Question:
Should The Republic of Ireland be reintergrated in to the UK?
anonymous
2010-08-20 15:18:47 UTC
The Republic of Ireland is a very small country of only 4.5 million people, it seems worhtless it being a seperate country, wouldn't it be better if it were part of a normal sized country, it could have the same services and infrastructure instead of the current duplication of services and infrastructure. It seems silly having seperate services and infrastructure for the interests of a mere 4.5 million people? I think the Irish were fools to isolate themselves from the union to begin with! Bring back the Union, what's your opinion?
21 answers:
d01042007
2010-08-21 00:17:14 UTC
WHAT A STUPID QUESTION - completly ignorant of the situation.



It makes about the same sense of re-uniting Alaska with Russia, Louisiana with France or Pakistan with India!
anonymous
2016-04-20 01:40:05 UTC
The status quo is fine. Northern Ireland should remain a part of the UK and not join the Papal Republic a bit south.
bluebell
2010-08-20 19:04:04 UTC
This is a very strange question. I am trying to picture the duplication of infrastructure and wondering how roads etc. up north could be used by me here in the west without "duplication". It seems to me that up north they need their own, and I need what is here outside my door. The same with every other aspect of infrastructure. As for duplication of services - competition is a wonderful thing, and where there is no competition yet, it is sure to come and will be in the interest of the consumer.



The country of N. Ireland (yes, it is a country in its own right) costs the UK a huge amount of money - more is pumped in than will ever be returned - and it is my belief that the UK would love to be rid of the problem. If this is the case with the 1.7 million people up north now, do you think the UK wants to extend its commitment to the 6.25 million across the island today? I doubt it, even if they could afford to.



You think the Irish were fools to isolate themselves from the union to begin with! The Irish were right to do this. There were very many countries annexed and pillaged by Britain who successfully sought their independence. Are those umpteen millions of people fools too? Think Canada, India, much of Africa and many other smaller countries ..... and they all fools because they don't see the world the way you do? That's presumptuous of you.



No, Ireland should not be reintegrated into the UK. There are many things here which should be improved on to make it the country it ought to be, but taking a retrograde step is not one of them. There is a saying that history repeats itself. God knows we want no repeat of what we have already suffered.
The Dark Side
2010-08-20 16:18:00 UTC
NO. The strength of feeling over this is far too powerful for it ever to be resolved that simply - and it's good that you know the history as otherwise it would take me far too long to explain. The IRA nearly killed me in 1983 when they exploded that car bomb outside Harrods so I have some deep personal feelings too... but this really is about deep tribal feelings (let nobody fool you that it has anything to do with religion, that being the usual label that gets put on it - I just say that for the benefit of anyone else reading this) and I WISH they would work it out. I grew up as a Londoner with the fear of Irish terrorism every time I went shopping in central London.



Objectively, it would be good for the WHOLE of the island to be part of the republic as that would please the majority but it's just not going to happen with people like Ian Paisley around. All political parties in Northern Ireland are polarised around this question and the mainstream political parties in the rest of the UK don't even bother fighting elections there. This has been going on for years - in the 1880s it even caused the Liberal Party to split into Liberals and Liberal Unionists, and the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservatives in 1912 as they had no real differences. It even shows up in Oscar Wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest" when Lady Bracknell is quizzing Jack as to whether he is a suitable husband for her daughter:



LADY BRACKNELL: What are your politics?

JACK: Well, I am afraid I really have none. I am a Liberal Unionist.

LADY BRACKNELL: Oh, they count as Tories. They dine with us. Or come in the

evening, at any rate.



The political sarcasm is totally lost on the average modern audience. Most films of the play totally miss it, even the classic 1950s production with Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell... but I digress.



The vast majority of the Irish would rather be exactly that - Irish - and I'd rather they have what they want rather than reintegration with the UK.
?
2010-08-21 03:52:45 UTC
There is a certain nice image of a United British isles however it is quite clear that in the current political climate and that of the foreseeable future that it is unlikely to occur and that it is not wanted by the majority of people in the Republic of Ireland. This means that for the next 100 years its not going to happen. After that the future is too variable to really even guess at who knows it could happen, or maybe Ireland will come to dominate and create a new union who knows.
Seamus
2010-08-24 03:55:47 UTC
Ireland for The Irish!
?
2010-08-23 03:38:55 UTC
What rubbish and an INSULT TO IRELAND!!!!: Remember the people who gave their lives for a free Ireland. There are plenty of smaller states in Europe and the world. Are they to merge with bigger neighbours?

I fear you know nothing about Ireland and its history. Do not know where you are from, but you are so off the mark with this one.
?
2010-08-20 17:14:07 UTC
Still trolling, are you? Strange "question" from someone who has previously claimed to live in Ireland (and, gasp, like it).



The Irish spent the better part of a thousand years resisting British domination and eventually had to resort to outright war to get rid of them. The one and only time the Irish State has even been in a formal state of war was against the British Empire, at a time when it (the Empire) was at the height of it's power.



And, as if the previous 7 or 8 hundred years weren't bad enough, that war (the Irish War of Independence) saw entire towns burned and pillaged by the British, as well as such atrocities as British troops shooting into crowds at football games (and similar acts of "collective punishment" that the British themselves condemned the Nazis for only 2 decades later); burning homes and businesses and then shooting anyone that tried to escape, as well as shooting the firemen who came to tackle the blazes; summary executions of anybody simply unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; the deployment of a paramilitary force against the populace made up of murderers, rapists, and other criminals let out of prison in Britain for that purpose (seriously; you couldn't make it up); mass internment of suspects; widespread (and generally) fatal torture of both combatants and civilians; and the imposition of martial law throughout the whole island.



After all that, why the hell would the Irish EVER want them back?



To paraphrase James Connolly (a wounded man who was strapped to a chair for summary execution by the British Army, as he was too sick to even stand up): "The British have no right to Ireland; never had any right to Ireland; and never can have any right to Ireland".



What's ACTUALLY going to happen is that, in light of the demographic changes happening in Northern Ireland, it will be pushing for unification with the Republic within a generation - two at most. And there's nothing you, or anyone else, can do about it. In fact, the Irish government - and their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Assembly - including Unionist politicians who basically 'see the writing on the wall' at this stage - have ALREADY begun the process of integrating the Northern Irish economy and wider society into the rest of Ireland.



By the middle of this century, Ireland will not be "reintegrated" into the UK (as if "joining" the Union was ever done by choice) but, rather, the entirely artificial state of Northern Ireland will be integrated into the rest of Ireland and, after nearly 1,000 years, the British presence in Ireland will finally be consigned to the history books as, thankfully, will people like you.
tornaxx
2010-08-21 04:15:58 UTC
Maybe the UK should cease to exist also and it could become part of France, which is nearly 3 times the size of the UK.



I suppose it doesn't really matter since it's only a matter of time before we are all (officially) in the United States of Europe.
King Ragnor of Waterford
2010-08-20 22:19:53 UTC
As a British Citizen, born in England, I believe that the British should get out of Ireland completely. We should never have gone there in the first place, just like we should never have colonised and raped countries like India and South Africa.

EDIT! Anyone who loves Justin Bieber must have a screw loose!
Morgan
2010-08-22 11:06:17 UTC
I don't think it's a very popular idea and it will never happen given the history.
anonymous
2010-08-20 15:50:37 UTC
You say you're not trolling and that you don't think this should happen yet you say you think "the Irish were fools to isolate themselves" and "Bring back the union". It kind of indicates otherwise.



I thought you said you were going to lay off the political questions.
anonymous
2010-08-21 03:52:59 UTC
Clearly its not going to happen. Uk would not let it. Laura you seem to make a good point then fall apart. N. Ireland is British same as England. So we could say let England and france fight it out. Yopu are saying unite part of UK with ROI. Then unite England and France. Enjoy the fight.
?
2010-08-20 17:35:36 UTC
F*CK NO! There was a reason Ireland didn't want to be part of the UK. British people treat us like dirt. We want to be INDEPENDENT! Rule ourselves! Btw Irish people ARE AWESOME AND WE LIKE IT THIS WAY!
anonymous
2010-08-21 09:46:18 UTC
Oh please, you only asked this to rile people.



Shouldn't you be watching the Disney channel? Maybe that's where you get your political opinions!
stella 10
2010-08-20 15:30:34 UTC
You'd like the history to start again would you? Silly idea. Retrograde.
splodged1986
2010-08-20 18:15:51 UTC
you and your yahoo accounts should throw themselves in a river. i hope your parents died a horrible death for bringing such a horrible disgusting excuse of a human being into the world. DIE SCUMBAG :P
Guru Hank
2010-08-20 20:27:07 UTC
NO! - Since the ****-up with the AIB they are stoney broke, and the financial data is getting worse not better.



They got themselves into this mess, they must drag themselves out of it.
anonymous
2010-08-20 18:41:45 UTC
haha. you are an amusing little fucker that I would like to smack.

Why don't you go play somewhere else.
anonymous
2010-08-20 15:29:15 UTC
they was a clever thing that a Northern Irish guy said to me. without Catholicism and Anti Britishness there is no reason for a separate Rep Ireland to exist. but i'm not sure about Irish troubles but we can put that behind us and look at the things we achieved
anonymous
2010-08-21 14:25:31 UTC
No.


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