Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ATTACKS ON SINN FÉIN are hardly a rare event in the Dáil. But a blistering response by Taoiseach Micheál Martin to the party’s questioning of the new Shared Island Unit – the civil service division charged with reinvigorating cross-border relations – revealed something of the complex role it could play as Fianna Fáil tries to balance principle and pragmatism.
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh had told Martin in the Dáil that she had real concerns that the Shared Island Unit, with its deliberatively inoffensive name, was potentially dodging the question of a united Ireland.
“That is why many supporters of the Taoiseach’s party are leaving and joining Sinn Féin. I can only speak from my experience in Mayo on that,” she said.
Martin’s response revealed an emerging faultline that may come to define the electoral battle between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, as the country heads towards a potentially complicated period of commemoration.
“I have worked hard behind the scenes, and as a Minister, to develop collegiate arrangements with people of all political persuasions in the North,” Martin began.
“I do not need lectures from you or from anybody on the Sinn Féin side of the House. Fianna Fáil was essential, working with others, to the Good Friday Agreement. Fianna Fáil enabled your party to give up the gun,” he said.
You endorsed violence as the way to unify Ireland and what you did was you did more damage than anybody else in relation to a United Ireland. And you continue to endorse that narrative, not understanding that every time you endorse the narrative of violence you make it more difficult than ever to get a united Ireland or to get consent.
It was a new line of attack from Martin – and one apparently welcomed internally. Within hours, the Dáil speech appeared on Fianna Fáil’s Facebook page to quickly become one of the most popular posts of that week. That same evening, it was also shared approvingly by Ógra Fianna Fáil on Twitter.
Despite the government passing the 100-day mark this month little is known about the Shared Island Unit, which was described by the Programme for Government as “examining the political, social, economic and cultural considerations underpinning a future in which all traditions are mutually respected”.
Established four years after the Brexit vote pushed discussion of a united Ireland into the mainstream and three years since an Oireachtas committee published a landmark report called “Uniting Ireland & Its People in Peace & Prosperity”, hopes are high for the unit.
But observers have wondered whether the Shared Island Unit is secretive – or simply has nothing to hide. To Sinn Féin, the loudest voice in Irish politics calling for a border poll, the unit has promise, even if so far it has proved a disappointment.
For some supporters of Irish unity, patience towards the Shared Island Unit is running out. A civil service department is useful, they say, but only if it’s actively planning for unity.
But while no one would deny that the new division’s philosophy will be shaped by the measured approach of Martin, not everyone in Fianna Fáil believes that’s a bad thing.
TheJournal.ie spoke to several people – inside and outside politics – to get a sense of what kind of work this new division might be doing.
Questions
Conway Walsh, speaking to TheJournal.ie, said she was “taken aback” by Martin’s rebuttal.
She stressed that her party backed the Shared Island Unit and believed it was a “real opportunity for it to structure the dialogue” around Irish unity.
“It’s an opportunity if it’s set up right and it’s resourced right,” she said. “My question was where it’s at and what resources have been allocated. It was tasked with a wide range of opportunities, which I thought was a good thing again.”
Those wide-ranging questions were drafted as the Covid-19 pandemic surged across the country, although long before more recent worries emerged about how the North is handling the virus.
They include further developing an all-island economy, while also working on cross-border greenways and roads. Crucially, the document promises to work with the UK government and Northern Ireland Executive on the long-sought-after development of Ulster University’s Magee campus along the border in Derry.
The unit is currently headed by Aingeal O’Donoghue, a senior and experienced civil servant originally from the Department of Foreign Affairs. But while the overarching scope of the unit is clear – to craft better cross-border relations – the long-term strategy is more opaque.
In an interview with the Irish Times, Martin seemed to deny it was a “stalking horse” towards ending partition. But if it is even the first, tentative step towards broaching that question, is the unit set to be a permanent fixture of the taoiseach’s department? Or, more radically, is it there to lay the groundwork for a more explicitly political body?
No one yet knows.
Sinn Féin’s expectations for the unit go well beyond Martin’s apparent ambitions. The party wants it to shape conversations in a way that would ultimately lead to a citizens’ assembly, a cross-party Oireachtas committee and, ultimately, a referendum.
“It wouldn’t just be civil servant-led,” Conway-Walsh said. Still, she said that she wasn’t writing off the unit just yet.
But aspects of Sinn Féin’s vision might be closer to Fianna Fáil’s original plans than first thought. TheJournal.ie understands that a political appointee was initially intended to head up the unit.
It’s understood that the sensitivities of Brexit, as the UK and the EU struggle to reach a deal, led to the decision to step back from a political appointee and contributed to the more gradual development of the unit.
And while a government spokesperson denied this was the case, it would have most likely seen a former politician or external figure with political experience lead the work of the unit.
“The Taoiseach provides overall political direction for the unit, which is part of the Taoiseach’s Department and staffed by the civil service,” the spokesperson said.
Nonetheless, civil servants have proved key players of Northern Irish policy since the early days of the State. The Good Friday Agreement furthered that ability to develop cross-border relationships.
Ireland’s last Cork Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, was heavily influenced by the behind-the-scenes work of pioneering civil servant TK Whitaker as the country responded to growing violence in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s.
Indeed, leading civil servants – primarily from the Department of Foreign Affairs – have always been crucial in strengthening cross-border ties.
Trinity College Dublin’s Dr Etain Tannam, an expert on British-Irish relations, believes that placing the unit in the Department of the Taoiseach “signifies more intensive prime ministerial leadership”.
It’s a significant step forward, she believes, even if it remains in line with previous policy approaches by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Even from the description of the unit’s aims in the programme for government, she said: “There hasn’t been that kind of leadership in a policy document for years.”
Part of this is pragmatic, influenced by the whirlwind four years since Brexit. Yet it’s also about a more principled desire to return to the stability of the Good Friday Agreement and to create a more proactive engagement with the North and the agreement’s institutions.
As Martin told the Irish Times last month: “We just have to get on with the agreement.”
Tannam thinks the involvement of Micheál Martin could prove crucial. “I think he is genuine about his commitment to Northern Ireland,” she said. Some prime ministerial leadership, she added, has been lacking in the years following the St Andrews Agreement in 2006, which restored Stormont and reformed some of the contentious issues that had divided Sinn Féin and the DUP.
“I don’t think it’s superficial or window dressing,” Tannam said. “Because it’s envisaging coordination and research and examination of policy across all sectors, the Department of the Taoiseach would make sense.”
@fiannafailparty has done more for a United Ireland than Sinn Féin ever will.
— Ógra Fianna Fáil (@OgraFiannaFail) September 29, 2020
We will never achieve a United Ireland by endorsing a narrative of violence, or by using it as a political football.
Consensus will be the key.
Listen in full to Taoiseach @MichealMartinTD: pic.twitter.com/wvnvx9Rfnj
Tannam believes that the Shared Island Unit could be with us for a long time. “We’ve had a transformative shock to the system with Brexit,” she said. The Covid-19 pandemic – which raises difficult questions about an all-island response – only adds to that.
“It could be seen as managing unification, if that happens,” she said.
Others play down somewhat the significance of the unit. Former diplomat Bobby McDonagh told TheJournal.ie, following the launch of the unit, that it was “in line with the policy that successive governments have had”.
For him, it was “building on something that was there already”, while also being “something new”.
Fianna Fáil
Yet the Shared Island Unit appears to mean different things within Fianna Fáil, where there is some pressure to see progress on an issue that is woven into the party’s identity and nominal purpose.
To some, the Shared Island Unit should be a key part of what the party stands for. Fianna Fáil’s muscular republicanism historically set it apart from Fine Gael, especially during the Troubles. Now, much of that ground has been ceded to Sinn Féin.
For others, the unit is at once more prosaic but also more radical for being so focused on the granular detail of what a shared island would look like.
“My sense is that what we are going to be looking at is creating a new country,” Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne said. That requires deep thought on issues like health, security and policing. Like others TheJournal.ie spoke to, Byrne said he had no real knowledge of what the unit was working on.
He said that the idea it would be a more inward-looking body was appropriate for this stage of discussions on Irish unity “This is about serious policymaking, about planning for a variety of options. It’s not about quick slogans. It’s about looking at the nuts and bolts of issues,” according to Byrne.
He said that wider engagement with civil society and the public would come later.
The government insists that work is underway at the Shared Island Unit. And while there is no indication of what progress has been made so far, there is an indication that it may be more outward-focused than some imagine.
A government spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that the work is being led by an Assistant Secretary, with two staff appointed and “further assignments in train”.
The spokesperson also said that it intends to work with “research, sectoral, business and community organisations” as well as “engaging with political, government and civil society representatives on an inclusive basis North and South”.
They also said that the UK government’s Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Executive had been formally told that the work of the unit was beginning.
Unionists
The response from unionists in Northern Ireland so far has not been entirely dismissive. While First Minister Arlene Foster took aim at some of Martin’s comments regarding the future of the UK’s attachment to the North, there has been no large-scale, organised opposition to the unit.
Ian Marshall, a former unionist member of the Seanad, said he saw the unit as about “creating a safe space in which a conversation could be had about the future across the island”.
The largely muted reaction from unionists so far, he said, is probably down to the ambiguity about what the Shared Island Unit stands.
Indeed, Marshall suggests that this ambiguity may prove to be a work of genius in terms of facilitating discussion.
“It is what you want it to be,” he said. “It only works if you have all the voices around the table.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Fianna Fail are a spent force ,old Dev must be rolling in his grave at his so called Republican party ,at this stage it’s a Publican’s party and they are so impotent now that they couldn’t organise a pish up in a brewery.
@Paul Mc: ah yes dev, the man that basically sold Ireland to the catholic church.
So people like unelected archbishop McQuad could hold more power in this country then most elected officials did.
Yeah, dev was great by allowing this and enabling the church in its rape and abuse of Irish citizens so the church could make money off of suffering.
@Paul Mc: who cares about Dev.
@Paul Mc: thats the language that will surely speed an agreed Ireland. Any party that signs up for agreement that Britain has a democratic right to remain in is not a republican party. Any party that invokes the spirit of Sands or Pearse may think they are
Republican but still accept British rule in Ireland are certainly not republican. So FF and SF you are both cut from the same cloth. Go knock yourselves out!
@Barry: should read your history. Dev or collins makes no difference. The people were wedded to the church back then. Unfortunately it was many a parent dropped their daughters off to the nuns. Abuse was going on back many generations all sectors of society were to blame as well.
@John Nolan: very true but who set the standard & who allowed the influence of the RCC over the state & the failings to see the abuse the RCC were perpetrating on a very uneducated population. Surely dev & others as you rightly say could see the links to fascism in the RCC & that it was effectively a cult of power grabbing. There were many families willing to go along with this but that was through fear of eternal fire preached by those in the cult of sex & shame & backed by the political elite at that time Dev included.
Where were FF when the UDR/RUC controlled N.I? Where were FF when the British army invaded nationalist communities in NI and refugees were sent streaming toward the border? Where were FF during internment, after Bloody Sunday? What did FF do regarding the Frank Kitson military strategy imposed by Britiain in NI? Where were FF when numerous British intelligence agents said they trained, armed and directed NI Loyalist terror organisations? Where were FF after the Dublin Monaghan bombings?This list of an absent and collaborationist with Britain FF could go on for a while.
@Ronan Murphy: yes they were doing their long distance stuff. They had the opportunity to provide an organisation in the six counties back in the 60s but refused to budge. They called themselves the republican party and believed they had the right to represent the nationalist community but ran away from that commitment.
It makes sense to try and progress a shared island approach as an element within the Good Friday Agreement. Unity as defined by Republicans is not an immediate priority. Let us put a bit of hard work into understanding each other without the aspirational confines that imprison some people’s thinkings. The south should extend a hand of friendship to the Unionist folk in NI. Get to know them better and respect their right to be British. To dismiss their identity as always hostile is wrong. We should ditch the last centuries mantras and share this island without flag waving.
@camio55: Tell that to the Orangemen and their outdated marches
This shared Island ‘unit’ sounds like a bandage to patch the identity crisis on the FF sinking ship.
Fianna Fáil can’t even recognise the issues raised in Unquiet Graves. Their hypocrisy known no bounds.
Yes they came in at the end of the good Friday agreement but the groundwork was already carried out. But they did nothing to help catholics in the north when many were forced to defend themselves by any means.
FF/FG are running scared of SF these days, it’s good to see them so rattled, not saying SF have all the answers but the whole sense of entitlement from the government parties stems from their complacency in elections, hopefully the threat of SF’s eventual rise will actually get FF/FG to work for the good of the people.
320/5 = 64
50000/64 = 781
Which means Trump is doing better than us i.e. Martin + Varadkar. Revert to Tony H and Nephet to see how we can improve our numbers. Airports are a big risk. Schools are a risk. Human contact is a risk. Lets do better than Trump.
@Imagine !: The economy is now secondary. What about our nursing homes and our elderly. This is a once in a century event. F the money for once. WAKE UP.
@Imagine !: whaaat
@kevin mc cormack: On a 5 million population basis america is at 781 per day.
@Imagine !: Yes, but those figures don’t add up to a united Ireland …
@Logan Shepherd: Correct. Neither do our daily figures.
FF are stuck between Republican SF and Orange FG…Falling between the stools
@Belter: Class!
When Ireland (the island) was under attack in the House of Commons Sinn Fein refused to engage. They justified their cowardice by hiding behind a few meaningless words
@Richard Russell: they could take their expenses all right. Designer Republicans!
@Richard Russell: They did incredible work behind the scenes in the European Parliament spelling out what a disaster Brexit would be for our island. Today’s steadfast European support for Ireland in the Brexit talks owes itself in no small part to that.
@LangerDan: stop trying to protect them, since their formation they have played into the hands of the enemies of Ireland. They are nothing but a shower of Langers
@Richard Russell: So M.Martin and Fianna Fail are going to remedy that by what – Attending Westminster instead of SF?
I note from that clip which FF seems to be posting on its web pages etc that he criticized SF for shouting loudest about a united Ireland for votes? Had anyone reading this page heard SF shouting about a UI at the doors during last Februarys election?
Lets be honest about it, the aspiration of a UI was always something FF and FG had tucked away on a shelf and occasionally took down and dusted off at the election times. then after 1969, it was left on the shelf for good.
Now Micky Martin and Co beat their chests about the GFA as the saviors of the peace – Yet they all criticised John Hume when he first began talking to G. Adams in the lead-up to the peace process.
I suspect Martins latest paper aspiration will also be left on a shelf, and was probably only ever conceived as a response to SF election result last February.
Holloween is the canary in the coal mine. We need level5 before October 28th. I cannot see any way around it. Decorations are up. Children are ready to party. Trick or treat. House parties. Major hoopla unless the government steps in with a lockdown. I can practically guarantee you there is no way holloween as we know it can happen. So i expect lockdown before it arrives.
@Imagine !: completely irresponsible for and parent to do trick or treat door to door even at the current level.
@Barry: groups of two or 3 kids knocking at a door and moving on after ten seconds pose a very insignificant risk. They are outside.
Children could possibly go around their own estate and the go home. No need for parties.
A simple green (go), red (no), door signage would show what houses want trick or treaters.
I think to try cancel this, low risk event, would cause major backlash. We are more at risk doing a weekly shop imo.
Surely there is a way to implement this safely for everyone. We need a common sense approach.
@Imagine !: I’ve got my decorations up and more than usual. getting Halloween nails done this morning which I’ve never had done before and I’ve already ordered my costume. I fully intend on doing whatever we can do BIGGER. On the 31st me and the little fellah will be parading around the street in our Halloween outfits with our sparklers and sweets and I know lots of the neighbours doing the same. Then off home for a spooky movie. Anyone planning a party will do it level 5 or no level 5. Halloween decorations and little children aren’t the worry. As usual in this country its adults needing their piss up.
@Lorraine Mac Rory:Fair play Lorraine. And I think you touch on a very valid issue, adults at every opportunity will try turn something for kids into a session. This year more then any it need to be for the kids. Have a great Halloween
SF has put back a united island by generations through their support for violence. They can’t see they are the problem not the solution.
@Fionn Darland: Everything in the world in SF’s fault in your eyes…
@Belter: Take it easy on him Belter, hes Micky Martins son.
If either principle, pragmatism or a combination of both can neutralise any chance of one man’s place at the top table being endangered, let’s take that option.
Arline Dublin aligned? Never.
have your say