Voices on Unity - Eugene McMenamin

Cllr Eugene McMenamin,
Strabane District Council
SDLP


The very title of this exercise by Ógra Shinn Féin demonstrates that there is an underlying belief that a United Ireland would be a cross between a vague Celtic Mysticism and a Marxist Utopia.

Let me quote from the song/poem ‘Who fears to speak of Easter Week’:

Upon their shield a stainless field,
With virtues blazoned bright;
With Temperance and Purity
And Truth and Honour dight
So now they stand at God's Right Hand,
Who framed their dauntless clay
Who taught them and brought them
The glory of today.

The spirit wave that came to save
The peerless Celtic soul,
From earthly stain of greed and gain
Had caught them in its roll;
Had swept them high to do or die,
To sound a trumpet call;
For true men though few men
To follow one and all.'

Ever since I was a child living in lodgings in Strabane County Tyrone, because my father could not afford to buy a house, I have been enmeshed in the ideal of the unification of Ireland.

It was a vague idea to begin with, a kind of them against us scenario, them being the ‘Prods’ and us being the ‘One true holy and apostolic Catholic church’. It was a childish idea but I would also quote for you another famous few lines.

‘When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.’

I started to wonder what a United Ireland would look like. How would it be made up? What political system would best suit its divided people?
Would a united Ireland be a welcoming place for those who, in my childish ways, I had considered my enemy?

This is why I wonder about the title of this exercise, valid though it undoubtedly is. The word fear has for too long been associated with the concept of a united land. Its main protagonists down the ages have resorted to violence to achieve this aim and it is my belief that this is not the way to get the result that I hope to see in my lifetime.

Dialogue – Dialogue – Dialogue.

When we are truly partners in sharing our plot of God’s creation, then I believe the barriers will drop away and there will be no need to shoot and kill a man who disagrees with my concept of our united country.

The phrase United Ireland would be better put in context by using United Irishmen and Irishwomen….. United People.

As I wish to comply with your request for brief submissions I would highlight my vision thus:

1. I believe we should all work to lower the barriers of sectarian fear that undoubtedly still exists today.
2. I believe that, when we can live together in peace and growing harmony that is the time to introduce the benefits that must accrue from being united as a people and a jurisdiction.
3. I believe we should be prepared to embrace all sections of our community and aim for the target set out in the 1916 Proclamation ‘that we should cherish all the children of the nation equally’.
4. I believe we must renounce military action as a means of achieving this equality….. after all, one cannot kill a man because he doesn’t want to be equal to you.

I wish you well in your worthwhile venture.