A Tangled Web

Closing the Loop



Last night the people of the Irish Republic voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed amendment to Bunreacht na hEireann (the Irish Constitution), to prevent future heavily pregnant migrants arriving on Irish shores with the specific intention of having offspring in Irish hospitals to gain citizenship access to the Republic and the wider European Union.



A referendum was necessary to close a loophole in the Constitution created as a result of the failed Belfast Agreement. As a sop to Northern nationalism it was decreed that anyone born on the island of Ireland was entitled to claim Irish citizenship. It was not envisaged that such a rhetorical nicety would provide the means by which masses of citizenship tourists could abuse the system.



Northern nationalists will have to reassess the previously unquestionable shibboleth that the people of the Republic would always place fraternal nationalism above their own essential State interests. Sinn Fein/IRA and the SDLP were vehemently against the amendment, claiming it proved the Belfast Agreement was not cast in stone (I can't believe they were stupid enough to think such a thing in the first place!). It certainly casts a shadow on the likelihood of Southern approval for 'Irish unity' in any future hypothetical plebiscite. The term 'Irish Nation' has a very hollow ring this Sunday morning.