I like North Atlantic Archipelago myself.
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Pangea Splinter Group?
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With his government hanging on a single vote majority I doubt he makes it to the deadline.
The UK doesn’t have a say when it comes to Ireland. Only NI and the Republic get to vote in a border poll. The UK already agreed to that and wrote it in stone as part of the Good Friday Agreement.
Scotland’s process is less iron clad from what I understand. But they’re apparently still in the driver seat. Though they don’t get to just stay in the EU. They have to apply like any other potential member nation.
So with all that raw sovereignty hanging in the air how could they not Brexit as hard as they can.
But how beneficial does that relationship with the rest of the UK look if the UK’s ecconomy as a whole tanks?
The question is if it’ll be enough of an anchor to make going it alone and attempting build that EU end up to replace it makes sense. And that’s very dependant on Brexit format and how it all shakes out.
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The styling “Republic of Ireland” was officially adopted as the “description” by statute in 1948.
This was basically done to allow an in practice name change without amending the constitution. Though more recently they seem to run with the formal name of Eire/Ireland, Republic of Ireland remains an official, common and valid way of refering to the country. Particularly when you need to differentiate with that other Ireland, or the Island they both sit on. Its basically the slightly less official official name. And used contextually as needed.
And the Republic Of styling is probably pulled from the Easter Proclamation which rolls with “The Irish Republic” for the name of the state they done proclaimed.
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Nope. Ireland has a constitution as its fundamental law, the Republic Act does not amend the constitution. It was a simply a response to provocation by Canadian orange men on a state visit to Canada and to clear up issues relating to the Lord lieutenant (IIRC on that part.) The declaration of the Republic in 16 was superceded by the 27 and 33 constitutions. It has no real legal standing (technically precedent established under the alternative courts system established following this are still valid but, not really.).
The real reason for its usage and proliferation isthe BBC style guide that the English military intelligence “influenced” - using the real name of the state would have been acknowledging the validity of our constitution which, prior to the good Friday agreement claimed the whole island of Ireland.
Teh Wikis, despite efforts to fix it up (UCC law faculty basically took it over to try and sort it out) is unfixably fucked on Irish law. The editor was originally someone who had never studied Irish law and insisted on imposing an English legal perspective on it. The state cannot be given its actual name on it. To be fair they did at least get a link to the constitution on it. Which is almost a pity as it used to be a better resource for showing how even seemingly respectable sources on the web were actually total bullshit.
Is to explain to confused Americans that there is more than one nation by the name of Ireland. And that Dublin is not a war zone ruled by the Queens undead corgis. It persists because it allows for greater specificity when more than one Ireland is under discussion.
Complaining that the Official Official name was not used is strange, because conversations about nations very seldom use the actual official name. Particularly when context craves something else.
For example " There is no United States, its The United States of AMERICA" is certified racist uncle on Thanksgiving territory.
My point with the links was to demonstrate that both “Republic of Ireland” and “The Republic” both have some official standing and usage. As well as a very long history of common usage, including in Ireland. Most of the Irish I know (and there are many) resort to the same terms when discussing the Brexit situation because there is a need to distinguish between the North, the State, and both taken in total. All three can be an commonly are refered simply as “Ireland”, so it can rapidly get weird.
As I understand it, Brexit could put a new hard border - between the EU/Ireland and UK/Northern Ireland. Or are you talking about something else?
I’m talking about Reunification. The UK has no roll in the process.
While a hard border, and where it lands, could be a contributing factor in convincing NI to pursue reunification (and it’s hardly the only one) its not technically directly related to reunification or the process for it.
There’s a long standing, pre-existing legal pathway for joining the two Irelands back up. Derived from the treaty that ended the Irish War of Independence. That treaty established Home Rule and allowed there to be a county by county vote on independence. Counties that voted yes got to split off into an independent Ireland. Those that did not, stayed part of the UK.
It gets rather complicated from there. But the Irish state continues to assert a claim over that territory, and reunification is a base part of most major political party’s platforms there. And though the original treaty did not neccisarily include the option for later re-votes, it still created legal grounds for them. At various points since the split political pressure and peace deals have created legal basis for revotes, or actual votes for reunification or NI independence.
So you flash forward to the Good Friday Agreement in 98, and the accord formalizes the process. Essentially its now settled law that the Irelands have the right to a future vote on reunification, called a border poll. At effectively any time. The overarching UK government, and any of its non Northern Ireland constituent parts, do not get a say. They don’t get to vote, and they don’t get to impact when how or if.
So from the North Irish Side/UK law:
Section 1. Status of Northern Ireland.
- It is hereby declared that Northern Ireland in its entirety remains part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland voting in a poll held for the purposes of this section in accordance with Schedule 1.
- But if the wish expressed by a majority in such a poll is that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland, the Secretary of State shall lay before Parliament such proposals to give effect to that wish as may be agreed between Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the Government of Ireland.
[…]
Schedule 1
- The Secretary of State may by order direct the holding of a poll for the purposes of section 1 on a date specified in the order.
- Subject to paragraph 3, the Secretary of State shall exercise the power under paragraph 1 if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland.
- The Secretary of State shall not make an order under paragraph 1 earlier than seven years after the holding of a previous poll under this Schedule.[18]
And from the Constitution of Ireland:
Article 2
It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.
Article 3
- It is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island. Until then, the laws enacted by the Parliament established by this Constitution shall have the like area and extent of application as the laws enacted by the Parliament that existed immediately before the coming into operation of this Constitution.
- Institutions with executive powers and functions that are shared between those jurisdictions may be established by their respective responsible authorities for stated purposes and may exercise powers and functions in respect of all or any part of the island.
The only actions involved are a polling of the population of both nations to determine if a vote is desired. Followed by a vote of the population on yeah or nay. The result you need is for the Northern Irish to vote to leave the UK, and the rest of the Irish to vote to accept them in.
Boom reunification. The UK attempting to stop this, refusing to accept the results or otherwise interfering is a much, much, much, much larger violation of the Good Friday Agreement than the hard border being re-established.
The hard border is in part such a large sticking point because a hard border across Ireland is not allowed under Good Friday, potentially meaning a bunch of violent assholes will decide the peace deal is no longer in effect. And a border internal to the UK pisses off everyone else, particularly the Unionist violent assholes who will view it as a separation from the UK. But it’s not like if the hard border goes up Reunification is automatic.
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Guys.
Guys.
Guys.
The word you are looking for is “disambiguation”. That is the only time when “Republic of” is added to the name of Ireland (the EU member, not the island). And though I am a dumb Yankee expat, it does seem pretty clear that the name was formulated like that after careful consideration, because it implies that the entire island ought to be governed by the Irish and not from London.
Edit: what I want to make clear is that the ambiguity between Irland (the nation) and Ireland (the island) was intentional.
I’m aware that the name isn’t popular in Ireland, but I’m not aware of an alternative, never mind one that’d be widely understood.
I totally apologise. I knew that Éire (my preference) was kind of frowned-upon in English, and wanted to avoid confusion about the country vs. the island, but should have recalled that ‘Republic of Ireland’ is also a loaded term.
FWIW, my partner is Irish (by hastily acquired passport and genuine family links!) and that’s another of our Brexit escape routes. 
Where are you getting that from? The border was originally set by the British government between the devolved jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland (the latter of which was stillborn, because of the War of Independence): it was later adopted as the provisional border between the UK and the Free State under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and later still confirmed by the Irish Boundary Commission, comprising representatives of the governments of the UK, Free State and Northern Ireland. No plebiscites involved
The law you quote says otherwise:
And from further on in Schedule 1:
4 (1) An order under this Schedule directing the holding of a poll shall specify
(a) the persons entitled to vote; and
(b) the question or questions to be asked.
So the UK Government gets to decide:
- whether to have a poll
- when to have the poll
- who gets to vote in the poll
- what the poll should ask.
Again from the law you quoted:
So the UK Government negotiates the terms of reunification with the Irish Government, and then the British Parliament gets to vote on the results of those negotiations.
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OK, I see. I was saying that Brexit could prompt Ireland to reunify. Thanks for the background information.
And thanks for this info.
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Faulty memory and attempts to summarize real quick. A lot went on through that process and boiling it down to a paragraph doesn’t work too well. The voting was parlimentary, the home rule and split of the two came as lead up to the treaty, and never took effect in Ireland cause they jumped right to the free state instead, and so forth.
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