Irish America is Ready to Work for a New and United Ireland

By Martin Burns

Irish America has for over a hundred and fifty years played a key role in the struggle to build a new and united Ireland. The revolutionary group the Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded in New York City on St. Patrick’s Day in 1858. The declaration of the provisional government (Ireland’s declaration of independence) at Easter 1916 specifically praised Ireland’s exiled children in America for their support of a free Ireland. In more recent times, Irish Americans lobbied the Clinton Administration to grant Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams a visa to visit the United States in 1994 thus starting the peace process that would lead to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. Irish America has been resolute in protecting the hard-won peace in Ireland from harmful fallout of Brexit.

On March 1, members from several Irish American groups including the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), Ladies AOH, Brehon Law Society, Irish-American Unity Conference, Friends of Sinn Féin, Friendly Sons of St Patrick Long Island, and the James Connolly Irish-American Labor Coalition met in the great hall at the historic Cooper Union in New York City to hear from a number of important speakers on the next steps for building a new and united Ireland. The event was aptly entitled an Irish Unity Summit.

Some have argued that Irish America may not be as engaged as they were back in the 1990s during the peace process. Based on what I saw and heard at the Irish Unity Summit, this point of view is not grounded in reality.

It is essential to realize that all the discussions at the Unity Summit were focused on creating a new Irish state that would embrace all the people who call the island of Ireland home. Everyone in the great hall understood that the issue at hand was not about merging the six counties that comprise Northern Ireland into the twenty-six counties of the Irish Republic. The task at hand is far greater than simply merging Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The keynote speaker at the Irish Unity Summit was Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and perhaps future taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland delivered an eloquent address that clearly resonated with the audience. As the Irish Times put it in their summary of McDonald’s remarks “she had them at hello.” McDonald’s description of what she deemed the seismic changes underway in Ireland resonated with the Irish Americans in the hall who were eager to work for the new and united Ireland.

If McDonald provided the poetry of a new and united Ireland, Niall Murphy of the civic society group Ireland’s Future provided the prose of how a new Ireland can be constructed. Ireland’s Future unveiled a comprehensive proposal of how the referendum envisioned by the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement can take place by 2030. I urge anyone with any interest in Irish affairs to read Ireland’s Future blueprint for creating the mechanisms necessary for the 2030 poll.

The proposals in Ireland’s Future blueprint are the results of extensive input from people all parts of Ireland, north, south, east, and west as well as from Irish America. Colin Harvey, a Queen’s University law professor, an integral part of the leadership of Ireland’s Future, pointed out the importance of continued conversations on the constitutional future of the island of Ireland. A key part of blueprint calls on the next Irish government to move aggressively on Irish unity. In particular, Ireland’s Future argues that the new Irish government should commit to doing the preparatory work necessary for a border poll including having the “necessary conversations” with the British government.

A critical scholarly perspective to the Irish Unity Summit was provided by Professor Brendan O’Leary who is O’Leary is currently Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the University of Pennsylvania Program in Ethnic Conflict. In addition to his academic work, O’Leary has done practical political work serving as a political advisor to the British Labour Shadow Cabinet on Northern Ireland and advising Irish, British, and American government ministers, and officials during the Northern Ireland peace process. In a presentation that was as scholarly as it was easy to understand, O’Leary laid out the political and challenges to creating a new and united Ireland.

What can Irish America do right now to advance the cause of a new and united Ireland?

The most obvious thing that everyone can do is to make sure that the future of Ireland is part of the campaign for Congress and the White House this year. If you do not know, where your member of Congress stands on this issue, now is the time to find out. Irish America needs to flood congressional email inboxes with questions about where members of Congress stand. President Biden had made his position on Irish issues clear. The presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump’s position is much less clear. Now is the time to find out where he stands.

Another fantastic way to be part of the campaign for a new and united Ireland is to join the Friends of Sinn Féin and keep up to date with all of the latest news. The Friends have a great website which will give you all the information you need to be part of the campaign. To paraphrase the Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, everyone has a part to play.

As the event closed, the band performed the song “A Nation Once Again” with its refrain “And Ireland, long a province, be a Nation once again!” It seemed an entirely appropriate way to close out an event designed to chart the path to a new and united Ireland.

March 5, 2024