I’m going to return this month to the theme of my last blog on Northern Ireland’s continued existence in a new or united Ireland, as outlined by SDLP leader Clare Hanna in her essay in the recent publication What Northern Ireland Means to Me. A clause recognising the passionate royalism of Northern unionists would be an impossible further step too far for the instinctive republicanism of the Southern electorate. A new Ireland based on city-regions – in which Northern Ireland could remain a large city-region – is utterly impractical, says O’Leary. I would like to add Mark Hennessy, Ireland and Britain editor of the Irish Times, to that list. 1 Making Sense of a United Ireland, p. 1352 https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2026/03/24/shared-ireland-programme-cannot-be-used-to-push-cause-of-irish-unity-jack-chambers-says/?

Source: The Irish Times April 02, 2026 14:18 UTC