Book commissioned by Notre Dame partnership is inspiring dialogue about Irish unification

For more than a century, the island of Ireland has been partitioned into two states: Ireland, an independent country, and Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom. Throughout those decades, people on the island have been in a continuous debate — and sometimes violent conflict — over keeping or removing the border.

“For and Against a United Ireland,” a book commissioned by a University of Notre Dame partnership with the Royal Irish Academy, is proving to be an important contribution to the island’s ongoing conversation about the practical questions and issues of identity involved in Irish unification.

Two of the island’s most distinguished journalists, Fintan O’Toole of The Irish Times and Sam McBride of the Belfast Telegraph, wrote the book for ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South) — a joint academic project of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and the Royal Irish Academy.

“For and Against a United Ireland” builds on the multidisciplinary research ARINS has produced, but the book is written for a general audience. After all, voters on the island will ultimately decide whether Irish unification proceeds. The Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 peace accord that ended the violence of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, allows for a referendum to eliminate the border between north and south if there is evidence that a majority of voters in both jurisdictions would support it.

“Unification is not an inevitability, but it is a concrete possibility,” O’Toole and McBride write in the book’s introduction. “Sooner or later, it is a question that everyone on the island — and everyone with any interest in Ireland — will likely have to engage with. And it is vital that this engagement is as rational as any political contest ever can be. The stakes — both positive and negative — are very high and we all need to have some idea as to what cards are on each side of the table.”

The idea for the book came from Pauric Dempsey, executive director of the Keough-Naughton Institute’s Dublin office.

“Talk of Irish unification has grown in political circles and public discourse ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union,” Dempsey said. “One of the things the Brexit vote made clear is that if a referendum on Irish unification were to happen, people going to the polls would need to have deep, credible, nonpartisan information to understand everything at stake and to make an educated decision.”

Upcoming US tour

“For and Against a United Ireland” has received extensive praise and media coverage throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom, and it has drawn packed crowds to events in Dublin, Belfast, and as far away as the Jaipur Literature Festival in India. It was shortlisted for An Post’s Best Irish-Published Book of 2025 and is on the shortlist for the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize, which recognizes work that encourages peace and reconciliation in Ireland and understanding between the peoples of Britain and Ireland.

This week, O’Toole and McBride will travel to the United States for public conversations in Chicago, New York, Boston, Princeton, and Washington, DC.

“When we were developing the idea for the book with the Keough-Naughton Institute, we wanted it to be at the center of conversation in Ireland and the UK, and it certainly has been,” said Ruth Hegarty, managing editor of publications for the Royal Irish Academy. “It’s exciting that audiences in the US will also be able to engage with the topic.”

The format of “For and Against a United Ireland” is perhaps as important as the content. O’Toole and McBride don’t simply take one side in the unification debate and argue with each other. Each journalist independently wrote his own chapter in favor of unification and his own chapter against unification. As they say in the book, “We are not pushing you to change your mind, but we are urging you to open it.”

The authors consider the numerous aspects of disentangling Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and unifying it with the rest of the island of Ireland. There are practical and financial implications such as what to do with national debt, education systems, health care, and social welfare, as well as questions about the country’s flag, national anthem, and the role of the Irish language.

Colin Barr, the Thomas Moore and Judy Livingston Director of the Keough-Naughton Institute and professor of modern Irish history in the Keough School, said “For and Against a United Ireland” is emblematic of the ARINS mission.

“ARINS was established to provide people with reliable, nonpartisan information and to encourage dialogue,” Barr said. “‘For and Against’ demonstrates how we can have civil conversations about complicated topics while considering different views.”

“For and Against a United Ireland” was published by the Royal Irish Academy in November and by Notre Dame Press, for readers on this side of the Atlantic, in February.

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