challenge: americans and british people who don’t know anything about northern irish politics, stfu

i just. yes, the recent election results were historic. but there’s probably going to be another election in like three months because the dup refuse to form government until the ni protocol is destroyed. the good friday agreement requires that the largest unionist and nationalist parties form a joint government, which after the election results are the dup and sinn fein respectively. as that isn’t happening anytime soon, it’ll either go to another election or stormont will be defunct again for another few years (preferably the election, yknow, but god knows the dup loves digging their feet in).

that’s not even getting into the ridiculousness of “supporting independence is what all leftists should do” - no, you idiot, supporting the democratic will of the people of northern ireland should be what leftists do. unionists still have a larger chunk of the vote in northern ireland than nationalists (41% to 39%). stormont doesn’t run on first past the post, it uses a form of proportional representation to reduce the risk of sectarian violence killing people. the good friday agreement regulates all of this, and sets out the guidelines for how a united ireland should come to pass, and while it is now more plausible, it’s still really fucking complicated! if you don’t understand this much, you’re wildly unqualified to even comment on northern irish politics.

hell, i don’t know enough to properly comment on northern irish politics (which is why i’m not going into detail on the parties), i know enough to know when people should stfu about an incredibly delicate situation which has, can, and will kill people if it’s dealt with wrongly. it took over twenty years for the good friday agreement to come to fruition and over 3,000 people were killed in the meantime.

and if you don’t know what any, or all, of these terms meant, you sure as hell don’t know enough to comment on northern ireland.

that’s not even getting into the logistical issues of a united ireland - first off, the republic of ireland would need to vote in a referendum to agree to this, and all the polls over the last few years have shown that the people of the republic don’t want a united ireland. most ppl agree it’d be nice to see one day in the far future, but whenever they’re asked about in the immediate future? they nope the fuck out - understandably, given my next few points.

second off, the republic and northern ireland have wildly different healthcare systems (especially regarding dentistry) to the extent that people in the republic frequently go over the border to ni for dental care because it’s ridiculously cheaper. dentists in ni will lose subsidies if they just join the republic as-is, and that’s not getting into the logistical nightmare that is joining together the rest of the healthcare services.

third off, 30% of ni is part of the civil service, which raises massive fucking questions about what happens in a united ireland situation.

fourth off, northern ireland receives a fuckton of funding from the uk, and there’s a lot of questions about whether the republic could even afford to give northern ireland that level of support (which ties into 1).

this is all just off the top of my head, and again - i sure as fuck don’t know enough to actually comment on northern irish politics. if any of this is news to you, then you definitely don’t.