On a Second Referendum - Call for the Union of an Independent Scotland and Ireland

Based on a blog posting of Septemebr 17, 2016:

I believe a case could be made for a form of union between the republic, an independent Northern Ireland and an independent Scotland, a union which could be of benefit to the approximately 12 million people concerned. - Retired Colonel Dorcha Lee

A thought provoking and perhaps seminal article on the future of the Irish and Scottish nations is the subject of an opinion piece published on the website “Herald Scotland”.  Under the title “Agenda – Should an Independent Scotland and Ireland Consider a Union”, the author speculates on the impact of geo-political forces unleashed by Brexit and the continuing moves toward Scottish Independence.

The author is retired Colonel Dorcha Lee, a graduate of the Irish Military College and former Irish Defense Forces Provost Marshall and Director of Military Police. Colonel Lee has held various posts representing Ireland in the European Union and is billed by the websites editors as an occasional contributor on Irish and Scottish defence issues.

Citing the address by Irish President Michael Higgins during his June 2016 visit to Scotland when Higgins praised the “warmth and elegance” of the close kinship between the Gaelic nations and pointed to “future cooperation”, Colonel Lee took it a few steps further. “…if Scotland were to achieve independence, it would open up a whole range of options on future cooperation between our countries. Nor should it stop there. Post Brexit, I believe a case could be made for a form of union between the republic, an independent Northern Ireland and an independent Scotland, a union which could be of benefit to the approximately 12 million people concerned. If such a union were to come about, the Isle of Man, a crown dependency denied the right to vote in the recent EU referendum, might also be interested in an association.”

Colonel Lee then delivers a step by step approach: “The union I am suggesting would initially be cultural. It would preserve and protect the heritage of our Q-Celtic languages, Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx, without stuffing them down the throats of our English-speaking peoples. It would promote tourism as one geographic area. It would be a union that slowly evolves in consensus, not just of its respective governments, but of its peoples. Progress towards this union should never threaten the separate national interests of our respective states.”

Colonel Lee continues on the unique issues facing Northern Ireland in the years ahead: " It is clear that, in the event of the UK breaking apart, the Northern Irish unionists will need time and space to work out their own future. Interestingly, the last NI Census (2015) revealed a fast growing sense of NI identity (20%) as distinct from British (40%) or Irish (25%). Let us not exclude totally the possibility of an independent Northern Ireland if the UK were to break-up. The old claim that an independent NI would be ‘non-viable’ is no longer true. For many Northern Irish an independent Northern Ireland, with links to the republic and Scotland, might well be a more attractive option than a united Ireland."

The New Statesman echoes the Gaelic romanticism expressed in the views of Colonel Lee but wrapped in a flinty Anglo Saxon appraisal of the Brexit denouement: " The ties binding the nations of the United Kingdom have long been fraying. Where once the Irish Question dominated our political discourse, today the Scottish Question threatens to destroy the UK’s fragile unity. The pressure for Scottish independence pre-dated the vote for Brexit, but while England and Wales voted to leave the EU, the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain....England’s political and demographic dominance has long stoked nationalist ambitions. It now threatens to remove Scotland and Northern Ireland from the EU against the will of the majority. The Union survived the partition of Ireland, two world wars, the demise of the British empire and the rise of Thatcherism. It may not survive Brexit."

The Original Articles are linked below:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/14749081.Agenda__Should_an_indepen...

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/01/leader-brexit-ireland-sc...