Does the Irish Republic Want Reunification?

Seriously...

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.1 • 885 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

25 years since the people of both Northern Ireland and the Republic voted to accept the Good Friday Agreement, another potential referendum looms on the distant horizon. That Agreement, though primarily to end the violence of the Troubles, allows for a future border poll that would determine whether Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, or re-joined the south. But crucially, few people realise that it’s not just up to Northern Ireland voters: consent is required on both sides of the border. And for voters in the Republic, it’s more complicated than you might think.

Andrea Catherwood investigates what the new, highly-educated, liberal, European-focused Irish Republic thinks about the possibility of its northern neighbours, from whom they were parted more than 100 years ago, re-joining their country. Polls suggest a number of issues; symbols, violence, economics. Can Ireland afford it, and does it want to? Is it just too much trouble?

With contributions from the main Irish political parties, as well as economist David McWilliams and Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy, the assumption of a yes vote from the republic isn’t as straightforward as many assume.

Presented by Andrea Catherwood Produced by Sarah McGlinchey Executive Editor Andy Martin

A BBC NI production for BBC Radio 4

Transcript

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0:00.0	This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box.
0:05.0	The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from.
0:09.0	And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.0	The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape.
0:12.5	The IRA inmates who found a way.
0:14.5	I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path
0:19.5	through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history.
0:25.0	The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them.
0:28.5	Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:39.0	Hi there, you're listening to Seriously from BBC Radio 4 and I'm your host
0:45.2	Vanessa Cassellay. Radio 4 is home to the world's best audio documentaries and each
0:50.9	week you'll find two hand-picked programs in this feed.
0:54.6	Here's a little something to expand your mind.
0:58.2	25 years on, on, those three leaders who secured the Good Friday Agreement, Sir Tony Blair,
1:09.8	President Bill Clinton and Professor Bertie Ahern are joining us now.
1:14.3	Please welcome them.
1:15.2	I recently hosted Queen's University Belfast's commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, with many of the
1:25.1	original architects of the Peace Plan.
1:28.2	Although the deal was done by the politicians on Good Friday, a quarter of a century ago.
1:33.0	The real test came a month later
1:36.0	when the agreement was put to the people
	...

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