Perils & Prospects of a United Ireland

Author: Padraig O’Malley
Publisher: Lilliput Press
Format: Hardback
Padraig O’Malley’s Perils and Prospects of a United Ireland presents a wide-ranging and unique study of the questions around the future of Northern Irish politics, including the idea of reunification.

O’Malley has forged relationships across the political divide for over half a century and here he attemps to ascertain whether, after decades of interaction – but especially since the B/GFA – the protagonists are any closer to working co-operatively.

In this book, O’Malley explores the factors that might lead to the Northern Ireland Secretary of State calling a border referendum and the challenges both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would face. How might that majority for unity, a simple 50 per cent + 1, emerge? What criteria might a Secretary of State draw on to make their judgment call?

Including interviews from ninety-seven political players, academics, political influencers, a cross-section of the political grandees who negotiated the B/GFA and faith leaders between February 2020 and June 2021, O’Malley takes a temperature check of opinions from Northern Ireland with a sampling of opinion in the South.