A COUPLE of months ago, I noticed that two upper-middle-class northerners from a Protestant background had been to Leinster House for a meeting with Fine Gael.

Emer Currie heads up her party’s Northern Ireland Engagement Group (NIEG), which is currently drafting Fine Gael’s ‘blueprint for a unified island’ in advance of its ard fheis in November.

As someone with a genuine interest in the details of how a “New” Ireland might be designed to properly accommodate everyone on this island, and coming at the issue from a markedly different perspective to some others, I decided to request a meeting with Ms Currie for myself and another New Irelander who, like me, is from a Protestant working-class background.

I approached her through a friend (of hers and mine), formerly a senior politician. “They’ll be in touch” was the response.

British and Irish governments must act to dismantle RTÉ’s digital border - The Irish News view

Tom Collins: Unionists have proven themselves incapable of making the right choices

A fortnight or so later, he contacted her office again. The reply was the same. I even rang Ms Currie’s office myself at one point, and was promised “She’ll ring you back”. She never did.

Finally, after six weeks of trying, I gave up.

Perhaps Fine Gael is aware of my views on legacy........

© The Irish News