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EVERY WEEK, WE bring you a round-up of the best longreads of the past seven days in Sitdown Sunday.
And now, every weeknight, we bring you an evening longread to enjoy which will help you to escape the news cycle.
We’ll be keeping an eye on new longreads and digging back into the archives for some classics.
Author Colm Tóibín sets forward his thoughts on Brexit and whether it could lead to a united Ireland.
(The Guardian, approx 9 mins reading time)
The diplomats who were preparing the Queen’s visit, unlike Tony Blair, planned things carefully; they put an immense amount of thought into every word the Queen would say in Ireland and every image of her that would be shown. It wasn’t as though such close attention to Ireland was new, but it had been sporadic. It was there during the negotiations for the Sunningdale agreement in 1973, but not in the aftermath. It was there too in the run-up to the Anglo-Irish agreement in 1985. It was there in the negotiations, perhaps Tony Blair’s finest hour, that led to the Good Friday agreement in 1998. It was not there during Brexit and its aftermath.
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He’s indirectly advocating a unionist veto on the future of the island. It’s something John Bruton would write. Pretty uninspiring stuff.
I find it funny he mentions our Housing crisis and crumbling Health care but still has a swipe at Sinn Fein
The status quo is good for the few not the many
@Waylanderj: the poor man is still in the 1980′s mindset himself. Practically taking credit for the queens speech in 2011. totally out of touch with the reality of today – Pure Dublin 4 southern unionism, or as a normal Dub would call a ‘West Brit’.
“An interesting longread to take your mind off the news”: Colm Tóibín on Brexit and a united Ireland – pure escapism …
Brexit isn’t causing it is it. But it is speeding things up.
“we in southern Ireland” it’s called Ireland or the Republic of Ireland.
@Ballybough Marcus: In the article he is drawing a distinction between his knowledge of and relationship with Britain and his knowledge of and relationship with Northern Ireland. In that context ‘southern Ireland’ makes perfect sense. He could also have said the ‘Republic of Ireland’. The Republic’s use of the name ‘Ireland’ for its existing territory is a departure from the ‘facts on the ground’, a diplomatic land grab, and you are deluded if you think it is real.
They voted to leave and are paying the price for it now.
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