Northern nationalists see Sinn Féin setback as ‘bump in the road’ as they look ahead to united Ireland

In Belfast’s SSE Arena, symbolism pulsed through the air on Saturday.

“From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road,” sang local boy Van Morrison as Michelle O’Neill took to the stage at the Ireland’s Future rally on Saturday.

The several thousand people who had given up their afternoons to listen to the slew of speakers discuss how to plan for Irish unity had no doubt this was the direction of travel.

The question under discussion was not about if, but when; the conversations not about whether there will be a united Ireland, but how to make it happen – how, as Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín put it, to get to “that sunny day”.

Ireland’s Future has been upfront about its ambitions. It has already published its proposed timescale, helpfully included in the conference brochure, with a “possible Irish general election” pencilled in for November 2024, and among its calls is for an early commitment from that new government to work in a “focused and determined way” towards securing a Border poll in 2030.

It was perhaps no surprise, then, that for those attending, the performance of Sinn Féin in last week’s local and European elections south of the Border was largely immaterial.

“Northern nationalists are the drivers of unity,” said Seán Mac Stíofáin, a Sinn Féin supporter from Belfast.

He is confident because of “people like Mary Lou McDonald, John Finucane, Michelle O’Neill, the leadership of Sinn Féin in its totality, its international outlook, policies, the whole organisation of the political sphere in the North”.

“A bump in the road,” was how Jimmy Gaston, from Dunloy, Co Antrim, put the election results. “This is bigger than Sinn Féin.”

His friend Seán McErlean was one of several who pushed back against the suggestion that Sinn Féin had had a poor election, not least given it had added seats to its local election tally. “There were some positives. It’s not as bad as it looked.”

There with another friend, Liam O’Neill; the three – and all Sinn Féin members from North Antrim – took the long view. “If you go back 30 years, you couldn’t have had something like this [event] in the city of Belfast, or in the North,” said O’Neill.

They are “confident” they will see a united Ireland in their lifetime. “One hundred per cent,” said McErleain.

Inside the arena, this was where the focus lay. A rare mention of last week’s election came in a question from journalist Jim Fitzpatrick to former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who was asked if the results had any consequences for the discussion at hand around Irish unity. “I’m not sure,” replied Varadkar.

Pressed on whether it had any impact on the argument for a Border poll, he said: “I think they’re separate issues … I don’t think any one election necessarily impacts on the timing or outcome of the referendum.”

[ Next government must ‘actively’ work towards a united Ireland, Varadkar tells Belfast conference ]

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald was happy to move on. After the uncertainty of the last week, this was safe ground. Asked what Irish unity meant to her, she was cheered when she replied: “Freedom!”

Yet, as Ireland’s Future itself would be the first to point out, much remains to be worked out. There were safe laughs for the comedians in the debate over whether, in a united Ireland, “proper [Northern] Tayto or Free Stayto” should endure.

Aine Kerr, from Belfast, emphasised the importance of planning. “Education, health. What’s going to happen to them?”

“But,” her friend Frances Boyle added, “does the South want the North?”

Of the many questions which have yet to be answered around constitutional change – or indeed a united Ireland – the one which looms largest is that of unionism.

The North Antrim friends took encouragement from the “broad” range of speakers.

As has become the norm at Ireland’s Future events, unionist politicians do not take part, but some alternative viewpoints were articulated in the panel on “Protestant perspectives”, which included DUP founder member Wallace Thompson, who talked of the “terrible stick and abuse” he had received from a lot of fellow unionists because of his support of Irish unity.

Former loyalist paramilitary David Adams summed the dilemma up with another question: “Does anyone seriously believe that two million unreconciled northerners can be injected into the political and social bloodstream of the progressive liberal democracy to the south of us and everything will be fine?”