Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland: Time for Lateral Thinking

Abstract

One area which deserves treatment now that Scotland has achieved home rule is its relationship with the two Irelands. This is something of a taboo subject in that Scotland has been kept hiding behind the skirts of England for years and has had no chance of contributing to the debate on constitutiona l change for Northern Ireland. What interest there is tends to come from the diehard supporters of the two main tendencies in Northern Ireland. For the foreseeable future Scotland and Northern Ireland are likely to remain constituent parts of the United Kingdom, each with its own representative body, and it is time that they were talking to each other in a constructive way. While the focus in the early months of the Scottish parliament will be on the developing relationship with Westminster, it is also important that the new administration engages with the leaders of the Northern Ireland assembly. Complementary to this is a need to build a relationship with the Republic of Ireland, and here we come up against the issue of whether initiatives of this kind come within the terms of reference of the Scottish parliament. Probably not, but this has been overtaken by a more recent event, the Easter Agreement, which should facilitate new sets of relationships among the various countries of these Isles once the provisions under Strand Three arc implemented. For the first time it will be legitimate for Scotland to deal directly with both Northern Ireland and Ireland without recourse to London. Although Ireland has had a special relationship with the UK since independence it has had no cause to deal separately with Scotland, until now. We should perhaps be working on what Mary Robinson declared when she was President of Ireland: