There’s been growing talk lately of a border poll. The Brexit shambles has brought that talk forward a generation.

And when you listen to something in an echo chamber long enough, you begin to believe it’s about to happen. But must we get real here? Asking the people about the reunification of Ireland surely remains a long way off, for the residue of hate evidentially remains both sides of the political divide.

You don’t have to scratch the surface deep to find it. If the burning of flags and effigies of murdered policemen on ceremonial bonfires is a barometer of anything, it reminds us that the decades’ long community divide is alive and well. And when you consider that those lighting these bonfires were probably not born before the various ceasefires in the 1990s, then they must come from homes and communities very much embedded in those times.

If the burning of flags and effigies of murdered policemen on ceremonial bonfires is a barometer of anything, it reminds us that the decades’ long community divide is alive and well

That is raw sectarian hatred for you, albeit you’d think more sporadic than endemic and probably disproportionately representative of the general feeling. Still, it’s there.

Visible divide?

Arlene Foster can go to as many GAA matches as she wishes and no doubt the politics of Northern Ireland has come a long way, but we continue to drive through towns and villages across the six counties, festooned with flags and banners letting you know the politics and religion of that area.

If it didn’t matter as much 20 years on from the Good Friday agreement, wouldn’t you think they’d be taken down by now, that parades wouldn’t still be such a contentious issue?

All you need do is switch on any current affairs TV or radio show north of the border to realise that there is a profound dislike for the other side still festering beneath the surface.

The memories of the past have not gone away and the striving for one-upmanship remains fierce. Even among the younger, smarter more articulate politicians, the old rhetoric remains.

If half the population of Northern Ireland is protestant/unionist/British, do Irish republicans really believe they’ll settle into a united Ireland quietly and contentedly any time soon? As they say around those parts, will you catch yourself on!

United Ireland

Even if there are those non-nationalists among the northern population who don’t really mind the prospect of being part of a united Ireland, there’s probably as many, if not more, in the south just as happy to leave things the way they are thank you very much. Brexit gives us a contemporary insight as to opinion on the subject.

The memories of the past have not gone away and the striving for one-upmanship remains fierce

Northern unionists fret at the thoughts of a deal which will treat them differently to the rest of the UK, while nationalists live in fear of a hard Brexit leaving them metaphorically if not physically locked out and marooned from the country they identify most as home. In a nutshell, the north voted more or less on tribal grounds as it always has.

Even now, tell us where you live and we will guess your religion, politics, nationality and even the Glasgow soccer team you follow. Little has changed there. But yes, we have come a long way over the past quarter of a century.

While the newest voting generation has grown up knowing less about the Troubles, even so, it is difficult to think enough time has passed that a border poll will be called anytime soon.

How stories travel

It is six weeks since I tripped on a tram line crossing a street to avoid a cyclist in Amsterdam. A story came back to me this week that I had been knocked down by a tram while cycling a bike in St. Stephens Green! Another was I was hit by a bus. How stories travel! I’m glad to report my recovery is going well.