For centuries, there was an Irish ethos of noble but ultimately pointless struggle towards a goal that was likely unattainable. In recent decades, the island has broken those shackles. Ireland can regularly defeat England at rugby, and even occasionally at cricket. Where it matters far more - in negotiating the post-Brexit trading landscape - Irish officials and ministers comprehensively out-classed their UK counterparts. Economically, Ireland is forging far ahead of the UK. The old expectation of failure is alien to today's Ireland, even if there is a rich appreciation of how blessed we are in this age after centuries in which our ancestors struggled to keep breath in their bodies. Having for centuries sent its sons and daughters abroad, Ireland is now a beacon and a refuge. The Republic took in almost six times as many Ukrainian refugees per head of population as the UK.

There is much to unite this island. Some fifteen centuries after his death, its patron saint provides a template for how former foes can not just live in peace, but grow to love one another. Despite having been seized from his home in Britain and enslaved by Irish raiders, Patrick came to have compassion for those who had mistreated him - and they grew to respect him. In one of his two surviving writings, Patrick spoke of his 'love of my neighbours who are my only sons -- for them I gave up my home country, my parents and even pushing [sic] my own life to the brink of death'. Even in post-Christian Ireland, there's hardly a more apt example of how enmity can be healed by a decision to turn the other cheek. Patrick's life also rebukes the sectarianism of those who tell the British to go home, or who shout 'Up the 'RA' in the faces of IRA victims. If the Brits had been sent packing 1,500 years ago, Patrick would have been among their number. Our history across these islands is far more intertwined than the propagandists can ever admit.

Patrick's story should lead to a renewed understanding of how the Irish are themselves in many cases a migrant people - from England, Scotland, France, Scandinavia and more distant lands. Those coming today from Africa, Eastern Europe or Asia are following millennia of others who came to this isle in search of a better life. If it comes, Irish unity will not be an end to history. It will not solve all the island's ills or erase the hatred some of its inhabitants have for their neighbours. The unity now possible is not that of the zealot. It is not a unity of Pearse or de Valera or Gerry Adams. In many ways, it is a rejection of the Ireland they envisaged. When King George V came to Belfast in 1921, he desired 'that my coming to Ireland to-day may prove to be the first step towards the end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race or creed'.

The king, who had involved himself personally in the resolution of the Irish crisis, went on: 'In that hope I appeal to all Irishmen to pause, to stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment and goodwill.' That, as we know, wasn't what happened. But it provides the basis on which a new country could be founded. Ancient feuds must someday be resolved: if not by us, then by our children or their children - who might look back and wonder at our lethargy. (excerpted from chapter 2).