From left to right: WT Cosgrave, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald and Northern Ireland prime minister James Craig during border discussions, 1924
Mayor of Kerry, Cllr Michael Foley, who resides in Ballylongford, brought the final Kerry County Council meeting of the year to his home community.
Photo by Domnick Walsh
A century after the Irish Boundary Commission established the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, a Kerry councillor has urged the government to prepare for Irish unity.
Councillor Robert Brosnan called for the creation of a citizen’s assembly and engagement with Northern Ireland to secure a date for an Irish unity referendum.
On December 3, 1925, a month of frantic negotiations between WT Cosgrave, Britain’s prime minister Stanley Baldwin and Stormont premier James Craig ended in confirmation of the 500km Irish border as delineated today.
When earlier expectations of major concessions on the behalf of the British were ultimately dashed, great anger was felt in Dublin at what was perceived a betrayal of prior negotiations, particularly around Article 12 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Speaking at a Kerry County Council meeting last week, Cllr Brosnan said the Good Friday agreement of 1998 provided the democratic means of achieving reunification and asked the council to write to the Taoiseach to prepare plans.
“I am proud to call myself a united Irelander and we in Sinn Féin have always had that ideal as our foundation stone, but we have never claimed ownership of that ideal because we know that it’s something that most people will support in Kerry,” he said.
“Its 100 years since the boundary commission divided our country, it’s time Kerry got behind the unity referendum and put their advice to Dáil Eireann”.
He called for the establishment of an All-Island Representative Citizen’s Assembly, joint Oireachtas Committee on Irish Unity, the publishing of a plan for Irish Unity and engagement with Northern Ireland Unionist opinion with a view to securing a date for a referendum.
Sinn Féin has hosted 44 assemblies as part of its Commission on the Future of Ireland since 2022. The party’s latest report on the “future of Ireland” said significant work is needed to be done to prepare for a referendum, urging that work begin now.
Sinn Féin councillor Deirdre Ferris seconded Cllr Brosnan’s motion, adding that she hoped everyone in the chamber supported the idea of tackling the issue.
“The border is a man-made construct in order for the British imperial state to keep a foothold in the Irish state itself…I’d hope everyone supports the idea that engagement at least begins in and around what a united Ireland would mean for every single community,” she said.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme