British Prime Minister Andy Burnham maintains that a poll is ‘off the table’ as there isn’t enough popular support for Northern Ireland to leave the UK.
United States President Donald Trump has said that a unified Ireland would be “fantastic”, in remarks made during a visit to Dublin that were not welcomed by government ministers in London.
Trump’s comments on Saturday came weeks after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom was “off the table”.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” Trump told reporters, while sitting next to Ireland’s Prime Minister, Micheal Martin.
“It’s going to happen eventually … I think it would be a fantastic thing,” he said.
“Now the UK will have something to say about it … but I think it would be a great thing,” he added.
Martin declined to respond to reporters’ questions to comment on the US president’s remarks.
Following Trump’s comments, a spokesperson for Burnham said his position on Irish unification remained unchanged.
Responding to questions from members of parliament on Wednesday about a potential poll in Northern Ireland, Burnham said: “I am not aware that there is majority public support for another referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one”.
Under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement), a referendum on leaving the UK can be held only at the discretion of the British government.
The accord ended three decades of violence known as The Troubles. The sectarian conflict involved mostly Catholic nationalist paramilitaries seeking a united Ireland, mostly Protestant unionist paramilitaries wanting to remain part of the UK, and British troops.
Gavin Robinson, leader of the DUP, Northern Ireland’s main unionist party, said that Northern Ireland’s future was a matter for its people to decide, not Trump.
“President Trump knows better than most that elections matter. Northern Ireland’s constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington.”
While polls show a comfortable majority in Northern Ireland favour remaining in the UK, the gap has narrowed slightly since Britain’s departure from the European Union pushed unity higher up the political agenda.
Trump also met Irish President Catherine Connolly, who was elected head of state last year. When Trump last visited Ireland as president in 2019, Connolly, an outspoken politician with left-wing foreign policy views, protested at Shannon Airport in western Ireland.
During Trump’s current visit, some supporters had urged her to speak out against US military actions around the world and defend Ireland’s neutrality.
Anti-Trump protests
Anti-war and anti-Trump protests were held in Dublin and some were planned for later in western Ireland, near Trump’s golf course in Doonbeg.
Reporting from the capital, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said Dubliners had a “laundry list” of reasons for protesting against Trump’s visit.
“They feel that the Irish government should not be, in their words, rolling out the red carpet for someone like Trump, who they say is a cause of instability in the world and has been enabling Israel’s actions in Gaza … and destabilised the whole of the Middle East.”
Irish people are also protesting against the high cost of hosting Trump, including security, which they say could pay for other things, such as healthcare and social issues, added Veselinovic.
