I haven't read the book 'The Idea of the Union,' but when some geezer writing in an Eire newspaper calls a book 'troubling,' chances are it's a damned good read...

.....

... 

... so I aim to get hold of a copy of this 'troubling unionist manifesto!'

My appetite for this collection of patriot writing is further whetted, by Nicholas Allen's evident explanation of why it's 'troubling' -

...the North is portrayed as a natural polity built on rational foundations and not the result of a contingent solution to imperial withdrawal

It's a fact that I have never heard of Nicholas Allen, but already he's shown his hand, that give-away 'The North' favoured by Ulster's enemies, from Blood-Beast Adams...

.

.

...to a series of Dublin leaders, who would get their green panties in a twist if you or I suggested their precious 'republic' was anything but a

...natural polity built on rational foundations.. 

EXCEPT that their atavistic, expansionist  ( actually, the adjective 'revanchist' might be better) mind-set will irrationally insist that Eire's 'natural polity' remains incomplete...

=

...

...until a million unwilling British Ulsterfolk are somehow anschlussed into a 'United Ireland,' that absurd concept based on the ninny notion that geographical proximity justifies a land-grab. 

...

Former Labour MP and government minister Baroness Kate Hoey addressing an anti-Northern Ireland protocol rally on June 18th, 2021, in Newtownards, Co Down. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty ImagesKate Hoey with other patriots, at an anti-protocol protest, in Newtownards, Co Down.

....

The obscure reviewer tells us that it's  'variously a manifesto and a handbook, and a casebook of arguments in defence of the constitutional and cultural status of Northern Ireland "rooted in history and the real world".

It was originally published nearly 20 years ago, hence a timely update, with the grim Bojo betrayal hanging over Ulster.