Interesting stuff.

Its quite likely that in a post-Brexit UI 32 county scenario the harderline of the Unionists would find themselves having more in common with the more conservative Catholic elements in the south...and possibly also with many of the migrant communities who are generally inherently conservative on social issues. You could potentially see Evangelical Nigerians marching in 12th of July parades in Blanchardstown....Oh the posssibilities

Lest there be any confusion, I cannot stand the Orange Order. They are dinosaurs and even most unionists must know that. Can't imagine Mike Nesbitt, for example, having any truck with them. (Although I have an image of Trimble standing shouting at the PSNI while wearing a sash...)

Edit: Just checked - Nesbitt is the only UUP leader not to have been a member of the OO

I just threw the OO into the mix as the most 'challenging' element of unionist/loyalist culture that we'd have to integrate post reunification. Like the idea of merging them with the new evangelical churches. Orange is the New Bla...

Anyway, Brexit: May will ask cabinet to agree Brexit deal that keeps UK in customs union as DUP threatens to pull the plug

That friction has already happened in some protestant communities in Ireland. African protestants are tending to establish their own churches as the Irish churches in the republic aren't godly enough. An African service can last hours, be more like a Feile rather than the limp wristed weekly tea and buns by the clock meetup. Testimonies of gods help are as much about immigrants geeing eachother up with stories of financial and social progress. An orange order march would be rather tame and pointless to them.

Knowing people from staunch DUP land I don't think we in the republic fully appreciate that if partition ends loads of them will clear out and there's nowt that we can do or say that will stop them, and we certainly should not berate ourselves for that.

Where will they go? Their image of the motherland is a place that doesn't exist - at least not in England. Maybe some corner of Scotland?
Best bet is US Bible Belt. Give them all special J1s so they can try it out..

Depends on what Britain offers them. I could see a good few of the hardcore rural types heading for the Australian wheat belt, plenty of evangelical movements like Hillsong to slot into, there was even a UVF off shoot in Alice Springs! White Australia is essentially a planter culture so they'll fit right in with all the relocated white south africans and zimbabweans.

It's amazing how easy it is to get a refugee visa to Australia if you're white, although they don't call it that! I went along to one Uniting Church service, which would be a traditional moderate Methodist/Presbyterian mix in Oz and it was full of the worst racist dregs of empire, the first greeting I got was "you're very welcome, we need more of your type, too many blacks here". I didn't go back.

There's already a small evangelical movement in the republic which is mopping up the most spiritually needy from all creeds, but like the white imperialist dregs in Australia, a loyalist sharing a pew with a taig might not be their type of christianity.

Its pretty incredible to think that something like a mass exodus could be a possibility.

Personally I dont see why we couldnt all co-habit the island peacefully. Its only two generations since men from both traditions were dying alongside each other in trenches in Flanders.

Id be of the view that the loss of the broader mass of the southern Anglo-Irish post-partition was a huge loss to the southern State upon its creation. Wasnt it Yeats who made an excellent speech in the Seanad (I think) on that very subject in which he described the reactionary tendencies of the fledgling State as being part of the reason for their departure. Hopefully history will not be repeated.

Time is ripe to reappraise Eirexit and Treaty of 1921
by Liam Weeks and Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/time-is-ripe-to-reappraise-eirexit-and-treaty-of-1921-1.3660376

Eirexit LMAO..

That's quite surprising to me. What I heard from a former member was that the Uniting Church in Australia was quite doctrinally bland, and socially and politically liberal. On checking their Wikipedia page, I get the impression it might be different from one local congregation to another. Is it possible you just encountered one of the more reactionary wings?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniting_C ... a#Theology

The only news that matters today

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/wahl-in-bayern/

Do you remember how support for the moderate political parties collapsed post '98 in the North. Same thing happening in Germany. All thanks to Merkel. But Germany, unlike NI, actually matters. Especially as this is what all you pro EU people are shackling yourselves to.

The collapse of the SPD vote is the mostly startling. Now #4. Just three times the Linke vote.

Although the parallels are not exact reading this book..

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1626540187/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

.. should be a sobering experience for those who think the future of the EU is all wine and roses.

All the interviews I've read about the reasons why the working class and lower middle class voters are voting AfD is eerily similar to the reasons given for the collapse of the moderate parties back in the late 1920's. The big parties more interested in federal parliament politicking than listening to the concerns of the average voters.

I know the French, for one, are starting to do the balance sheet for the EU status quo and are preparing to bolt if and when the situation arises. This is the end game. The discussion is out in the open in Italy but is now starting to be discussed in the Netherlands and the nordics.

Would not be the first time Ireland painted itself into a corner by needlessly antagonizing traditional friends. I'm reminded of the League of Nations fiasco post '44 and the very public international humiliation of '46. Another of those great moments in modern Irish history you dont read about in Irish history books.