Northern Irish Protestant politics in a unified Ireland?

I'm curious as to what the board (and especially the Irish/Northern Irish members) think the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland would integrate into the Republic of Ireland's political system if Ireland unified sometime after the 1960s.

Would the conservative unionist parties merge with the more conservative Fine Gael or would they refuse to integrate into the RoI party system?
 
By this point they've already got the example of Sin Fein not taking their seats in Parliament to use for their side of things, so I think it quite likely they do the same.

Of course, it very much depends on the circumstances of union.
 
I think you are making a bold assumption that the Ulster Loyalists would assimilate, unless one calls a civil war a process of assimilation.

This is not like the protestants in the existing republic who were already assimilated into their local society. Hence the numbers of Church of Ireland churches one can see driving from Cork to Dublin. The protestants of the Republic were anglo irish of varying generations not scottish colonist peasants (a description not a perjorative) brought in to replace irish peasants by James VI/I.

The process would have to be a long term one to have the Republic seen as a place of opportunity and a part of young Loyalists cultural experience. e.g. free further and higher education in the Republic, selling attendance to events in the south more effectively etc. to crumble away the seperate life experiences on both sides and to have more overt acceptance of the symbols of both on either side. Which Taoiseach would be bold enough to sponsor an orange parade in Dublin to recognise the validity of loyalist culture as part of Ireland's culture?

All of these are parts of the cultures of Ireland and need to be accepted and celebrated throughout. All come with historical baggage as do all cultures but accepting the validity of the cultures is not accepting the errors of the past made by all.
 
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By this point they've already got the example of Sin Fein not taking their seats in Parliament to use for their side of things, so I think it quite likely they do the same.

Of course, it very much depends on the circumstances of union.

Why would they choose abstentationism? After all, they probably would know that any chance of ex-NI getting returned to the UK is out of the question after Ireland has been unified, so what would their justification be? They want an independent NI? Or basically just an extended "protest" strategy?

Also, for circumstances, let's say that NI voted to join with Ireland during the "Celtic Tiger" years.
 
Why would they choose abstentationism? After all, they probably would know that any chance of ex-NI getting returned to the UK is out of the question after Ireland has been unified, so what would their justification be? They want an independent NI? Or basically just an extended "protest" strategy?

Also, for circumstances, let's say that NI voted to join with Ireland during the "Celtic Tiger" years.

Well, that seems bloody unlikely TBH. Celtic Tiger Years correspond to the period immediately before Good Friday and the years afterwards. The amount of bad blood that's already passed means that I don't think the ROI even wants to have NI at this point (some years down the line maybe).

As for choosing abstentionism, I'd imagine it's along the lines of trying to make a mockery of the system to prove that the democratic will of the people has been in some way subverted by a vote that didn't actually represent what people wanted. Mainly a weak justification to cover the fact that they're basically operating on 'Sinn Fein did it, and they got what they wanted in the end, so why can't it work for us?'
 
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They become the biggest political party in the Republic overnight and this depends on how and when you ended partition.
 
Well as an ROI member I have to say not likely. I may becoming cynical but I have to say not a chance either in 1960's or anytime now or in any time that our youngest board member will see. We are two different nations at this stage with widely different situations, just a quick example our voting systems are different and would radically alter NI voting patterns if introduced.

I'm sad to say that in the 1960's the Catholic Church was still a major power within the Republic, most likely the high point of Rome Rule, the Protestants at that period wouldn't have lived in that situation. Nor could the Republic every deal with the situation, the upheaval would be epic.

In the modern Celtic Tiger/GFA times again the political costs would be huge, the simple fact is that even at the height of the ROI economy we wouldn't be able to sustain the NI area due to their subsidies from the rest of the UK (a figure that I've seen from 6 billion to 15 billion pounds, hell the NI public service for 1.8 million people is larger than the ROI public service for 4.5 million people.)

The Protestant Community still hold a majority of the population in NI and even of the 48% of Catholics only half of that (ie 25% of the total population) support unification.

I just don't see how either A) NI unifies with the ROI and B) how Ireland remains a stable nation after the event.
 
I think you are making a bold assumption that the Ulster Loyalists would assimilate, unless one calls a civil war a process of assimilation.

This is not like the protestants in the existing republic who were already assimilated into their local society. Hence the numbers of Church of Ireland churches one can see driving from Cork to Dublin. The protestants of the Republic were anglo irish of varying generations not scottish colonist peasants (a description not a perjorative) brought in to replace irish peasants by James VI/I.

The process would have to be a long term one to have the Republic seen as a place of opportunity and a part of young Loyalists cultural experience. e.g. free further and higher education in the Republic, selling attendance to events in the south more effectively etc. to crumble away the seperate life experiences on both sides and to have more overt acceptance of the symbols of both on either side. Which Taoiseach would be bold enough to sponsor an orange parade in Dublin to recognise the validity of loyalist culture as part of Ireland's culture?

All of these are parts of the cultures of Ireland and need to be accepted and celebrated throughout. All come with historical baggage as do all cultures but accepting the validity of the cultures is not accepting the errors of the past made by all.

The CofI population of the Republic have a fairly good relationship with all the other sections of the nation, I think that there's attempts to reopen some of the Southern Orange Order lodges but why would they parade in Dublin or why would the Taoiseach be involved in anything of it? There are parades in the Republic around the border areas but the OO would have limited support historically across the 26 counties.

As for recognising the large Unionist history, NI figures are invited to the official memorials for Irish war dead and all Irish soldiers are remembered, and this year the Taoiseach and Táinaiste were in NI at the Remembrance services.
 
I'm afraid I don't see any scenario where Northern Ireland could be peacefully unified with the Republic between the 1960s and today, nor in the foreseeable future. In the earlier years northern Protestants would be unwilling to give up their position of privilege and power, and would be absolutely horrified by the amount of influence the Catholic church had in Dublin at the time. And as time goes on a United Ireland becomes a much less attractive proposition to the Republic. Any reunification would be accompanied by levels of violence with which the Gardaí would be unable to cope and financial costs which even the strongest ebb of the Celtic Tiger would struggle to manage (Northern Ireland's oversized public sector, love of the NHS and inability to even come close to paying for itself would likely send the poor sod stuck as Minister for Finance at the time to an early grave) - not to mention a great deal of political and constitutional wrangling (you'd be stuck sorting out everything from electoral systems and the "special position" of the Catholic Church, to treatment of northern culture and the almost inevitable calls for some sort of devolved administration in the north).

Still, setting aside the question of how unification is achieved I'll return to the OP. Simply put, the Protestants of the north are very unlikely to peacefully integrate with the Republic at all. You'll have Loyalist terrorist attacks all over the place, protest marches, Ian Paisley et. al. roaring from the pulpit about the evil Papists and more nasty sectarian violence than the Guards and the Irish army will be prepared to handle alone (remember that for much of the Troubles the British army presence in Northern Ireland was more numerous than entire Irish army and police service combined). Even if things stay relatively peaceful there'll be loud calls for Northern Ireland to either rejoin the UK or go independent, either in its existing form or as a repartitioned entity (which would likely go from "majority Protestant" to "overwhelmingly Protestant" by getting rid of troublesome Catholic areas such as Newry, Derry and Fermanagh).
 
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