Tom Griffin (London, OK): It is perhaps a fitting coincidence that, in the week when Barack Obama invoked the republicanism of Tom Paine, Ireland observed the 90th anniversary of its own 'Yes We Can' moment.
On 21st January 1919, the majority of Irish MPs met in Dublin's Mansion House to ratify Ireland's declaration of independence. Taoiseach Brian Cowen marked the event with a speech in the same building on Tuesday:
As of 21 January 1919, foreign rule in Ireland was relieved of any claim to democratic legitimacy. The Declaration of Independence adopted by the First Dáil ordained "that the elected representatives of the Irish people alone have the power to make laws binding on the people of Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament is the only Parliament to which the Irish people will give its allegiance". From that day on, there has been an Irish parliament and Irish governments which have governed in the interests of the Irish people.
When the First Dáil met, partition was a fear rather than a reality and civil war unimaginable. Partition disfigured our island and scarred the psyche of Irish people. It has sapped the energy and resources of our island and its people over generations. Only in the recent past have political leaders on the island been able to find the will and imagination to identify a path through the barriers to reconciliation.
There was one small relic of civil war divisions in the fact that Cowen was speaking a day before the actual anniversary. The Irish Government had been unable to reach an agreement with Sinn Féin, which had a prior booking in the Mansion House on the 21st.
Thus it was Gerry Adams who got to speak in the historic building on the day itself. He took the opportunity to outline Sinn Féin's strategy for a united Ireland, in a speech which included an interesting focus on Britain.
Our intention is to engage with the Diaspora and seek to marshal its political strength.
That includes Britain.
The initial focus of the united Ireland campaign in England, Scotland and Wales will be to build towards a major conference in London early next year.
In the meantime, we are engaging with Irish communities, MPs, other politicians, trade unionists and others right across our offshore island - most recently in places like Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool and Birmingham, as well as in London itself.
Other work has been started and will continue this year in both Wales and Scotland.
The planned London conference will not be the conclusion of this work - it will mark a stage in what must be a longer-term campaign.
It has to be said that with the exception of last year's Camden meeting, there's limited evidence of this campaign on the ground so far, in London at least, but it will be interesting to see how the plans develop.
A rival plan for Irish unity looks set to feature at the SDLP conference this weekend, in the shape of the New Ireland Coalition. O'Conall Street reports:
The new group would create an all island political think tank and campaign group which would explicitly support the SDLP in the North of Ireland.
It is being proposed that the Irish Labour Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail would all become members of the coalition with the basic aim of promoting greater debate across the island of island about greater cooperation between the people of Ireland as well as openly and vigorously campaigning for the SDLP as the voice of progressive democratic nationalism in Northern Ireland.
Unionists, of course, have not been quescent in the midst of all this nationalist activity. The Ulster Unionists have sought to strengthen the east-west relationship through their alliance with a resurgent Conservative Party. Meanwhile Nigel Dodds has underlined the DUP's more devolutionist vision this week by calling for increased co-operation between Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
