Story on the (Anglican) Church or Ireland's rejection of Trimble's description of Eire as a 'pathetic little sectarian state' - Click here

Story on Gerry Adams's endorsement (sort of - Gerry's canny too) of Trimble's referendum call - Click here

Like Big Mick, I suppose I've come to love "the idea" of Ireland, maybe as a mythical abstraction. Far removed in generations & in far Americay, I dunno what it's like to live there. I do gather though, Guest sly bold Reynardine (ye fox), that it's much improved since Flann O'Brien's time. Perhaps Myles of the Little Horses not so much hated Eire as loved what she might become (??). Anyway na Gopaleen was too damn funny for me NOT to expropriate one of his characters (The Pooka Fergus MacPhellimey) fer me truncated Mudcat name an' I ain't givin' it back, Gaelic revival or no Gaelic revival.
Maybe the referendum should be all of the historic Province of Ulster. Or maybe it should be all-Ireland, 32 counties tallied together as I believe those "Bloody Sinn Feiners" and "Fenian Bastards" long advocated. Or, maybe in all justice it should be expanded to include Great Britain in her grand entirety, Gawd bless 'er. (A political junkie meself, I'd *love* to see the Scotland & Cymru vote. Fascinating crosscurrents.)

But if I've got the Agreement right (and somebody *please* correct me if I don't), I think it's to be confined to the 26 and the 6---distinctly. I.e, concurrent majorities---more than 50% approval in the Republic *and* the same *separately* in Northern Ireland---is required for unification. Them's the rules (I gather). A broader or different voting arrangement perhaps would be fairer; but I suspect would be unattainable, given the need to keep all parties signed on.

While I try to respect all points of view, personally I'm for One Ireland. (Maybe it's that old mythical "idea" noted above.) But that said, and whatever else may justly be said about the evils of Partition 80 years ago or of Plantation 300 years before that (and despite my wishful kidding at McGrath earlier) -- I can find both fairness & practicality in the proposition that present-day Northern Ireland's status should not be changed without the consent of the majority of the people living there, in those 6 counties, now. The statelet is an awkward fact (and worse); but it's a fact. It should change, but only with its own consent.

I may be wrong but I still think that time is coming. And I suspect both Trimble and Adams think so, too. They have commenced to play for partisan advantage with the scheduling. As noted by Big Mick, that's politics: a good sign.