08/04/2019

Sinn Fein: Irish Unity Is Within Grasp

Sinn Fein's deputy leader Michelle O'Neill has said that Brexit is a catalyst for an Irish Unity referendum, pushing many towards the prospect of remaining in the European Union.

Speaking at the party's national candidate launch for local elections, Mrs O'Neill said the prospect is a "very real" one that is likely to become a reality in a short number of years.

"A new conversation and public discourse is underway about Ireland's strategic interests post-Brexit and our constitutional future," she commented. "People of all shades of opinion can see that the Good Friday Agreement provides a peaceful and democratic path to Irish Unity and with it a pathway back into the EU. The political landscape is changing. Change is in the air."

The Stormont Party leader added that the unionists in Northern Ireland have lost their majority.

"People who were previously apathetic about a United Ireland are re-engaged, and people who would have been opposed to a United Ireland are now reconsidering their position…people of all shades of opinion are considering the benefits of remaining within the United Kingdom against the merits of staying within the European Union through a unified Ireland. 

"A United Ireland is within our grasp. We are in the most defining period since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 and Ireland is changing rapidly.

"There will be a unity referendum and we need to prepare for it, and to win it we need to reach out and work with people from all identities, and ideologies, and persuade them that their interests are best served in a United Ireland."



(JG/MH)

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