It’s always good to spark a debate, and my recent column and blog ‘ Planning for Irish Unity’ certainly did that. My core argument was the need to move those parties which aspire to Irish unity beyond their traditional republican rhetoric and to get them involved in the real work of planning for unity. In particular I argued that the Irish government has a duty, a constitutional imperative, to plan for unity now. Why would a government, any government, not plan for the future? The future is not about a single step-change in which we go to bed one night in a partitioned Ireland and the next morning wake up in a united Ireland. It’s all about process. A process of change. A Process of transition. A process of transformation. It’s about agreeing how we will organize our society. It’s about how we share our future. It’s about all of us having our say and playing our part in this. Can Sinn Féin do this on our own? The answer is obvious – no. The Irish government has a duty and