There are two ways of thinking about the partition of Ireland 100 years ago. One is as a realist drama – the working out of the inevitable consequence of ruptures that were already irreconcilable. The other is to see it as a tragedy – the destruction of all the finest hopes for what Irish independence might have meant. The first of these interpretations sits well with Ulster unionism; the second with Irish nationalism. We can surely, after a century of living with it, accept that the division of the island was at once unavoidable and calamitous.

Source: The Irish Times May 01, 2021 04:52 UTC