[FuckingRotter]

What do you suppose would have happened if the North had been handed over to the Republic? Would the naïve, romantic notion of a "united" Ireland finally have been achieved? No, of course not. Do you seriously expect that loyalist populations would accept the Republican government?

You would be left with two possible scenarios. A civil war waged against an Irish government, with bombs going off in Dublin, Wexford and Cork pubs and shopping centres, instead of in London, Manchester and Guildford. Loyalist populations being persecuted by Irish paramilitaries and police, quite possibly the need for British military intervention, even war between Britain and Ireland.

Or, ethnic cleansing of the North, with Protestant/Loyalist communities forcibly removed from the province.