Adams willing to debate new flag, anthem

Gerry Adams believes the Irish national flag and anthem could be “on the table” in any future negotiation about constitutional change in Ireland.

Mr Adams made his remarks in a TG4 television programme that was broadcast on Wednesday.

The programme, Iniúchadh TG4 - Éire Aontaithe? (TG4 Investigates -United Ireland?), was presented by journalist Kevin Magee, who examined calls for a referendum on Irish unity amid political and demographic change in the area of Ireland still under British rule.

The hour-long documentary looks at the circumstances under which a referendum on unity, a ‘border poll’, would be called under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Adams, speaking in Irish, tells the programme: “I am happy with the flag as it is, but if people want to talk about it and put it on the table.. Anyone can put any subject on the table and we will discuss it.”

In 2019, Mr Adams’s successor as Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, ruled out changes to the Irish flag but three years later was more open to the idea, saying “everything” would be up for discussion in a potential united Ireland.

Former SDLP Stormont minister Bríd Rodgers told the same programme the Irish tricolour as the national flag of Ireland should be reviewed in the context of a united Ireland and claimed it has negative connotations for unionists.

Speaking in Irish, Donegal-born Mrs Rodgers said: “Unionists are opposed to the Irish flag, because it was used by and associated with the IRA during the Troubles.

“So, if it is a symbol of everything they hate, this probably needs to be looked at.”

Asked about a potential replacement to the Irish national anthem Amhrán na bhFiann in any future united Ireland, Mr Adams said it too should be a topic for negotiation. The song makes references to Ireland’s War of Independence against British rule.

“If people want another national anthem, then it’s on the table. People can’t say that we are planning for the future and then say we can’t talk about it. That is not the way in which we are able to put the process together.”

UNITY PRICE DROP

Meanwhile, evidence has been delivered by academics at the Good Friday Agreement Committee putting the cost to the 26 County state of Irish reunification at just 2% of the current annual budget.

Professor John Doyle from DCU dismissed a recent and highly publicised claim of a €20bn cost as ‘not even a worst-case scenario, they are just wrong’.

Instead, he estimated that the first-year cost would be €2.5bn, or 2 percent of the current annual general government expenditure. This figure even included increasing the low state pensions in the North to the levels in the South.

The Sinn Féin spokesperson on Public Expenditure, Rose Conway-Walsh, welcomed the new costing, although she said that cost should not a barrier to Irish Unity.

“Irish Unity can be an economic opportunity north and south” she said, arguing that the measurements overlooked the likely future benefits of unity.

“What is needed is proper planning. The onus to lead that planning is with the government and the Oireachtas but should involve experts, civil society and the public as a whole.

“I welcome the suggestions by the witnesses that the Irish government establish a cross-party Oireachtas committee that is empowered to produce a Green Paper.

“This would provide economic certainty for all the people of Ireland about what a future united Ireland could look like and how it would work.”

Urgent Appeal