Irish newspaper calls for union between Ireland, Wales and Scotland
Wales, Ireland and Scotland should form a ‘Celtic pact’ and leave England behind to sort out Brexit for itself, according to the Irish Mirror.
Writing for the newspaper, Jason O’Toole suggests that a pact of the four nations – Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – would be similar to the Scandinavians with their Nordic Council.
He says Wales and the rest could mimic the inter-parliamentary co-operation between Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Greenland and other smaller islands.
“There would no doubt be countless benefits if we replicated their model, such as with trade agreements and unrestricted borders, which would solve the Irish backstop,” Jason O’Toole.
“And it would collectively make us a much stronger power within the EU too.
“I know there might be a knee-jerk reaction to the idea, but it makes sense for the Celtic nations to swim off together into the sunset – while Boris Johnson sinks England with Brexit.”
A poll conducted between 30 July and 2 August by Lord Ashcroft projected that the ‘Yes’ vote in a Scottish Independence poll had a 3% lead.
There is no suggestion yet of majority support for a united Ireland, however. An Irish Times/Ipsos Mori poll in March had yes on 32%, no on 45%, with 23% on don’t know.
The most recent ‘yes/no’ poll on Welsh independence, conducted by Sky News Data in December 2018, had 17% yes, 67% no, and 16% don’t know.
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Why not?
Syniad diddorol. Os bydd y DU yn gadael gyda “No Deal” bydd hyn yn ffordd nol i’r Undeb Ewrop, i ni yng Nghymru.
Could you translate that please?
Translation from Welsh into English:
Interesting idea. If the UK leaves with a “No Deal” this will be a way back to the European Union, to us in Wales
A country that voted overwhelmingly to Leave.
Actually Welsh speaking Wales – the part with least English immigration- voted to remain
most of the leave voting valleys might be anglicised and saw huge english immigrations in the 1800s…but they arent from direct english immigrations – so you cant blame it on recent stuff………. mindsets of UK will do fine is probably more the case
So True
Not overwhelmingly and not for no deal!
you have no idea of reality, grow up and educate yourself, or just shut up
In future, simply copy and paste into Google Translate – it won’t be a perfect translation, but you’ll get the gist. Alternatively, sign up for learning Cymraeg!
d******d.
Dim diolch
Much has changed since the Sky poll of last December, with a lot of momentum for Wales independence.
I strongly support the principle of the Celtic alliance. England has run roughshod over Wales for centuries.
All Celtic peoples together as a strong unit in EU is a very appealing idea and makes sense. England will drag us all down with their ultimate act of self harm – Brexit
it makes perfect sense then England can run its corruption machine alone ,I for one am sick of Westminster turning a blind eye to everyone else’s opinions and running roughshod over us, I guess that’s an Anglo saxon thing , we urgently need to unite and build our alliances in a normal peaceful way and to end the warmongering ways of Westminster , We are sons of celts and family and have always had a close relationship with each other so the only decent thing is for Westminster to get this done and we can all live in peace and… Read more »
Well said.
Ive felt a shift from older harder brexiters towards London rule and against devolution …. polarisation is happenng……keep your ears open
Wales voted to leave too and its working class population always votes the same as post industrial England. Celts are you ”Aryans” aren’t they….
Completely agree, england couldn’t care less about Wales, or anyone else for that matter, they say Wales is too small a country to go it alone, though other countries are small & go on their own, but ok Wales, Scotland and Ireland together would be excellent. The Celtic Nations.
We need another Yes/No poll Independence poll!!
Syniad da!
Jason O’Toole you appear to have overlooked Cornwall, which is not merely a member of the Celtic League, not merely with its people having recognition under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, its language recognised under the Charter for Lesser Used Languages, and having a political party Mebyon Kernow – dedicated to campaigning for greater levels of self government for Cornwall and working towards independence, but also and very significantly Cornwall has never, ever, had an Act of Union or Joinder with any other territory, and certainly not with England, unlike Ireland, Scotland and Wales. So Cornwall… Read more »
What about Cumberland?
Cumberland is not recognised by the Celtic League. I’m guessing the nuclear industry would be a problem there
What like the former, current and future nuclear power stations in Plaid Cymru seats in north Wales? Scotland has nuclear power stations too.
Cumbria and Cumberland …. names with the same root as Cambria and Cymru
I agree 100% with Paul Dunbar that the Celtic nation of Cornwall has once again been overlooked. It is really annoying when one hears reference to “the four nations” (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales,and England) when in fact there are five, because it suits the powers that be to ignore our existence, despite Westminster having signed up to the Charter for Lesser Used Languages, recognising the the Celtic Language of Cornwall, and to the European Framework for the Protection of Lesser Used Languages, recognising the ethnicity of the Cornish ! Please get it right,Mr O’Toole, there are 5 nations, NOT 4… Read more »
Never mind I recognise Kernow as a separate entity to England.
The Cornish might be up for this too!
Not forgetting the Manx!
I totally agree with this idea. When do we start putting this plan together?
Sound idea
I am very much of an outsider as I was born and obtained my first degree in Italy before moving to England where I obtained a second degree from London University and spent the rest of my working life teaching languages to adult students in Further Education Institutes. The UK is synonymous of tradition and pride, this is how outsiders perceived it, how it perceives itself and who its residual colonies of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland I believe still perceived it until Brexit lifted the curtain on the political stage and the light technician starting directing his spotlights on… Read more »
Certainly a customs and free trade deal with the EU would be a good move for Wales (which is what the UK signed up for originally). A lot of Welsh voters are still likely to be put off by the moves towards political integration promoted by the EU, however.
Still, it would be the lesser of two evils compared to remaining a colony of the UK, and I’m definitely up for some sort of federation with the other Celtic countries.
What’s wrong with just being independent?
Rosanna is correct in stating that people in Europe had this constant view of the “UK”, which has been shattered by the Brexit fight, and people now see the uglier side.
btw the Nordic Union is not an economic/trade – union, rather cultural and relaxed discussion group, as I see it.
(Norway and Denmark are members of Nato, but Sweden and Finland are not.)
Isn’t there already a Council of the Isles under one of the Northern Ireland peace agreements? It would be interesting to know what the Nordic Council does exactly as Norway has voted twice not to join the EU, Greenland voted to leave and Iceland has never been a member, while Denmark, Finland and Sweden are EU members, but not all have adopted the euro. It all sounds very complicated so if anyone is an expert on dealing with borders, such people may be found in Scandinavia. As for Cornwall, it was absorbed into Wessex long before Parliaments met and started… Read more »
Maybe, but until the 17th-Century wars between Parliament and the king, Cornwall was treated as a separate political entity, though in practice it had little or no practical autonomy except in its economy. After the post-war genocide of adult males in Cornwall, successive English governments simply by-passed Cornwall’s special status and Stannary enactments and started treating it as ‘just another English county’. It was never formerly annexed or entered a, ahem, ‘union’, with England. Because Westminster legislation no longer makes special reference to Cornwall, then, technically, such legislation has no legal force there.
Hardly any Welsh in Wales, mostly English newcomers. Nl is not a country, its Six of Ulster’s nine counties and a divided part of lreland’s 32. Without Scotland there is no YooKay. Wales was conquered as was lreland… lreland fought back to rid remselves of foreign rule. Scotland of course suffers the scourge of the filthy Orange Order. Anti Catholic and pro English Crown bigots pollute our streets with over 350 marches in and around Glasgow every year. Ireland and Scotland, hopefully the Welsh, unite and say goodbye to ‘Mother’ England. As my uncle Jack used to say… I serve… Read more »
True. Welsh people will eventually become a minority just like the Protestants in NI.
If you’re a Welsh speaker, just enjoy your culture while you can. It’s fading fast.
.From my ramblings round Wales…Ive gathered that very roughly
About 25% of Wales is against self rule primarily as they feel closer to a English/UK identity.
About 5-10% are NO because of delusions about international socialism – they think Welsh self rule is WORSE than imperialist London rule.
And then the 30-35% left against NO … feel Welsh but think the economy is a third world country (its not – they’ve just been lied too)
That’s a whole lot of new hard borders.
Yay!!
The harder the better, in Cymru’s case.
Though if you want to build a moat, then if it is at Cymru’s initiative then territorial changes for this would have to be at Wales’ expense.
Better to provoke England into it, then they’d have to give you large chunks of Shropshire since the Shropshire Hills are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the physical infrastructure that a hard border would spoil the views.
I
Great idea! If I was a royalist, we could call it the United Kingdom! Lol
Proves Irish, welsh and Scottish nationalism is basically ethnic nationalism…ie they think the English are a Germanic breed. DNA has proven otherwise, more English ”celts” than the other 3 put togrther.
Celtic league = modern day form of Aryanism, ethnic nationalism
No single language dominates the Nordic Council. A Celtic Council would be dominated by the English Language, which could become problematic for speakers of Celtic Languages. We need to sort that out first.
An Anglophobic celtic council would be dominated by Scotland and Ireland and would work against the interests of wales where the bulk of the population are 30 mins or less from England.
Norm I’m sorry but you really dont know what your talking about!
Fantastic idea.
This would be pretty funny to watch. Refugees would be fleeing into England and they would have to put up walls.
First time I’ve bothered to contribute to these comment sections, but it’s a topic worth considering. As an Irish man I would welcome Welsh independence, rather I would encourage it. But it would come at a price! Unlike Ireland you are connected to England and the partioning of our island has been disasterious – so those advocating independence must be aware the you could coz massive problems. Equally you could potentially create massive opportunity, particularly in a Celtic union with a common currency. Indeed the isle of man could be considered as the parliamentary capital of such a Celtic Union.… Read more »
Wales is practically England now. They have done a good job of assimilating them. Same thing will happen to Scotland if we dint get out toot sweet.
Thanks for your, ahem, words of encouragement.
Why are we concerning ourselves about what an Irish newspaper think
s?
Yes It would be Wonderful for Wales, Scotland and Ireland to join forces & separate from england, we would be the Celtic Nations which we should be.
England sunk by Brexit? Really have you such a poor opinion of us? It may or may not be a great decision, but one thing for sure , we won’t sink good luck in the EU taking their rules, as the puppets of the Germans and French
Absolutely! Britain Put of Ireland. Scotland and Wales Out of Britain!
Absolutely! Britain Out of Ireland! Scotland and Wales Out of Britain!
What’s about Kernow and manin they are celt nations as well and maybe brezih