A draft treaty on the reunification of Ireland.

Written as part of a fiction project. 

  1. A unified federal state to be known as the Federal Union of Ireland, shall be created consisting of the area of Ireland/Eire as recognised by international treaty (“The South”) and the part of Ireland designated Northern Ireland and formerly part of the then United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (“The North” “Northern Ireland”).

  2. The area comprising Antrim, Down and Armagh shall be designated a region to be known as “East Ulster”. East Ulster shall be governed by a parliament sitting in Stormont and elected from within the region. The East Ulster Parliament may not pass any laws in contravention of the Federal Constitution of Ireland. The East Ulster Parliament may nominate a Governor General to act as a ceremonial figurehead of East Ulster. The Governor General shall be recognised as the second citizen after the President of the Federal Union of Ireland.  

  3. The flag of the new state shall be agreed by a commission agreed by two-thirds majority of both the Oireachtas/Federal Parliament and East Ulster Parliament. Any proposed flag shall require similar approval. Until a flag is agreed, all state buildings on both sides of the border shall fly the tricolour and Ulster flag. The national anthem shall be chosen by a similar method. 

  4. English and Irish shall be equal languages on the island. No one resident in Northern Ireland shall be compelled to learn the Irish nor Ulster-Scots language, nor shall it be a requirement to hold a job in the federal or any devolved government. Every student shall have the right to be taught Irish and Ulster-Scots in any school on the island. 

  5. All communications by the federal state shall be bi-lingual based on the Canadian model.

  6. There shall be a federal parliament comprising a lower house, Dail Eireann/Federal House of Representatives of Ireland and an upper house, Seanad Eireann/Federal Senate of Ireland.

  7. The lower house shall be elected by PR-STV with no constituency smaller than six seats. The North shall be guaranteed its proportional share of seats in the lower house but that share shall not be less than 20% of all seats in the house.

  8. The upper house shall be composed of equal members from the North and South. They shall be elected by party list PR from two separate constituencies. A non-money bill shall require the votes of 55% of the members of the upper house to pass.   

  9. There shall be an office of Taoiseach/Federal Prime Minister and Tanaiste/Federal Deputy Prime Minister elected as a group by the votes of a majority of the lower house and a majority of the upper house.    

  10. The candidates nominated to federal ministers of Justice, Defence or any security related portfolio including the heads of An Garda Siochana or the Police Service of Northern Ireland or their successors may be vetoed by a vote of one quarter of the Federal Senate.

  11. There shall be a new constitution agreed by a majority in the south and a majority not less than 62% in the north.

  12. The new constitution shall explicitly recognise the existence and entitlement to mutual respect of a minority of the population who regard themselves as culturally British. It shall also recognise “the special position of the British monarch as the guardian of the culture professed by a significant minority of citizens.” 

  13. The East Ulster Parliament may nominate an individual as Governor General to represent the British monarch in a purely ceremonial capacity in Northern Ireland.

  14. There shall be a constitutional guarantee that the current level of public funding subsidy in Northern Ireland provided by the British Exchequer shall be maintained and increased every year by a sum of not less than 1.5% in addition to the prevailing rate of inflation at that time. At no time shall the East Ulster Parliament be required to increase taxation or introduce new forms of taxation to fund that spending formula. Additional funds for Northern Ireland may be funded by additional or new taxation in the south or by the south appealing to other nations to fund it. 

  15. The British armed forces shall have the right to maintain a recruiting facility in Northern Ireland.

  16. The Federal Government shall honour all pension liabilities pertaining to residents of Northern Ireland or those born there agreed by His Majesty’s Government before reunification. 

  17. The Federal Government shall also honour all legacy and victims compensation agreements made by His Majesty’s Government and its predecessors.

  18. Titles of nobility and other honours granted by the British Government to residents of Northern Ireland before or after the reunification shall be permissible and respected by the state. The state itself shall not issue titles of nobility.  

  19. A pardon shall be issued by the state to all loyalist and nationalist combatants as certified by themselves for any criminal actions taken from the result of the border poll until the ceasefire called by the CLMC at the beginning of this process. However, all those claiming a pardon must declare fully all the details of the crime for which they are seeking a pardon, and no further pardons may be sought 12 months after the adoption of this agreement. 

  

 

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