Unionists Change

From the BBC:
"Brexit: Rise of more than 60% in Irish passport applications from NI"

The number of people in Northern Ireland applying for Irish passports rose by more than 60% in July, compared with the same period last year. In the first full month since the UK's vote to leave the EU, there were 6,638 applications for Irish passports from people living in the region. That is 2,568 more than July last year. Applications for Irish passports from people living in Great Britain also increased year on year in July, with a 73% rise. Post Offices in Belfast and elsewhere noted a sharp rise in applications in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.  But there is some evidence that this has slowed down in more recent weeks. Some unionists who had never previously considered an Irish passport started to apply in the wake of Brexit, but it is impossible to calculate how many.

The statistics released on Friday by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin include:

• a 63% rise in Northern Ireland applications last month (year on year), compared with a 10% rise in June;

• a 73% increase in applications from Great Britain, compared with a 22% rise in June.

^ What I found very interesting is the number of Unionists (those that have long fought for Northern Ireland to stay part of the United Kingdom and not be reunited with Ireland) that are now applying for Irish passports. It seems they have given up their long-held beliefs that they and the UK are superior to Ireland (ie The Troubles from 1968-1998) and are flocking for Irish citizenship so they can stay part of the EU and have freedom of movement. Unionists (who are mostly Protestants) along with the British kept the Catholics in Northern Ireland/Ireland as second-class citizens for centuries. The pyramid went: British (English, Scottish, Welsh) citizens then Irish Protestants and at the bottom came the Irish Catholics. When the southern part of Ireland became free in the 1920s and the British kept Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom they also continued their open discrimination of the Catholics. In the 1960s the Catholics started to seek the same civil rights as all British citizens and that's when the Irish Protestants and the British came together to attack, wound, murder and kept the Catholics from "leaving" their current station. After the British Army massacred innocent people during Bloody Sunday in Derry the Catholics went from passively asking for basic civil rights to demanding them. The resulting 30 year Troubles led to a bitter civil war with the Irish Protestants and British on one side and the Irish Catholics on the other. The EC (which both the UK and Ireland joined in the 1970s) did little to nothing to stop the violence, destruction and murder. Finally, in 1998 the British agreed to give the Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland the same civil rights that the Irish Protestants in Northern Ireland, the Scots, the Welsh and the English had been given decades ago. The "funny" part out of this is now those same people - who once relished in keeping the Irish Catholics subjected to their bottom-post even going so far to terrorize and murder them - are flocking to become citizens of the Republic of Ireland which has a Catholic majority. I don't know if this sudden change is because the ex-militants have seen the error of their ways in the 18 years since The Troubles officially ended or that they are just scared of what the UK will look like when they eventually do leave the EU - will there still be a United Kingdom or will Scotland leave? Etc. It is something that is very interesting and I hope to continue to learn more and more. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-36987993