Professor John FitzGerald:

Regarding pivotal immigration, it is for the people of Northern Ireland to come together and sell themselves. How does one persuade people that they can have a life and not be identified by their background in Northern Ireland? It is an interesting issue. In their answers to the religion question in the 2011 census in Scotland, people from Northern Ireland said “No religion” or would not answer. For people from the Republic, the answers were the same as they would have been in the Republic. They did not care about writing “Catholic” or whatever. Clearly, people from Northern Ireland go to Britain because they do not want to be identified. This is a matter for people on both sides in Northern Ireland, although in a sense, it is the other side pointing it out. I do not know how to tackle that.

What happened in the Republic was interesting because we began with a civil war. There were also people who did not want independence, particularly among the Protestant community. The Second World War made a difference. I was going through old photographs. My grandfather had been on one side of the Civil War. One of my uncles joined the Army. At his wedding, four Army officers – his friends – were holding swords. Two were anti-Treaty, two were pro-Treaty, one was Church of Ireland and three were Catholic. It was like Douglas Gageby, who was Church of Ireland and an Army officer. The Second World War made everyone the same. We do not want that as a solution in Northern Ireland, but it is a question of finding some way of uniting to make Northern Ireland a better place. That is for the people of Northern Ireland to do. I would keep my mouth shut on this issue if I went north of the Border and leave it to them.