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“IF WE REALLY wanted to punish the British for 800 years of occupation and repression, make them keep the North forever”, joked former Fine Gael politician John Deasy in a recent episode of the Path to Power podcast, a remark that prompted fellow guest, journalist Brenda Power, to laugh along agreeably.
Deasy insisted that that was the prevailing view of many in the Republic, who think merging with Northern Ireland was “more trouble than it’s worth”.
Power and Deasy both referred to and gave credence to a 2024 contested report by John Fitzgerald that suggested unification could cost up to €20 billion a year for 20 years. When the report’s validity was challenged by host Matt Cooper, Deasy claimed that it was only contested by Sinn Féin.
“Even if they’re roughly correct, that’s a lot of money. People aren’t prepared to do that,” said Deasy.
In reality, the report has been challenged by a wide range of economic experts and commentators, including David McWilliams, Professor Seamus McGuinness and DCU Professor John Doyle, who has described it as “widely inaccurate” and based on “unreasonable assumptions”.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and party colleague, Michelle O’Neill. SF have come in for some criticism over the party’s focus on a united Ireland. Alamy Stock Photo

Alamy Stock Photo

Whatever your view, this 2024 piece of research landed right smack in the middle of what is a long-running and often highly polarised debate around a United Ireland. And in these debates, commentators will assess from different angles, sometimes clinging to a single piece of research, because it validates their personal perception.
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Matt Cooper’s guests concluded that Irish unification is a “dead weight” that is costing Sinn Féin votes, “[voters believe] it’s going to cost us a lot of money, and these people up North are crazy”, remarked Deasy.

North and South
These sorts of reductive narratives regarding Northern Ireland often echo the ones that portray people in the North as less Irish, even though we hold the same passport and the same birthright.
The platforming and proliferation of offensive caricatures of Northern Ireland and its people as some kind of burden have to be challenged not only as partitionist in nature, but ultimately, false. Northern Ireland is a global leader across several sectors, and the reunification of this island would combine two highly educated and skilled workforces that would strengthen Ireland’s global economic and sectoral leadership.
Over 40% of the world’s tracked mobile crushing and screening equipment is manufactured in Northern Ireland, the world’s only fully composite aircraft wing — the Airbus A220 wing — was designed, manufactured and assembled in Belfast, with Northern Ireland contributing £1.8 billion (€2.1bn) to the UK aerospace sector.
Northern Ireland’s heavy engineering, aerospace and preci