Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have just spent two very interesting days in Westminster, and was there during a Brexit vote. I brought our emigrant Senator Billy Lawless to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ireland and the Irish in Britain to talk about emigration reform and votes for emigrants. There is huge goodwill in Westminster and the House of Lords, among all the parties and Members, towards the island of Ireland. We met with Conor McGinn, MP, from the island of Ireland and chairman of the all-party parliamentary group. Mr. McGinn was one of the 75 Labour Party MPs who defied the Whip and voted on the EEA amendment in the Brexit vote. This is why I missed the first two days of this week's sitting.

The Taoiseach's visit to Belfast last weekend was absolutely incredible with the welcome he received outside the Orange Order headquarters in east Belfast, and when launching Féile an Phobail. Sometimes in life politicians can be behind the curve and on this occasion maybe we are behind the curve. We speak about an agreed Ireland and things are moving at a great pace. I have said on many occasions that we must look at membership of the Commonwealth, and people wondered what was going on. If we want an agreed Ireland there must be accommodation for Ireland joining the Commonwealth. Dan O'Brien in today's Irish Independent said, "A united Ireland [is] only possible if it isn't a cold house for Unionists."

I ask that Fianna Fáil Senators would listen very carefully to my final point. I was at a conference three weeks ago in Liverpool. Bryce Evans is a lecturer in history based in Liverpool and the author of a 2011 biography of Seán Lemass. On page 214 of the book it says that on a visit to London by de Valera and Frank Aiken in 1958, de Valera secretly sounded out British opinion on the prospect of a united Ireland joining the Commonwealth. In 1953, Éamon de Valera allegedly informed Churchill - again in London - that if he had been in office as Taoiseach in 1948 Ireland would not have left the Commonwealth.

I am in very good company. Again I say, that if we want our friends and neighbours to actually join an agreed Ireland - and I am aware it is far too early - there has to be some link with the Commonwealth. Perhaps I am just ahead of the curve, but I am delighted, and I would probably follow de Valera in this regard.