It is sadly striking how rarely those pushing for a United Ireland point to the aims held by the United Irishmen more than two centuries ago when they outline their vision now for a New Ireland.
What better way would there be than for genuine Irish republicans to explain the future they seek than by publicly rededicating themselves to the shining ambitions of the founders of their political ideology?
Those words resonate still: “To unite the whole people of Ireland: to abolish the memory of all past dissension; and to substitute the common name of Irishmen in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.”
Today’s New Irelanders are an eclectic mix of people who, not unlike the leaders of the 1916 Rising, have put political and ideological differences aside to come together in pursuit of a single shared goal: the unification of Ireland.
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But that should not stop genuine Irish republicans from speaking out on the type of unified Ireland they want to create, one that includes, one that does not exclude.
It certainly has not stopped a few well-placed Northern nationalist commentators from repeatedly airing views that are less than generous, if not downright exclusionary.
Here is a tiny sample. One says the current flag and anthem of the Republic cannot be up for discussion in a reunited Ireland as “we [Northern Catholics] did not have a say in the flag or anthem we had to live under”. Such a declaration makes the New Ireland project sound like an exercise in revenge, rather than generosity.
Another dismisses the idea of reconciliation in Ireland as “impossible”. Yet another never fails to express a deep antipathy to Protestants.
So much for the notion voiced by Wolfe Tone and the others who formed the United Irishmen of uniting Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter, one could easily be forgiven for thinking.
While other leading pro-unification figures leave such statements unchallenged – and they too often do – the public will, unsurprisingly, presume such views represent a majority of those who want unity.
But do they? Such is the confusion of labels and identities in today’s Northern Ireland it is hard to tell. Some claim to be Irish republicans simply because they are Irish and want a 32-county Irish republic.
What they fail to grasp, however, is that the vision of genuine Irish republicanism goes far beyond the idea of just a flag or the control of territory.
If you disagree with the vision espoused by the United Irishmen, regardless of how you choose to describe yourself, then you are a nationalist, but you are not a republican.
Nationalism, of whatever stripe, is, by definition, exclusive and divisive. It does seek to bring about reconciliation; it does not seek to bring about harmony.
In our local versions of same, it presumes to decide who belongs and who does not, according to the narrowest possible notion of what constitutes either Irishness or Britishness.
In a modern setting, genuine Irish republicanism is decidedly inclusive, believing that Irishness belongs equally to every citizen of this island, regardless of religion, race, ethnic origin, culture, gender, sexuality, skin colour.
Put bluntly, nationalism is the antithesis of genuine Irish republicanism. It is lazy, simplistic and supremacist – all of which makes it attractive to many people, to far too many people.
As if things are not already confusing enough, many Northerners who self-identify as nationalist are anything but that. They are in spirit, word and deed solidly Irish republican of the 1798 variety – absent the violence.
There is no better example of this than the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
Indeed, it was a desire to distance themselves from violence, from whatever quarter, during the Troubles that led to many people identifying as nationalist, so they were not tagged as “republicans”.
If we are to build a future worth having, every Irish republican worthy of the name must publicly and privately insist upon the republicanism of Tone, McCracken, Orr – not on the narrower versions that were held in The Troubles, and, too often, today.
We, the people of Ireland, deserve nothing less.
David Adams helped deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994 and to negotiate the Belfast Agreement of 1998. He later worked in media as a columnist and commentator, before spending many years with the Dublin-based international humanitarian organisation, GOAL
