The 'banned' Star Trek episode that promised a united Ireland

‘Getting’ new territories from a non-EU country sounds even worse than allowing a chunk of a member state to become an independent country.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Friday_Agreement

Now, would they find a way to contest any vote to unify? Maybe

The Good Friday agreement permits Northern Ireland to leave the UK and to join the ROI, there is no path to independence here.

Reunion can only happen by mutual consent of all people in Ireland, and the document demands two simultaneous referenda to occur to fulfil this, one in NI, the other in ROI.

The referendum in NI, can be called at any time the UK’s Secretary of State for NI, deems that it would be likely that it would prove to be successful. This stance is shared by the Tories and Labour in Westminster.

Unlike Catalonia, there is also likely to be wider support for reunion from other important third parties - namely the US and EU - The United States, both from her people and government, proving to be key mediators in the Good Friday negotiations, and subsequent important negotiations like the Richard Haass talks.

The EU, prior to the UK’s withdrawal from it, funded large regeneration and reconciliation projects within NI. I believe this would continue forward post reunification.

Realpolitik sometimes gets in the way of this - why doesn’t the US recognise Taiwan as a country? Why doesn’t Brazil recognise Kosovo?

If Scottish people want to be independent, or northern Irish, or Cornish, or Yorkshire, or Falklands, or Gibraltar, or Ceuta, or Catalonia, or Crimea, or Texas, or Kosovo. or North Cyprus, then that’s upto the people who live there.

Northern Ireland had a referendum and one side decided as they wouldn’t win they wouldn’t take part. Scotland had a referendum too and decided to stay. There’s been no real change in opinion in Scotland, despite the travesty of the EU vote.

The problem with NI, Scotland and the EU is the opinions is roughly 50/50, whatever you do half the country are losses off.

In reality if the people of Northern Ireland wanted independence they would only want it if they could join Ireland, and joining Ireland would require the Irish government to accept a basket case of an economy, not to mention the continued partisan issues that have plagued the country for centuries, nobody wants change, but as predicted in Trek, an act of terror (brexit) may well lead to it as brexit changed the status quo.

Catalonia wanted complete independence, although as you said though, less than 40% of the adult population wanted it in that vote. Certainly they should be allowed if the majority want it, as long as Spanish citizenship is not removed from any resident who doesn’t want it removed and every resident got Catalonia citizenship as well if they wanted it (my view would be you would only grant independence if over half the adult population agreed to forfeit their Spanish citizenship).

Catalonia would then be free to apply for EU candidate status as a free and independent country, just like Scotland. Spain would not want that, so Catalonia would have to be a small independent country and start from scratch.

Spain doesn’t recognise Kosovo either. Their view is that territory is more important than self determination. See their view on Gibraltar. Spain would thus be unlikely to recognise an independent Scotland or Northern Ireland, and thus EU membership as an independent country would be out.

So with Ireland not wanting the economic drain of the north (only 1 in 8 Irish Republic citizens want unification if United Ireland had to pay), Spain not wanting any independence move to succeed, Northern Ireland is stuck in the continued compromise it has been since 1997. Brexit of course massively damaged everything, and far more want the U.K. to join the EU than want say Catalonian independence, but we are where we are.

It is interesting, that from my point of view, what you're talking about has even no sense. What does "at the expense of their own nation" even mean? Do you mean that any "nationalist" government means isolationism? Have you confused nationalism with nazism? How you equalise immigration and occupation in one sentence is also interesting.

C.f. Many nationalist movements in Africa

That's quite inaccurate. The Nationalist movement in the context of Northern Ireland has fundamental differences from "Nationalist" movements elsewhere in Europe, to the point where the name is somewhat misleading to outsiders. Ideologically they were until recently a left-wing liberation movement. You may dispute the honesty or validity of that, but that was the basis of their politics.

These days things are changing, of course, but still, your mention of immigration and borders is, while relevant, not based on a good understanding of the dynamics of the various movements in contemporary Irish politics.

Biggest benefit to reunification would seem to be that NI would be able to draw in more companies who may be seeking the lower tax rate, which could help the local economy a bit more. That, and rejoining the single market, for however long the EU manages to hang on for.

This actually seems kind of plausible.

Free speech exists only in echo chambers, every election is between a shit sandwich and a douche, and a sitting federal judge openly confirmed that our courts of law have little to do with truth or justice.

I would rather face the terrifying anarchy of a revolution than continue to suffer the indignity of the current tyranny.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes_of_liberty?wprov=sf...

If it's the first, the militias get crushed until they go full on terrorism. If it's the later, it's catastrophic. And then there's always the chance that someone uses nukes, say against the other side's capitol or military bases.

Every man who ever owned a slave should've hung.