The Political Project of Our Generation
By Mark D. Guilfoyle
Over the years, I have helped more than a few clients navigate the bureaucracy in Kentucky state government. The first question to answer is whether to adopt a top-down or bottom-up approach.
Top-down means you start with the Governor and work your way down to the career employees to affect a solution. Bottom-up means you start at the lower levels of the bureaucracy and work your way up to the Governor.
I was reminded of this dynamic when I read the recent opinion piece by Leo Varadkar in iIrish. Varadkar stated: “As is always the case, the impetus for great change must come from below. It will not come from above.”
He was referring to the reunification of Ireland. I was privileged to be in the audience to hear Varadkar speak in Philadelphia at the Gala Dinner of Ireland’s Future on April 10. In his remarks, Varadkar stated that every generation has its great cause and that he saw ours as “the cause of uniting our island, working to build a new home where all traditions, all stories, and all people belong.”
Specifically, Varadkar stated that, “I believe building a new Ireland, a United Ireland, is the political project of our generation.” I could not agree more. It was fitting that Varadkar made these remarks directly under a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the great Kentuckian who gave everything to preserve our Union in the United States.
But what does Varadkar mean when he says that the impetus for great change must come from below? Surely, he had in mind the efforts of grassroots organizations like Ireland’s Future, a cross-party, cross-community organization that promotes the shared responsibility of delivering constitutional change within the framework of the Good Friday Agreement. One of its stated objectives is to “promote detailed planning for referendums, North and South, to give people a meaningful choice on their constitutional future.”
America’s Role in Uniting Ireland
Niall Murphy and the entire Ireland’s Future Board should be commended for bringing their work to Philadelphia. The Gala was an immense success and, as Varadkar mentions in his opinion piece, Irish America has a vital part to play in building a new and United Ireland. In a truly bottom-up approach, we all can work to promote and plan for a United Ireland, individually and through social and political organizations.
Unfortunately, Varadkar is also right when he states that a United Ireland will “not come from above.” In fact, the Irish Government is in retreat on Unity – its Programme for Government 2025 is silent on Irish Unity as a goal. That silence speaks volumes.
In a recent interview in the Newsletter, Taoiseach Micheál Martin could not even bring himself to utter the words “United Ireland.” He admits that the government is simply not planning for unity referenda. What a disgrace.
Worse still, Martin is engaging in a deliberate distortion of the Good Friday Agreement by claiming in a recent speech that the main purpose of the GFA is to foster “reconciliation,” before consideration of constitutional change. Reconciliation is certainly one of the objectives of the GFA, but it spans the democratic process of constitutional change in both a divided and a united Ireland.
Reconciliation is not a prerequisite to constitutional change. As Varadkar correctly notes, the GFA “provides for a democratic mechanism by which Ireland can be united once a majority of both sides of the border want it.” Martin’s erecting a reconciliation hurdle to a border poll is an obvious ploy to slow-walk Unity.
The good news is that Irish Government elites cannot halt the Unity discussion. Ireland’s Future is not waiting for a top-down solution. Good for them.
For our part, the Friends of Sinn Fein is organizing a series of fora in the U.S. at which individuals can learn about planning for a United Ireland and have their say.  “The Commission on the Future of Ireland:  Diaspora,” has already held successful programs in Cleveland, Columbus, Rockland County, NY and Washington, DC. And in late May, another successful round of Unity fora was held in Nashville (May 28), Cincinnati (May 29) and Chicago (May 31). Momentum for Unity is growing, and here’s hoping the Irish Government will take note.
*Mark Guilfoyle is a lawyer in Covington, Kentucky. He serves as President of Friends of Sinn Fein, Inc.
