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[โ€“] 39 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The Republic is no longer a Catholic sectarian state as it was throughout most of the 20th century, and the hardcore loyalist headbangers (i.e. the burned-over Scots Presbyterian cultists and the more-British-than-the-Home-Counties cosplayers in their city-boy bowler hats and Masonic aprons) similarly no longer dominate the narrative in Northern Ireland. Some kind of pragmatic union is very much imaginable.

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 19 hours ago

    I also look at it as the international conditions being far different between the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and now.

    Brexit created the trilemma which hasn't been solved. The choice of whether to be in the EU is now a choice for which country to be in.

    Ireland has seen a great improvement economically in the past generation. Choosing Ireland doesn't mean choosing poverty. Also, as you said, Ireland's government is far less Catholic than a generation ago.

    The UK has also become a shit show. The economic performance of non-London Britain has fallen considerably. Politics has gone from stable PM's to them changing far more frequently. The UK can't afford to be the international power it used to be; it may not be able to afford to subsidize Northern Ireland to the ability it does now.

    Joining Ireland has so many pluses that staying in the UK no longer has.

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  • [โ€“] 7 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    I hope something similar happens in Palestine and Israel. Where the people throw off the yoke of the religion that is used to control them and start a proper process of integration. They should never have been split into two states to begin with.

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