That is why I hope TDs who favour citizens' assemblies, Border polls or white papers, take heed of what Colum Eastwood had to say last Sunday on The Week in Politics. In short, don't start throwing premature shapes about citizens' assemblies, Border polls and white papers, which only alienate our Protestant neighbours. First, Daly's white paper fits the definition of a white elephant: "a possession that is useless or troublesome". A white paper cannot paper over the sectarian divide; it can only follow the coming together of a band of brothers, north and south. The publication of any white paper on Irish unity must follow an agreed unity by both unionists and nationalists, not precede it.

Source: Irish Independent December 22, 2019 06:56 UTC