Sinn Fein calls for Irish constitution change

[bemildred]

Source: BBC

A Sinn Fein MP has called on the Irish government to change the constitution to allow people in NI to vote in the Republic's presidential election.

Conor Murphy said that despite being permitted to hold Irish citizenship, people in Northern Ireland would be "disenfranchised" in the October poll.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness is the bookmakers' third favourite to win the presidential election next month.

It is thought unlikely the constitution would be changed in time for the poll.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14960764

[xchrom]

1. cool. nt

[Agent William]

2. Not a good idea... why should the citizens of a foreign country (UK)..

Vote for someone who is in a completely different, completely separate, nation? It would be like Canadians voting for the US president.

Another shameless attempt by the IRA/Sinn Fein to unify Ireland.

[CountAllVotes]

3. fyi

Northern Ireland is part of Ireland. The Brits stole it from the Irish just in case you were unaware of this fact.

:dem:

[Agent William]

7. I'm sorry, it's actually part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain AND Northern Ireland

We did not steal it, instead the majority of residents elected to remain a part of the UK in the wake of the Government of Ireland Act of 1921. Most of the people who live in NI see themselves as British, not Irish.

Northern Ireland is only a part of Ireland geographically. There are no legal or constitutional links between the Irish Republic and the UK.

[CountAllVotes]

8. Ireland for the Irish

Period!

England invaded Ireland over 800 years ago, they need to leave now and are doing no good whatsoever. They are occupying a land that does not belong to them. It belongs to the Irish people.

[Agent William]

10. No, it's Northern Ireland for the Nrothern Irish.

Should every single white person in North America head back to Europe since whites invaded and concured the land over 500 years ago? Didn't think so.

The fact remains, most people (but not all) in Northern Ireland wish to maintain the union with mainland Britain. If NI were to unite with the Republic it would be against the wishes of the majority. In fact, the British government was willing to "give back" NI to Dublin in exchange for Southern Ireland's participation in the Second World War. So fierce was the back lash from Northern Ireland's unionists, the British government dropped the idea. My point is, it's only a fantasy that London is crazy about holding onto to NI. I have a feeling that there are a lot in Britain that would wish to dispose of NI onto Dublin.

[Kingofalldems]

11. +1

[CountAllVotes]

12. .

:thumbsup:

I'm reading the immigration records of my great great grandparents that came to this country from Ireland during the Great Famine right now on ancestry.com. Hmmm ...

Gotta love those people that starved and drove MY family off of their own land in a botched attempt to off the lot of them! :grr:

[Kingofalldems]

13. You and me both. Mine came from Cork.

Ancestry.com is great.

[CountAllVotes]

14. mine were from Tipperary, Kilkenny & Louth

and I also have some from Co. Cork. All Sullivans came from Co. Cork it seems! :D

Ancestry.com has gotten a lot better lately. I found my husband and three of his siblings (and possibly his mother?) on there today in fact! :wow: what a find indeed!

:dem:

[pennylane100]

15. and exactly how is this is different from the people who came to America

and occupied a land that did not belong to them.

Another problem would be that England does not own Northern Ireland. It is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and all four regions, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales elect members of parliament to represent them.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. So the plebiscite is somehow invalid?

Short of another one with a different result, the 6 counties will clearly remain part of the UK, where the majority wishes to be.

At one point I had hoped that the EU would over time diminish the significance of borders between members...maybe now not so much.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. Self Delete

[truebrit71]

20. ...except for the bits that aren't...

The white man invaded America over 300 hundred years ago, they need to leave no and are doing no good whatsoever. They are occupying a land that does not belong to them. It belongs to the native people.

[Nihil]

18. Yet another ignorant American pretending to know about Northern Ireland. (n/t)

:eyes:

[jwirr]

4. Don't worry about it - the brits have had a strangle hold on NI for

as long as I can remember. They have no plans to leave.

[Xithras]

5. We do it here in the U.S.

The Mexican constitution permits dual citizenship, and allows people outside the country to vote. We have Mexican politicians holding campaign rallies here in California on a halfway regular basis. Vincente Fox even came to California when he was campaigning for the Mexican presidency, and they had election buses that carried Mexican-Americans across the border to election stations for the SOLE purpose of allowing American citizens to vote in Mexican elections..

Does it have an impact? Sure, it helps to reinforce the idea that you can be a citizen of both nations at once. It reinforces the idea that cultural identity is as important as national identity.

Here's the rub though...in a free society, there's nothing wrong with that. You can't stop people from holding those viewpoints without crossing the line into authoritarianism, which is an even WORSE place to be.

[Agent William]

6. I suppose so. But the thing is that the Mexican-Americans situation that you

Sited is that voters actually voted in Mexico it self. Also in your example the voters had very close connections with the governance of Mexico, making voting all the more important. It would appear that the average person in say Belfast, has little real connection to the Dublin government.

I guess on the other hand I was offered an absentee ballot for the 2009 local WA elections whilst I was in SW England and then I proceeded to exercise my dual citizen voting rights in voting in the 2010 UK general elections.

[Xithras]

9. They're working to change that.

This isn't an issue I follow all that closely, but I do know that there's a push to allow Mexican Americans to vote in Mexican elections at consulates, consular assistance offices, and even non-consular offices set up by those consulates in areas with heavy Mexican-American populations. The idea is that they don't want people to have to travel to Mexico to vote. This may even be the case now, but as I said, I don't really follow it all that closely.

But, the real answer is in your post. As you said, the average person in Belfast has little connection to the Dublin government. If that's the case, the average person in Belfast probably WON'T be voting in the Irish elections. The only ones who WILL are those who DO have a real connection to their Irish neighbors. I fail to see how that harms NI in any way.

FWIW, only a small percentage of Mexican-Americans participate in Mexican elections, even though a huge percentage are legally permitted to do so. For most, it's simply not relevant to them. For the ones that do, they are typically voting because they still have homes or relatives in Mexico, and are voting because they still have a stake in that country. Unless someone can show me otherwise, I don't see how Ireland would be any different.

[truebrit71]

19. Hmmm, if I lived in Eire I don't think i'd like this idea at all...

...Citizens of GB voting in an election of another sovereign country? Sounds daft to me...