In the battle for hearts and minds, the question of a united Ireland is nearly all heart and too little mind. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Cognitive dissonance is the normal Irish state of mind. We hold in our heads beliefs that fundamentally conflict with each other. And it makes a weird kind of sense that this mental partitioning is most obvious when it comes to partition itself. A united Ireland is both deeply desired and consigned to Irish dreamtime. It is utterly imperative and entirely discounted.
This dissonance is now official. Last week, the Department of Finance published a 238-page document called Future Forty, mapping the challenges the State is most likely to face between now and 2065. The most startling thing it tells us is the State has no capacity even to imagine the possibility that partition might end in the next 40 years.
According to the repor
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