22 December 2002

Cenus figures no longer relevant

Sunday journalists have the advantage over their daily counterparts of having a few days to pass by before they finally commit their copy . Tom McGurk in the Sunday Business Post, has had a few days to consider the wider picture around the Census and concludes:

"...the whole purpose of the new politics is to end the imperative of sectarian headcounts, indeed to begin the process of finally liberating the Irish body politic from the dysfunctional, post-colonial impact of Westminster, which imposed those sectarian headcounts."

He suggests that the issue of partition was resolved:

"In the Agreement in 1998 Irish nationalism made its political peace with those who caused the primary wound: the historic carve-up of the territorial nation. It adopted a political process whereby the political failure that this carve-up had created would come to an end. Partition in everything except as a line on a map was thereby ended."

"Importantly, this was not by territorial acquisition, but by the creation of a new political superstructure whose very purpose was to eliminate the crisis originally created by the territorial imperative."

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