A Farewell to Northern Ireland? Constitutional Options for Irish Unity

A combination of unintended consequences of Brexit and demographic change in Northern Ireland has brought the issue of Irish unity forcefully onto the political agenda. The meaning and implications of 'unity', however, remain unclear. The comparative politics literature offers several models of territorial statehood that are of theoretical interest, but only two potentially enjoy substantial political recognition in Ireland. The first is a unitary state with power concentrated in the capital, the model anticipated by Irish nationalists before the partition of Ireland in 1921, and widely supported since then. The second is a unitary state with special provisions for Northern Ireland's autonomy similar to those it now enjoys within the UK, as envisaged by other nationalists and implicitly endorsed by the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Making a decision on Irish unity requires detailed analysis of what this concept implies and recognition of the complex issues to which it gives rise.