"Ireland: towards the reunification of the island?"

A little over a century ago, on December 6, 1921, Ireland gained independence.

Independence but not unity: 6 counties, out of the 32 on the island, remained under British sovereignty.

But, for many observers, this Northern Irish particularity has never been so fragile and the unification of the “green Erin” is, for the first time in a century, a realistic prospect.

The 1921 treaty, creating the Irish Free State, divided the nationalist movement.

If the majority accepted the compromise with London, a minority condemned it in the name of the unity of the island.

The result was a bloody civil war, won by the supporters of the treaty.

As for Northern Ireland, dominated by Protestants (two thirds of the population in 1921), it had a tragic history in the 20th century.

Badly integrated, the Catholic minority swung into violence at the end of the 1960s. The confrontation between the IRA and the British army caused 3,500 deaths.

The period, modestly…

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