On the face of it, Conor Murphy’s ambition to pursue his political career in Seanad Éireann fits Sinn Féin’s island-view of politics. There is no question that the north needs a voice in the Oireachtas.

The Irish government is a player in the north’s politics, and it needs to be called to account for how it discharges its role.

The Republic’s wider political class also needs to be kept on its toes. For too long many Irish politicians have reinforced the border rather than pursue the cause of reunification.

Those, like me, who have southern relatives who were granted their right to self-determination a century ago, will know how easily a partitionist mindset prevailed south of the border.

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That is not surprising. There was much to be done on the ‘home’ front without having to worry about their ‘friends in the north’.

The new nation had to deal with centuries of damage from colonialism, and then it had to overcome the self-inflicted wounds of de Valera’s vision of Ireland as a conservative, Catholic, rural society – an approach which held it back socially, culturally and economically.

Murphy is a canny........

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