Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I took the Senator's point. When I heard the rhetoric of Ms Martina Anderson's statement last week talking about the struggle, her forced retirement and how throughout her life as a republican she had always put the struggle first, it made me realise how far we had to go because I wondered what struggle she was talking about. Do people here believe that kind of language will assist in convincing any unionist to vote for unity?

There needs to be reflection on how the new secular Ireland looks at the realities of a community in Northern Ireland for which faith is important, in particular faith within the education system. There is little tolerance towards that on show in the new establishment Ireland in the South. If we want to consider a future where people like Mr. Jeffrey Donaldson feel the new Ireland could be a place where their deepest values are respected, we will need something much less intolerant than what passes for public debate on a range of issues touching on faith and otherwise. There are many people in this country who feel closer to the DUP when it comes to protecting unborn babies because they see an intolerance within the nationalist parties by and large and no room for debate or dissent.It is nearly as bad here in the South. I have great respect for Senator Black and I always listen to her carefully but she extolled the eighth amendment debate as something that brought some sort of great national unity when it remains one of the most divisive things that has happened in this country and left a third of the country deeply hurt because of the exclusion of a section of our community from the basic human right to life. We need to build a future that involves a lot more listening to the minorities in this country than is going on at present. Those are looking for a united Ireland had better be prepared to accept that there is a minority in the North that does not like a lot of aspects of the new Ireland. It is no longer Rome rule that many of them would fear but an intolerant secularism that is now on the loose in this country. We have a lot to think about and a lot to talk about as we consider what kind of future we will build so that people on the other side of the Border would feel that they really would integrate well and have a lot in common with us. We need to have a lot more thinking and talking.