Reunification of Ireland (The Second Enlightenment)

The Reunification of Ireland occurred on 14 November 2022, following the result of a referendum held at the end of the previous year, 2021, which posed, to the populations of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the question, "Should Northern Ireland secede from the United Kingdom and unify with the Republic of Ireland to form a single, constitutional republic?". The referendum, to which 56.4% of the Irish and Northern Irish population responded positively, was held on September 30 2021, and occurred in response to growing republican sentiment on the island following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union in March 2019, two years earlier. Following (and prior to) the UK's withdrawal from the EU (stipulated by the result of a referendum held in June 2016), there were significant worries surrounding the future state of the Northern Irish-Irish border. Due to the Republic of Ireland having remained in the EU and Northern Ireland, as-then part of the UK, having left, there was speculation that a hard, militarised border should be reinstated, one similar to that which existed during the Troubles until 1998; were such a border to be reinstated, this would cause great controversy and anxiety, should the conflict and unrest of the Troubles be resumed. Other, albeit less important, issues that motivated re-unification were the trade deals between the UK and the republic and free movement between the two nations. Were Northern Ireland to have unified with Ireland to form a single nation, free of any land borders, this would dispel all worries concerning a hard border. Widespread national contempt for Brexit, which was held by the majority of the Irish population, and the recent increase in the country's Catholic population demographic (and thereby republican, anti-unionist demographic) acted as general contributors to support for reunification also.

On 14 November 2022, the six counties of Northern Ireland officially seceded from the United Kingdom, to join the 26 counties of the republic, to form a 32-county, independent republic. This political change resulted in the abolition of the UK's only land border, and resulted in the UK officially changing its title to the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain.'