A constitutional imperative is a legal term identifying a requirement or a principle which a government must honour and uphold in its legislation and official actions.
There can be any number of constitutional imperatives, like justice, fairness, equity. Bunreacht na hEireann has several. Last year Canadian courts affirmed four, including reconciliation.
The McGimpsey brothers, Michael and Chris, took an action against the Irish government to try to scupper the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA). They argued that since reunification was a constitutional imperative, then Garret FitzGerald’s government couldn’t recognise Northern Ireland, which they did in the AIA.
They lost. The Supreme Court found that, yes, reunification as a principle is a constitutional imperative, but that in practice recognising the reality of Northern Ireland’s very visible existence does not conflict with that principle.
That imperative is set out in Article 3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann: “It is the firm will of the Irish Nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by a peaceful means with a consent of the majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island.”
It’s true that Article 3 is overly long and prolix, a great all-embracing portmanteau full of motherhood and apple pie.
However, it’s not a call to action nor was it designed to be, because that’s not what a constitutional imperative is.
Yes, it does provide scope for the sort of gibberish Simon Harris utters, but a government has to uphold its constitutional imperatives at all times and saying one isn’t a priority is a questionable position to adopt.
It’s true that the vast majority of people don’t wake up every morning and wonder how closer we are to reunification and it certainly isn’t an Irish government priority.
But here’s why. Neither Micheál Martin nor Simon Harris has the slightest intention of lifting a finger to advance reunification.
They lead 26-county parties with a 26-county mindset, though there are many in Fianna Fáil deeply unhappy with Martin’s apostasy on the party’s republican position.
You often read in this column that no British party has any votes here and the Labour party doesn’t even organise here. So they have no democratic mandate for anything they do here.
Well, the same goes for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and every other Dublin-based party except Sinn Féin.
Reunification would upset the applecart. FF and FG would have to organise here. SF would slaughter FF on all all-Ireland basis.
Neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael will allow even presidential voting in the north (though they pay lip service to the idea) for the same reason.
They’re both happy with the status quo which they have run for a century and they’re not about to do anything to undermine it.
We’re in the end game now. Reunification is the only direction but Dublin refuses to plan for it, whereas Britain has already made its departure plans.
The union is a constitutional imperative for the UK, no doubt about it. However, the British have not honoured or upheld it with respect to the north which they regard, correctly, as a place apart.
Indeed, unlike any other part of the UK, they have made arrangements for its secession.
They have also said they have no selfish strategic or indeed economic interest in remaining.
As Sir Patrick Mayhew told Die Zeit magazine in 1993, the British government would happily leave Ireland “mit handkuss” [kiss on the hand].
Furthermore, in the Good Friday Agreement they have recognised the right of the Irish people to self-determination, which they blocked in 1919. In other words, the British have made plans to leave.
On the other hand, the Irish government refuses to plan for the inevitable referendum, not because they don’t want to upset unionists or cause them to walk away from the GFA, but because they want to sustain their own political dominance as long as possible regardless how impoverished the north becomes, or how much damage that does to counties bordering the north.
Last year, the all-party Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement issued a detailed report to the Oireachtas recommending that the government begin planning “immediately” for a referendum and reunification.
The government ignored it, despite its own party representatives on the committee supporting the report. That tells you all you need to know.
Not only is it irresponsible, arguably it goes against the constitutional imperative of reunification.