Dr. Claire Mitchell:

I agree entirely that these are the issues that unite us - class politics. I certainly have close relationships with progressive loyalists and these issues are of the upmost concern to them. As Mr. Brady said, sectarianism bubbles just under the surface and we can go from these amazing conversations about progressive welfare systems to the flags protest in a number of weeks. Progressive loyalism needs to be included and cherished in this debate because I have always found those people to be the key to envisaging what a class politics - an anti-sectarian class politics - could look like in a new Ireland. I am not saying they would not continue their loyalties to their community, that they would not want to march and that their loyalty to the monarchy and whatever would not continue, but welfare, education, children with special educational needs, mental health, addiction and suicide are the real issues. Those are the issues I believe will come out in the citizens' assemblies. It is just a case of getting sectarianism out of the way and creating a stable-enough conflict. It might be just about not sweating the small stuff. For example, Deputy Costello suggested 12 July as a national holiday. This is a very easy thing to do. Let us take that off the table as a sectarian issue. Everybody loves a bank holiday. These are all the things that can be easily given but I am not saying they should not be debated carefully. Even though I take my kids to the parades on the 12th and try to blend with it, I still feel quite intimidated by the whole thing. These are not easy issues, so I do not mean to be facetious in that term, but sectarianism and the communal blocks in the struggle are there under the surface and can rise to the top when things are so terrible that class unity is necessary, like the 1930s workers strikes and during civil rights protests. They can also rise to the surface when the States are functioning and people have enough to feed their kids and to feel cared for, in as much as is realistic, by the modern state.

So, yes, we have much in common in that. It is very difficult to hold on to that class unity with so much sectarianism swirling around. It is important to neutralise that.