For northern nationalists, up to the present day, one of the most galling episodes in modern Irish history was their abandonment by the Irish Free State government with the shelving of the Boundary Commission report in 1925.

In return, some of the Free State’s financial obligations, under Article 5 of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, were waived. For the sweetener of financial concessions that applied only to its territory, the Free State government had, according to MP Cahir Healy, sold northern nationalists “into political servitude for all time”.

There has been much debate sparked by the recent report by Professors John Fitzgerald and Edgar Morgenroth published by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) claiming that the cost of a united Ireland could potentially rise to €20 billion annually.

Could it be that northern nationalists’ dream of being part of a united Ireland could be shattered not by the people of Northern Ireland, but by the people of the 26 counties, and sacrificed for financial reasons?

Brian Feeney: Fear and loathing of Sinn Féin driving Micheál Martin’s abandonment of north

Could northern nationalists be betrayed again by Dublin for money? – Cormac Moore

The shelving of the Boundary Commission report in December 1925 was a defining moment in the relationship between southern and northern nationalists. The sense of abandonment that had been felt for much of the previous four years reached its zenith. Once it was revealed how the tripartite agreement between the British, Free State and Northern Ireland governments was reached, for many this was accompanied by rage.

With the Morning Post leaking the (largely accurate) Boundary Commission........

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