Is a united Ireland inevitable?

Abstract

A United Ireland is inevitable. Or at least that appears to be the consensus from a string of commentators, keen to outdo each other with predictions about the post-Brexit era. Even those who do not tout the inevitability of a United Ireland, suggest that we should at least prepare for its potentiality. Indeed, this was this basis of a surprising intervention by the former DUP leader Peter Robinson on the subject. Speaking recently at the MacGill Summer School, in County Donegal, Robinson stated: “I don’t believe Northern Ireland will want to leave the United Kingdom, but if it does happen we would be in a terrible fix because we would be in the same situation as leaving the EU where nothing was negotiated or decided about what was going to happen after.” Robinson suggested, following this, that Unionists should engage in a discussion as to what a post united Ireland might look like. “I don’t expect my own house to burn down, “he told his audience, “but I still insure it.”