Holywell Trust's 'Forward Thinking ' workshops discuss constitutional future

Derry’s Holywell Trust has held the first in its series of Forward Thinking workshops, with inaugural guest speaker, Dr David McCann - Ulster University Politics lecturer, and media election commentator.

The event took place on Wednesday evening in Holywell Trust’s Bishop Street premises.

A spokesperson described Forward Thinking as a series of “challenging conversations around our constitutional future” drawing on the “experiences of other jurisdictions including Scotland, Germany and the Basque Region”.

“Over the coming months, Holywell will be inviting a number of contributors to share their views and engage in discussions on various issues,” she added.

Speaking to The Derry News, Dr McCann explained he had carried out research for Holywell Trust in 2021/2022 looking at the literature around what has been done around the “constitutional debate in Northern Ireland”. He then carried out a piece of research on the media for the Constitution Society - an independent educational foundation which works to promote public understanding of the UK constitution - in 2023.

“There has been quite a bit of research done on this topic [our constitutional future]. There is quite a lot out there. However, it is a bit disjointed. It isn’t focused, naturally because loads of people are going off doing loads of different things,” said Dr McCann.

“There is still a role for the governments here in co-ordination and planning for the potential of a vote. It doesn’t mean that it will go one way or another, so it is not pre-determining the outcome but where things need to go,” he added.

“That extends beyond everything - how a Referendum is regulated to how it is covered for example because this will cross two different media jurisdictions, North and South - just considering the raft of issues and there are quite a few of them that need to be researched and understood before we get to a Referendum.

“One of the issues I would be looking at in the lead up to a referendum, if we get to that point, would be understanding the Subvention. Some pieces of research say the Subvention is around £10 billion, there are others that say it is around £3 billion. For a voter that is incredibly confusing.

“For a voter it is going to be incredibly hard to know about healthcare, for example. Many people talk about the reform of healthcare but again there are loads of different things out there about what that could look like. That is just going to be incredibly confusing for a voter.

“Then, leading on to other research I have done, take a look at the role of the media, for example. If social media was a big factor in 2014 in the Scottish [Independence] Referendum, and was a bigger factor in 2016 in the EU [Brexit] Referendum, that is going to be times 10 in a potential Border Poll. So, the state of the media is relevant. How do we support the media in covering this Referendum, in helping people to understand the issues that are out there?” said Dr McCann, “Those types of things are really important”.

Dr McCann reflected there is still a “long way to go in terms of the planning that needs to be done” before a Referendum.

He added: “There is also a long way to go in terms of getting a proposition in place for people to have a proper understanding of, that people can actually read up about and understand.

“The potential for misinformation in this is quite big and that is why, again, we need to make sure the institutions around, for example, the media and how it covers a Referendum.

“There are also roles for loads of different people there, from the British and Irish Governments, to more research being done on different areas.

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“Within Northern Ireland, it will be difficult for people not to want to take a position on a Referendum, and there is no problem with that. As long as people are transparent about their points of view it is fine. I think something that will come from this is that as long as things are properly mapped out and there is a process in place, I think that is a key thing that needs to be in place. There needs to be a clear process in place, with a clear proposition that people know what they are voting on and that people know if a vote goes whatever way, that there is a process to go forward,” said Dr McCann.

Dr McCann added he had always believed there would need to be a form of “trigger within Northern Ireland” for a Referendum,

“Whether that is a vote in the Assembly, asking for a Border Poll, getting passed by a majority of MLAs, or whether that is from election results, I have always thought the Secretary of State would need to point to something to understand why that is the case,” he added.

“That doesn’t mean you are a supporter of reunification, it just could mean you are maybe a supporter of, maybe, having the conversation now and having the vote now, as David Cameron did in 2013 in Scotland.”