Brexit Dynamic Can Realise What ‘Adams Strategy’ Could Not

Returning to The Pensive Quill, Sean Bresnahan considers Monday’s appeal by ‘civic nationalism’ as a further indication of changing dynamics in the North. A member of the 1916 Societies, he writes here in a personal capacity.


As Malachi O’Doherty rightly noted earlier this week on the Nolan Show – this while discussing Monday’s letter in the The Irish News – Brexit can deliver what the Adams strategy could not: a United Ireland. For once it would seem that Malachi is right. Yet, going on social media, it seems that all Republicans can focus on is Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin and Sinn Féin.

Given the dynamic which Brexit has unleashed, the fall back position of Republicans should not be to bemoan every initiative undertaken by others — Monday’s letter from ‘civic nationalism’ being a case in point. There is a particular tendency towards this response where a hint of the ‘dastardly Shinners’ is detected. Brexit is bigger than Sinn Féin, however, and it’s time Republicans got their heads around this. They should not be the lens through which we undertake our analysis of political developments.

Either way, surely we can manage a better approach than endless negativity — something now rampant in Irish Republicanism. While we might have issued a different letter and while the letter itself is no doubt soft in its content, the fact it was issued at all is of note. Where was the letter or the joint approach from ourselves we might ask? Better, it seems, to moan instead in retrospect.

In truth, this letter need not be dismissed as mere irrelevant crawling on the part of its signatories — even if that is what it amounts to. An alternative view might hold it the tentative beginnings of a broad push towards Irish Unity, even if those who framed it might not be of that mind in this particular instance.

Ultimately, the negativity should stop. The British state is in the throes of a crisis unseen in generations — a crisis as yet to be contained, which could have a significant bearing on prospects for Irish Unity. Are we going to moan about the failures of others, real or perceived, or are we going, instead, to build up and advance our own efforts — as surely we ought to. That is the question Republicans are faced with. How we answer is now up to us.