I genuinely can't understand why there would be. FFS concessions need to be made on all sides if we're to get on. It worked for the GFA and happens in any negotiations. A bit of give and take goes a long way and people can still sing AnbF and have a tricolour if they want but just to encourage a smoother transition to a UI, which is what the vast majority in the south say they want, then why on earth not change the flag, anthem etc
There are days I simply don't understand your posts.
There is a game afoot. Reunification advocates are losing it massively. Not because of the Ipsos poll or what we would or wouldn't be prepared to concede on.
It's reacting to this stuff. The first job is to get the planning started. At the moment there is block on that from all sides except from the civic movement. Until that changes the only coverage on this will continue to be along the theme tune of "now is not the time" or "it will never be the time". So every time a poll like this one comes out it will be pounced on and the media will go to town on it. That's fair and reasonable from that viewpoint.
Every time you get an Ashcroft type poll - you will get paradoxically get the "it's just an outlier", "dubious polling source" etc etc.
There are a few things coming into confluence right now. 1) SF have polled at 30-35% for a long time now. 2) Irrespective of the likelihood of it happening, the prospect of SF in government in Dublin has galvanised those who don't want reunification to happen across the media, public discourse and of course its political opponents on both sides of the border. That is to be expected. 3) Cost of living crisis focusing minds on the euro in the pocket. 4) recovery from the pandemic.
And much as I might laud Shared Ireland Podcast, Think32 and other movements, Ireland's Future is the ONLY active movement trying to go about bringing controlled, open, agreed constitutional change on the island and some of them are being attacked for it.
This is going to take time. If for no other reason than the evidence for, justification for, undeniable democratic requirement for reunification will take some time to arrive. So any polling asking what people are prepared to concede or compromise on right now is as valid as any poll claiming 50% to 27% as some kind of victory. It is for a purpose. And the interpretation of both proves it.
Posted many times and it is increasingly being pointed out by Brian Feeney and other commentators in the North - our view of the issues, our view of the plight of nationalists for the last century, our view of even what constitutes the Irish nation has been completely warped by the troubles and the PIRA campaign such that any acknowledgement of or advocacy for a 32 county Ireland, which is what Collins fought for in the war of independence, is seen as anything from tacit support for to out right justification of that PIRA campaign and therefore to be shunned accordingly. You can see evidence of it every day in this thread.
Reunification should be done properly. It should include planning, discussion and agreement ideally in advance of a BP but cannot be stalled for the lack of willing engagement. The reality on the ground is that a BP held at the end of the decade will pass or fail by Brexit margins. A BP planned for and executed properly will pass safely enough. That reality is something that is being ignored in the hope if it is not discussed it will just go away and it won't - and it won't because our troubles happened 100 years ago but for the nationalist population their wish for freedom, no less justified than that of Collins or Tom Barry who we seek to commemorate has never been realised. I don't wish to assimilate anyone, I don't want to take away their Britishness, I understand that there is 800-900,000 people on the island who wish NI to stay part of the UK and they must be treated with respect and brought into a new agreed Ireland with a level of rights and freedoms that they systematically denied nationalists for a century. The GFA is the mechanism to achieve that.
Over the next few years I believe the rearguard action will intensify on both sides of the border because the change that is coming is inevitable.
We can bring about that change constructively, positively, including not marginalising, we can notionally build an entirely new Ireland based on rights as envisaged in the proclamation - in that Ireland, when the time comes, people will embrace a new symbology and a new identity but it is going to take time.
