Mr. John Bruton:

The choice between a united Ireland and staying in the union is a very binary, stark one. Unfortunately, in real life you need to have room to blur things a little to make progress. Stark choices are inherently difficult, simply because they are stark – involving one or the other, yes or no. I hope building the investment in reconciliation will work. How to define that requires more work than I have been able to do. A lengthy investment in that will create new angles and even new vocabulary for describing the relationship on the island of Ireland. We have been very stuck on ideas of sovereignty or unitary sovereignty as if it were the be-all and end-all. To my mind, that is very much a British idea dating back to the 19th century. It was not the view on the Continent of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire and such entities were not operating on the basis of a single locus for sovereignty. We need to discover new ways of thinking about things. That is why it would be good if the unionists were to get involved in the discussions about the reorganisation of the UK. The problem I find in dealing with the unionists is that they do not take responsibility. They know what they do not like but do not take responsibility for finding a solution. They voted for Brexit and yet took no ownership of the consequences of their decision. They need to be encouraged to step up and take responsibility, as of course we do.