a Fianna Fail government. It’s about time we focused on the positives, we are a tiny country that punches well above our weight. You blame the EU for all your problem, you’d be better off blaming Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern. Without a bailout we’d be a basket case now. But don’t let that get in the way of your bedroom economics. The UK is leaving, with 16 million people with less than 100 pounds in their bank accounts and 1 million people visiting food banks. They blame the EU for Tory mismanagement. And their suffering is only just starting, it will be a calamity for the UK.

@Christopher Gardiner: The answer to your question is because the European Union is not a federal system each member state has a very large degree of discretion as to how to run it’s society and economy. Blaming the European Union for our own mistakes is typical of so many people who don’t wish to look in the mirror and accept responsibility. Indeed one could argue that the fact that we have such discretion as a member state is one of the main reasons Ireland’s economy imploded. Perhaps if the adults had been in charge we would not find ourselves in this predicament. But please continue blaming the European Union for all our problems. In this respect you are very like those in the UK, the Brexiteers, who blame all ills on the EU. I wonder whom they will find to blame once they leave?

@John Smith: So anybody that disagrees with you lacks education. That’s ok then must hand back my engineering degree.

@Chris Kirk: Merkel has made Europe stable by opening its doors to undocumented immigrants, mostly young men who will
Of course intergrate with the Reich?

@Dave O Keeffe: That and the fact that refugees in Germany hold massive respect and good will towards Merkel primarily. Some people are simply anti-muslim. they barely even realise they’re saying it most of the time.

@John Smith: you are deluded, I feel almost sorry for you.

@Gus Sheridan:

You don’t need to feel sorry for me, you should start with feeling sorry for yourself. Xenophobia is a pisspoor position to hold, the sign of a weak and feeble mind. You need to get out more my friend, the world is not out to get you, in fact it cares incredibly little about tiny you.

@Just Me:

Yep, you probably should. But of course I’m not debating engineering, I know not at a lot about it, except that 3 months studying it made me realise it’s boring beyond belief. But I am debating the EU, and am specifically talking about being versed in that educationally. How engineering would help you in a debate about political economies I’m not sure, you’d be better to answer that conundrum. Here’s a tip, reading the Daily Mail and random facebook posts is not educating yourself.

@John Smith: Never before has the EU been more disjointed. Brexit, Le Pen in France should she win would leave the Euro & hold a referendum on EU exit, Dutch are far from happy in the EU. Extremism is rife. People can’t walk down the street without being mowed down by a terrorist in a vehicle & this is what you call peaceful. Merkel is only concerned with an EU that is run to suit Germany. The EU needs major reform. You are deluded if you think the EU is the answer to all our prayers.

@Tony Canning:

Being opposed to Islamists, political Islam and the penal laws of Sharia law is logical, it’s common sense… Muslim is not Islam.

@John Smith: Germany tried that before. Didn’t work out very well for the Jews

@John Smith: I travel in Europe quite often and have no fear of other European residents. The problem is Merkel opened the borders
and now has made Europe less safe with so many undocumented immigrants. Of course if you mention this you are branded racist.
I am not racist , I am a realist.

@Lepanto: On what I see as the majority of comments wrt muslims on this site there is zero effort made to specify the difference.

And any attempt to point that out often results in personal attacks and accusations of sympathy with terrorists.

Language is important.

@John Smith: Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don’t read the Daily Mail, nor am I on Facebook. You on the other hand must have learned economics and arrogance from Michael Noonan and spoof from Frau Merkels puppet Enda.

@Dave O Keeffe:

So you admit she did something?? Also I said the last 2+ years Dave, Islamic State said they would flood Europe with fighters and weapons using the migrant crisis, it has come to pass, France is still in a state of emergency also.

@Just Me: I’ll have it.

@Tony Canning:

Do you know the difference between Islam and political Islam?

@Lepanto:
https://youtu.be/VU-QDWBTnfc

@Lepanto: MERKEL unlike many other leaders in europe ,has been left to sort out the financial chaos left over from weak electorates and gombeen administrators ,one of the few leaders that actually lives in rented accommadation

@Ciaran Kehoe: If Angela Merkel is no friend of Ireland then who is – Donald Trump perhaps..!!

@John Smith: We are not “a tiny country” nor do we “punch above our weight”. These are inaccurate and patronising cliches!

@Anthony Gallagher:

What has living in rented accommodation got to do with it? Does it make her special?

@Gus Sheridan:

I didn’t call you a racist, I called you a xenophobe. I’ve also traveled all over Europe multiple times. And I’ve traveled in Muslim countries. And Latin countries, to every continent on this globe. You know what you find? Humans are just humans, trying to get on with their lives safely, peacefully and prosperously. You are not a realist, you think you are but you are the same as many of the unwashed masses, misinformed. Europe is not less safe, how quickly you forget the IRA, ETA, Baader Meinhof, Ustaše, Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari, Babbar Khalsa, all terrorist organisations in Europe. And in our European back garden? War in the former Yugoslavia. And let us not forget World War 1, followed by World War 2. Europe is the safest it has ever been, there is simply more reporting through a much larger and diverse media.

@Ciaran Kehoe:

People are unhappy because they are uneducated about the EU. They would be far more unhappy if they voted in Le Pen. The UK are going to be extremely unhappy, but they will still blame the EU even though they got what they wanted, out of it. They will get no special treatment and then will cry about that fact like spoiled babies.

Name me one place better than the EU?

@Just Me:

Arrogance comes from dealing with people below you.

@Seán Mac Brádaigh:

We are a tiny country. 4 million people, half the population of London. Countries with tens of millions are not as recognised as us, nor do they enjoy the wealth we do. Ireland is known to everyone on Earth.

@John Smith: You are one arrogant, self righteous nonce. Get off that pedestal you have yourself up on. I’ve never read such tripe on here as I have from you. You epitomize a typical europhile who brands all and sundry stupid if they are eurosceptic. It’s impossible to hold an alternative opinion and converse with the likes of you.

@Chris Kirk:
Bolx… as far as I am concerned she tore up the EU treaty when she invited all those so called Syrian refugees in to Europe. Did she ask the other EU countries if that was ok? No she bloody well didn’t! So, on that basis alone, what’s all the fuss about EU borders (Brexit) when Merkel & Co had did not give a flying duck about those same borders 2 years ago? If she can open the borders then so can we.

@kenneth clohessy:
Make some effort with punctuation ffs!

@kenneth clohessy: go and live in this bastion of hope and freedom then. Oh yeah you can’t because they’re closing their borders and don’t want the likes of you!

@John Smith: Level of Argument????? Are we in college. Would you like us to use the Harvard method or perhaps Chicago. Will you go way and cop the F*ck on. Ye sicken me ye grammar police. Talk about insecure. So punctuation is you see. Sad sad man.

@Christopher Gardiner: John Smith is a typical blueshirt as arrogant as Noonan , it’s easy to tell.

@Darren Norris: you will want to move there when the EU collapses, its OK for the Germans at the moment, but think of ourselves first,you can bet your life they do!

@John Smith: The EU Grammer Police are here again!

@Deborah Behan: get your facts straight before you show yourself up!

@Gus Sheridan: ” its OK for the Germans at the moment, ” It’s good for everyone. I remember what both Ireland and Britain were like before the EU and I for one don’t want to go back there.

@John Smith: That’s pretty childish. Obviously you have lost your argument with Kenneth Clohessy

@kenneth clohessy: Like you, I blamed the EU for our problems and realized over time. It wasn’t them, it is us and the shower we re-elect every time. FG/FF/L/SF, are all the same and nothing will change until we stop voting for them.

@Tony Canning:
Mahmod Canning what a BS comment. Which Canning are you?

@kenneth clohessy: well said the Europe is only for the rich jobs for the boys.irish make me cry will they ever grow up .

@Brian Ward: Were absolutely no Unionists part of the 56% who voted to Remain?

@Brian Ward: Brian I think what Lee is saying is that it won’t translate into a border poll. And he’s right.

@Big Lee: You could ask the same question about nationalists. No doubt there were people from both sides who voted against the flow but the point still remains. If people really want to stay in the EU then after Brexit the only way that they could do that is by voting for a united Ireland. Once the EU subsidies dry up and the focus on the UK will shift to the “mainland” it won’t be long before Unionists realize that if they want to prosper they will have to divest themselves from the UK. Farmers alone will have their income devastated when the UK leaves the EU and I can’t see too many people on the “mainland” being overly happy about forking out extra dosh to a bunch of mad paddies who like to run riot every year around July or over “thur fleg”.

@Brian Ward: You should know by now Brian that Unionists have a fortress mentality and Brits have an inbuilt dislike (jealousy) of Germany and all that it stands for.

@Stephen murphy: So cash for ash is’nt curuption, that’s ok then

@Chris Kirk: That’s true Chris so I wouldn’t expect a united Ireland anytime soon. I’d let them stew for about 10 years or so and watch them eye a prospering Republic from their decaying fortresses. I’d also remind them that Belfast was the most prosperous city in Ireland before partition and look at it now in comparison to Dublin.

@Big Lee: It’s not all about Unionists, a % of them actually voted to remain. They were part of that 56%. Democracy is about Majority.

@Big Lee: Seriously how would any sane person willingly moor themselves to Ireland. You may as well tie a rope onto the bow of the Titanic.

@Brian Ward: True. I read recently that when Haarland and Wolf was thriving not one Catholic was employed. Thats shameful discrimination. Who knows maybe Karma is in the offing.