Sunak in NI amid leader’s split talk
BELFAST: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has embarked on a two-day visit to Northern Ireland, the day after Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill made history by becoming its first nationalist leader and predicted a split from the UK.
Following Saturday’s restoration of power-sharing in Belfast, which allowed her to take up her role, pro-Irish unity politician Ms O’Neill predicted that the UK territory would hold a vote on unification with the Republic of Ireland in the next 10 years.
“Yes. I believe we’re in a decade of opportunity,” she told Britain’s Sky News, when asked if she anticipated a socalled border poll within that time frame.
“There are so many things that are changing all the old norms, the nature of the state, the fact that a nationalist republican was never supposed to be first minister. This all speaks to that change.”
Mr Sunak’s government said last week that Northern Ireland’s place within the UK appears “secure for decades”.
Northern Ireland was carved from Ireland in 1921 with an inbuilt Protestant majority, after pro-UK unionists had threatened civil war as the island sought self-rule from Britain.
A 1998 peace deal largely ended decades of violence and provides for the possibility of an all-Ireland vote on unification, known as a border poll.
Under the terms of the accord, the British and Irish governments should organise a vote if it becomes apparent “a majority of those voting would express a wish” for Northern Ireland to split from the UK.
As part of its agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party to restart power-sharing, Mr Sunak’s government said it “sees no realistic prospect of a border poll leading to a united Ireland”, citing recent polling.
Ms O’Neill said: “I would absolutely contest what the British government have said in that document, insofar as my election to the post of first minister demonstrates the change that’s happening on this island, and that’s a good thing.”