{"id":371627,"date":"2025-08-25T06:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371627\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:13:12","slug":"i-think-its-important-psychologically-and-spiritually-for-the-island-of-ireland-to-be-unified-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371627\/","title":{"rendered":"I think it\u2019s important psychologically and spiritually for the island of Ireland to be unified \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Line of Duty and Ridley actor Adrian Dunbar has already seen a \u201cnew Ireland\u201d and describes it as a \u201creally lovely place\u201d.<\/p>\n

The place named New Ireland that the Enniskillen native visited, though, is a tropical paradise off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the Pacific, and while Dunbar wouldn\u2019t claim such a glowing description for this island, he does see positive benefits for constitutional change to create a new Ireland here.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartition doesn\u2019t work. I think it\u2019s important psychologically and spiritually for the island of Ireland to be unified,\u201d he says, but admits it will be sombre because of the number of people who have died over centuries.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a great admirer of James Connolly\u2019s brand of Socialism and believes in his vision of Ireland being a beacon for smaller nations in the world. <\/p>\n

\"“You<\/a>\"‘Gambling<\/a><\/p>\n

Dunbar also expresses the hope that Belfast can become an industrial powerhouse in a new Ireland and is open to the idea of a federal solution.<\/p>\n

When he first went to London to take up a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Margaret Thatcher had just become British Prime Minister. <\/p>\n

The Tories had introduced a scheme which allowed council tenants to buy their own homes. Everyone seemed to want to build an extension, and Dunbar recalls a boom time in the building trade in what he describes as \u201cone of the great cities of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although his career means he has lived in London since, Dunbar retains his links and affection for Ireland north and south. He still has family links in Enniskillen and a home in Co Leitrim.<\/p>\n

Emotionally, the ties with Ireland are strong and he wants to see the country reunified.<\/p>\n

Conscious that as an actor he\u2019s being vocal in a wider societal debate, Dunbar insists that people in the arts have a role in clarifying issues for consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an actor, you have to find yourself above party politics,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it is an interesting place to see the world from because you see it from all aspects. There\u2019s part of your job to get inside all the people who are involved in any scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know this for sure, partition is bad. It\u2019s bad for any country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AdrianAdrian Dunbar, Michael O\u2019Neill from Armchair & Rocket, Deirdre Carson, Professor Glenn Patterson, director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen\u2019s, Gerard Carson and Brian Ballard <\/p>\n

He believes that when we\u2019re considering change, language is important and says writers can often find the right language, citing Brian Friel as a great example.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019ve lost control of language. The language of diplomacy seems to have gone out the window, and people are saying things that are really kind of abrasive and inflammatory,\u201d says Dunbar. \u201cThere are presidents and world leaders who should know better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere Northern Ireland and Ireland is concerned, I think we need to find the proper language to talk to each other that leads us towards a democratic settlement. I would hope in some shape or form we can find the language to move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important for people to also realise that the unification of Ireland will be a very sombre affair because of the number of people who have died over hundreds of years trying to achieve that. I include all those people who fought in the rebellion of 1798, especially in the north of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born and reared in Co Fermanagh, where he retains strong family and community links, Dunbar agrees that the north is different to the rest of the island; indeed, like the north of England, where he professes a love of Manchester when he works there. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been different in its attitudes and all so I do think we would need to get together with the brethren in Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal and act as one in our own interests,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ulster gets our three counties back you\u2019ll be able to go from Virginia away down in Co Cavan all the way up to Inishowen in one big region,\u201d he says, and adds that in a federal system Ulster could act as one in its own interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could happen naturally within a parliament in Dublin. We would be voting for the A5 and making sure we had good local services such as hospitals,\u201d he says, alluding to the battle for health provision in his hometown of Enniskillen. \u201cThere would be bread and butter issues, which areas would have some control over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t worry me if we try to set federal executives in major centres,\u201d says Dunbar, who has an affinity for Belfast where the iconic Line Of Duty television series is filmed. <\/p>\n

Dunbar regularly visits and says, \u201cBelfast is a great city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" The mural, which depicts Superintendent Hastings – played by Fermanagh man Adrian Dunbar – and his now iconic quote ‘I didn’t come up the Lagan in a bubble’, Union Street, Belfast <\/p>\n

He has memories of one of his early roles at the Lyric Theatre in Graham Reid\u2019s powerful play The Hidden Curriculum about the stresses a Belfast school faces from paramilitarism outside.<\/p>\n

He once recounted that a gun battle was going on in the streets outside the Lyric and the audience thought it was part of the play.<\/p>\n

The Belfast actor James Ellis also became a mentor to the young Dunbar, who describes him as his hero in the profession.<\/p>\n

Ellis achieved fame as Sergeant Bert Lynch in the 1960s BBC police drama Z Cars. Dunbar feels that, in a sense, he followed in Ellis\u2019s footsteps with his role in the modern-day police drama Line Of Duty in which he plays Ted Hastings who leads an anti-corruption unit.<\/p>\n

But it is as a centre for business that Dunbar speaks about Belfast in discussing change across the island, and he believes that it can draw people from across Ulster as well as nearby Co Leitrim where Dunbar has a second home when he wants to get a bolthole from London.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelfast is a great city for business, it always has been,\u201d he says, pointing out that before the 1920s and partition, Belfast led the way in industrial output across Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ready to do that again and the more links with Dublin and across the island the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes Belfast as the most republican city in Ireland, that is with a small \u2018r\u2019, with leading businesses historically refusing to deal in sugar because of its links with the slave trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelfast had principles during the time of the United Irishmen, and I\u2019d like to see the city getting back to the powerhouse it once was,\u201d says Dunbar.<\/p>\n

\"LineLine of Duty stars Vicky McClure, Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar. Picture by World Productions\/BBC One\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Aside from the debate over systems and the logistics of government, be it federalism or something else, Dunbar is convinced of the need for unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartition is bad for any country. We see it in Palestine, we see it the world over, and we\u2019ve seen it in Northern Ireland. If you divide people against each other, you get a very insecure and fearful society,\u201d he says and is critical of unionist \u201cintransigence\u201d in dealing with inequality. <\/p>\n

He also warns that in resolving partition, there is a need to avoid the mistakes Westminster made in leaving countries like Cyprus.<\/p>\n

He feels a lot of the problems in Northern Ireland were the result of inequality in housing and raises the issues of social problems in Ireland caused by housing issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everybody else has somewhere to live, they don\u2019t get exercised by the idea that immigrants should have somewhere to live. All the people need somewhere to live, and if the State could provide that then they don\u2019t get exercised that we might have to put a few hotel rooms to host people who are escaping war and strife across the world,\u201d says Dunbar.<\/p>\n

Despite some of the social problems, Dunbar feels that Ireland has made progress as a modern democracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas Israel has allowed itself and its democracy to be destroyed by orthodoxy, Ireland has been amazing at controlling its democracy. It is a stable country, albeit it has the same problems as many European countries,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fulfilling the destiny set out by James Connolly at the GPO in 1916. He wanted Ireland to be a beacon for small nations. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe realised after visiting the United States that the USA could not be pulled together into a Socialist Republic. It was too big with too many states and too many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Connolly realised that Ireland, being smaller, could have a place in the world. I think that Ireland is sort of becoming that place. I believe Connolly would be proud of where Ireland is positioning itself at the minute,\u201d says Dunbar.<\/p>\n

But, he adds, \u201cWe have to re-imagine things to achieve unification. I\u2019m not into expanding government; it\u2019s big enough. But you can offer Belfast autonomy without handing it to Cork, or Galway or others to govern their own regions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Line of Duty and Ridley actor Adrian Dunbar has already seen a \u201cnew Ireland\u201d and describes it as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[119429,1144,49380,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-371627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-adrian-dunbar","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-partition","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115087933965453451","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}