What They Really Mean...

"There is no appetite or plans in Dublin to get into an Irish unity debate in five years time or anything like that".

The News Letter has been told by high-ranking Irish officials that they do not expect Northern Ireland's constitutional position to be raised again for "20 to 25 years".

Those senior Irish government "anonymous" officials contacting Northern Ireland's leading Unionist newspaper asking it to tell the restive readers:
"Calm down, there's no United Ireland on the horizon."
Awfully decent of them taking the time out to reassure all those nervous Unionists, but why bother at this particular juncture?

And who can really accurately forecast what will happen in Northern Ireland in the next five or ten, never mind 25 years; after all, ten years ago who would have predicted the present comedy duo we've got as FM and DFM?

The confidence building exercise is required because, despite all the DUPers' bluster, there is a feeling amongst many Unionists that the Union, post this year's elections, is not as strong as it was previously. Partly that's down to the results in Wales and Scotland, but also the DUP's increasingly Ulsterisation policy is putting serious doubts in real Unionist minds- it's not their Britishness which is continually stressed by the DUPers and that's not surprising as they would appear to regard their religion and regional identity as being of higher importance in the grand scheme of things.

And despite the DUPer apparchnik Simon Hamilton's contention that:
since the DUP assumed the pole position within unionism the percentage of unionists believing that Northern Ireland would be in the United Kingdom by 2020 rose from below two-thirds to 82 per cent."

...the total Unionist vote (as a percentage of the electorate) at the last Assembly Election was the lowest it’s been in any election for over 10 years.

But the Irish government "sources2 are taking time out to reassure us all, which is nice.
The important message in this "leak" though is a subliminal one and not aimed primarily at the Unionists. There most probably won’t be a United Ireland in, at least, the medium term, but this will be as great a relief for the Irish government, as much nearly as for the Unionists. In terms of the economic and social cohesion of the Republic, "unification" with "the Six Counties" makes no sense whatsoever- yes, emotionally most of their citizens probably would describe themselves as "pro-unity", but when the figures are added up, you are looking at 800 euros (plus) annual Nordie Tax for each ROI citizen, if Northern Ireland with its present economy came on board tomorrow.

The reality of the cost of "Unity" is starting to filter through to the ROI’s electorate, hence SF’s annihilation at the ballot box last month. But the Northern Irish nationalist and republicans need to be told as gently as possible of this unpalatable fact and I’m guessing that over the next few years there’ll be more and more of these strategic leaks wafting up from South of the Border...targetting more and more the real audience and that ain’t the one reading the Newsletter