Letters: Irish Unity offers the best future for all by Martin McGuinness Cumann in Derry

Dear Editor,

As we enter 2025 it is clear that across Ireland there is a growing sense that Irish Unity offers the best future for all our people. The conversation on unity is already well underway in towns and villages right across the 32 counties.

There needs to be a structured, national conversation among the citizens of Ireland and beyond on the future of our island.

People living in Derry and Donegal know all too well that partition clearly hasn’t worked.

This is an important time in the shaping of Ireland’s future. It is an exciting and positive time, full of potential. Irish Unity is about opportunity.

The social and economic opportunities are immense. The potential of improving our economy, transforming our healthcare services and enhancing the prosperity of the entire island would be unlocked. That includes the transformation of public services - healthcare, education and social protection.

Why should someone living in Letterkenny have to travel to Galway or Dublin for services when they could be seen in Derry if we worked on an All Ireland model.

We need to maximise the potential of the all island economy – business, infrastructure, agriculture, skills/ research, renewable energy. It also needs to include matters of culture, rights and identity in a new Ireland.

A referendum on Irish Unity is achievable and winnable. It’s time to set a date for the referendum and to let the people have their say.

Locally we need a mature and respectful conversation about constitutional change. It’s a conversation that should be approached with optimism, ambition and a real sense of opportunity.

The conversation must be inclusive. It must recognise that people hold different and competing views about the future.

Irish Unity is now a do-able project.

The debate on unity has already begun; now people want more than words; they want action.

Let’s all join the debate in the times ahead.

Is Mise

Martin McGuinness Cumann

Bogside

Derry

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