Meath should ‘go it alone’ on unity Citizens Assembly

PAUL MURPHY

If the Government is not willing to sponsor and fund a Citizens Assembly on a united Ireland then Meath should go ahead and set up its own assembly, a speaker told a conference in Navan.

Anne Speed, a retired trade union official, said the assembly could work if it included trade unionists, business, sporting and community organisations and it was suggested that Meath County Council would be the ideal organisation to lead the drive to set it up.

He was speaking at a conference 'Trade Unionists for a New and United Ireland' organised by the Meath Council of Trade Unions. The meeting’s chairman John Regan said that discussion should open up about how a united might look by talking about harmonising items like employment law, living standards North and South, and integrating services in health care, education, transport and social protection. However, much work would have to be done in engaging communities who felt hesitant, alienated or unrepresented. It was also necessary to challenge assumptions, ask hard questions and listen to diverse perspectives.

Anne Speed, a former senior official of the Unison union said that debate was about all people on the island, and about the country’s future. She emphasised the importance of the attendance at the meeting of Meath TDs Peadar Tóibín, Johnny Guirke and Darren O’Rourke and local councillors Helen Meyer, Brian Fitzgerald, Michael Gallagher, Sean Drew and Alan Lawes, saying there was a big responsibility on their shoulders to push for an open civic society debate and to shift what she said was the Government’s current inertia on the issue. It was impossible, she said, to reform the jurisdiction in the North because it was six small counties “pretending to be a country”.

The meeting was also told that patience was needed in offering the hand of friendship in a non-aggressive way to communities in the North.

Kay Kearns, Meath Council of Trade Unions officer said that they were on the start of a process of engagement that hopefully would end with a better understanding of what a new Ireland would look like prior to a mandatory referendum as per the Good Friday Agreement which said that a referendum in the North would be followed by one in the South.

John Regan said that a second seminar would follow next Spring because it was vitally important that workers across all communities had the opportunity to participate in shaping a new and united Ireland.

The role of community clubs, NGOs, grassroot voices, sports and cultural groups advocacy groups social justice charities should be at the centre of the debate to tackle poverty, housing issues and cross-border disconnections.

Peadar Tóibín said there were matters that could be worked on prior to a referendum such as all-Ireland developments, an all-Ireland ambulance service and an all-Ireland curriculum development.

“We can now start to put in place a kind of unifying system. I did a report some years ago involving trade unions, business people and farmers and everyone agreed that if plans were put together, funded together, delivered together will be better services and will probably cost less”.

Johnny Guirke said the task was to win unionist people over and it was better to plan and prepare in advance of any referendum.

“We can’t be waiting for people who will never come on board – we need to win over what we can”. Darren O’Rourke said that Meath County Council would be a good body to facilitate a citizens assembly.

He instanced the example of Mayo County Council which had a small citizens jury made up of women and it was very successful.

He said that Taoiseach Micheal Martin had said “the time is not right” to talk about Irish unity but it was vital that movement should take place and that conversations should take place and the trade unions were very well placed in relation to all this.