# What are the prospects for a united Ireland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 17, 2005, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782 "2005-04-17T18:56:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/21 "2005-04-20T22:20:13Z")
> [@Aro](#): > > How recent? If you were coming up from Dublin to Belfast, you’d now find the opposite to be true - the main roads in the South (with all the EU money thrown at Ireland in the past while) are now fantastic and new (esp. the Drogheda bypass), whereas the major weak link between Befast/Dublin commute is now the Newry - Loughbrickland stretch (before you get on the A1) in the North. > > Quite striking in irrelevance with regard to the OP, that. Not at all! Better roads linking one part of the country to another make political unity that much more practicable! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/22 "2005-04-20T22:22:27Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > I think the standard of living in the north and south is not really that different. I’m confident in saying that any statistics will prove this wrong. I know for certain that N Ireland has by far the highest rate of unemployment in the UK, along with any number of other measures of deprivation ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/23 "2005-04-20T22:24:05Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > …and everyone was driving on the wrong side of the road. 😃 But that could be a problem. If they drive on the right side in the Republic and the left side in NI – then unification, and standardization, would require one set or the other to relearn their driving habits . . . how hard is it to do that, I wonder? (I’ve never had to drive in a left-side-of-the-road country.) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/24 "2005-04-20T22:32:49Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But that could be a problem. If they drive on the right side in the Republic and the left side in NI – then unification, and standardization, would require one set or the other to relearn their driving habits . . . how hard is it to do that, I wonder? (I’ve never had to drive in a left-side-of-the-road country.) IIRC the most recent significant switch was Sweden…somebody else can help (or can search for earlier threads 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/25 "2005-04-20T22:36:28Z")
(Errr, I misread **BrainGlutton** ’s post)…Ireland, all of it, drives on the correct side of the road. As do England, Scotland, and Wales. In all seriousness, you can drive from Dublin to Belfast without knowing you crossed a border, just as you can drive from Paris to Brussels. ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/26 "2005-04-20T23:44:22Z")
Don’t listen to Gorrillaman, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In order to have a standardises system throughout Ireland the Republic is moving to a right-hand drive road system. Its been decided that the phaseover will be progressive. They’re starting with the trucks. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/27 "2005-04-21T10:00:02Z")
> [@curly chick](#): > > I take it you’ve never taken a stroll round the car park at Sainsbury’s in Newry on a Saturday, then? Every car in the place is from here and I know that’s not my imagination, seeing as the trolleys take a pound coin or a euro coin. Not arguing with your observations, but I don’t think the trolleys can be taken as support either way. The trolleys at Morrisons in Tynemouth also take Euro coins, as do others. I think that’s just the large chains covering their bets. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/28 "2005-04-21T10:16:48Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Not arguing with your observations, but I don’t think the trolleys can be taken as support either way. The trolleys at Morrisons in Tynemouth also take Euro coins, as do others. I think that’s just the large chains covering their bets. It’s even simpler than that. The trolley manufacturers make one design, which they can sell in both the UK and in Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/29 "2005-04-21T10:20:41Z")
Is that right, **WotNot**? Huh. Didn’t know that. There’s only one thing for it - I’ll have to carry out stealth trolley currency inspections at all the international supermarkets on both sides of the border over the coming weeks and report back with my findings. If you do the same in Great Britian, we could write the definitive work on the subject. If there’s a Nobel prize for Economics, it’ll have our name on it after this; mark my words. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/30 "2005-04-22T15:29:06Z")
You know, if I’d posted this thread 20 or even 10 years ago (assuming the Internet had existed then, in a form supporting the SDMB), it would have been deluged with furious posts by “No surrender!” Unionists screaming about what a horrible disaster it would be if they were taken over by those damned Papist bogtrotters. Followed by a deluge of even more furious posts by IRA Nationalists lambasting the Proddy dogfuckers. Wiht both sides displaying a very eloquent Irish command of elaborate and colorful invective. Feeling on this issue seems to have died down significantly, if not entirely. ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/31 "2005-04-22T16:46:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You know, if I’d posted this thread 20 or even 10 years ago (assuming the Internet had existed then, in a form supporting the SDMB), it would have been deluged with furious posts by “No surrender!” Unionists screaming about what a horrible disaster it would be if they were taken over by those damned Papist bogtrotters. Followed by a deluge of even more furious posts by IRA Nationalists lambasting the Proddy dogfuckers. Wiht both sides displaying a very eloquent Irish command of elaborate and colorful invective. Feeling on this issue seems to have died down significantly, if not entirely. If anyone from NI had written a post like this about the USA, using this sort of invective to characterise the population of America into two sides according to their political and religious beliefs, there would have been a deluge of angry posts from dozens of people. But you seem to think it’s ok to generalise about us from afar. I realise that **Aro** has already pointed this out … > [@](#): > > Hey, if you can’t make generalisations about life in Northern Ireland, then the terrorists have won. …but I think I should point out that there aren’t just two **sides** , or opinions - or religions in NI. I am neither a Protestant or a Catholic, but I’ve lived here all my life and would not be happy to see us forced into a United Ireland - to attempt to do so would provoke another spate of terrorism, IMO, with more innocent people being killed pointlessly. More people have already died because of this terrorist war than were killed on 9/11. A united Ireland is not a solution, it’s a whole new problem. ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782/32 "2005-04-23T00:14:08Z")
> [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](#): > > …but I think I should point out that there aren’t just two **sides** , or opinions - or religions in NI. I am neither a Protestant or a Catholic, but I’ve lived here all my life and would not be happy to see us forced into a United Ireland - to attempt to do so would provoke another spate of terrorism, IMO, with more innocent people being killed pointlessly. More people have already died because of this terrorist war than were killed on 9/11. A united Ireland is not a solution, it’s a whole new problem. The Good Friday Agreement, if its stuck to, ensures that nobody will be forced into a United Ireland, if a United Ireland comes about it will be because a majority wishes it to do so. I’m sure a United Ireland would cause its own problems but although things are fairly calm now a lot of resentment still simmers under the surface. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-prospects-for-a-united-ireland/299782.md?page=1)