Ireland is already an independent nation, one that’s relatively important and deeply connected to the EU. Northern Ireland is part of the UK. And from what I can tell the Republic of Ireland hasn’t been too interested in re-unification for the same reason Northern Ireland can’t really stand on its own. Its a political and economic quagmire. Same too Scotland, their independence vote seemed pretty ill advised on economic ground. This though is a pretty massive shift in circumstance. Leaving might be one of a handful of suitable ways to shield themselves from the coming ecconomic shit storm. Hell given Ireland’s location and connections to the US, they might even be able to get some small benefit out of Britain cratering.
I think long term maybe. The UK has benefited immensely by being the anglophone, financial market heavy entry point for non-European markets to the EU. With the UK out some one else can take advantage of that. And there’s precedent. It seems UK intransigence on EU involvement (especially on currency) was at least a small part of what drove the Celtic Tiger thing in Ireland. The really ironic/fucked up thing is now that the UK is leaving the EU, they’ll likely end up going through whoever replaces them in that regard
In the short term, including right fucking now, its already wreaking a certain amount of havoc with economies all over Europe. And given the EU’s recent struggles this could be the start of a total collapse of the concept, which is bad for pretty much everyone.
You’ll want to look into the process carefully. In the past they were pretty loose with the grandfather clause stuff. Largely on the theory that all those Irish Americans would want vacation homes in the Republic, bolstering the Irish building boom (it didn’t so much work out). Now its a little more complex, more time consuming and a lot more expensive. Part of it is the same immigration fears feeding the UK’s bullshit. But a lot of it just seems to be short funds on the Irish government’s part. As the rule is (generally and simplified) that if a parent was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth you are already a citizen, but if a grandparent was a citizen at the time of your birth you are eligible to be a citizen, it seems their now sending people through the standard immigration process more fully. As an example back in the 00’s US the process could be carried out at any Irish Consulate. You made an appointment, they told you what documents were missing. You delivered them. 3-6 months, a rubber stamp and a few hundred bucks. At various points over the last 5-10 years its been only in Ireland, or only in the Embassy in DC (costs of running all those extra offices). My last family member who looked into it found that it would cost ~$2500 in fees, take at least 1-2 years. And required a sponsor in Ireland and multiple letters of recommendation. Among other requirements. At least the xenophobic end birthright element seems to have been quiet for a while, so I don’t think the opportunity is going anywhere.
Its a bit of a frightening precedent, I don’t think anyone watching the numbers would have called it this way. A lot more angry bigoted old people seem to have turned out in the UK than anyone realized there were. Although I think the immediate cratering of the UK’s economy and the mess and panic we’ll see over the next couple of months could be spun as a direct repudiation of what Trump has been suggesting. His campaign is struggling at best, on a mechanical level if not ideological. And the most recent moments when he’s commented directly on current events have triggered big ol’ dips in his polling. Add to that that the US is a hell of a lot less white and more urban overall than the UK, and The Donald does not and can not conceivably take any non-white demographic and we have a sort of safety net they don’t. It gives me pause, makes me fear, but I don’t think its any more probable than it was yesterday.
It certainly isn’t all Christians. But it surprising you haven’t heard of the concept before. Its central to certain kinds of christian eschatology; and deeply, deeply embedded in the whole fundamentalist/evangelical wing of the faith. Shit it was a massive plot point in the Left Behind series that got so weirdly popular a decade back. And its been one of the key reasons behind the Religious Right and the GOP’s unending, uncritical support for Isreal. Isreal must remain a nation. Jews must return to Isreal. And Isreal must be empowered as a specifically Orthodox Jewish religious state so they can re-build the Temple in Jerusalem. And that Temple must then be destroyed. Which is what triggers the end times. Its all very weird, but its pretty pervasive. Even good ol’ G Dubs supposedly bought into. And numerous Congressmen have mentioned it pretty openly over the past couple decades.
