United Ireland plan ‘must be people-led’
A UNITED Ireland will only work if a clear majority is on board north and south of the border, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said yesterday.
Mr Varadkar was speaking at an Ireland’s Future rally for Irish unity at Dublin’s 3Arena, where Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, Labour leader Ivana Bacik and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood were also among the 34 speakers.
The incoming Taoiseach said any future process of unification would have to ‘avoid replicating the mistakes of the past – imposing our will on the unwilling’.
Mr Varadkar added: ‘We can’t build our future based on narrow majorities or on the wishes of just one community. For these reasons, I believe the objective should be to secure as large a majority as possible in both jurisdictions in any future poll. 50% plus one may be enough on paper, but won’t be a success in practice.’
Northern Ireland actor Jimmy Nesbitt echoed the Tánaiste’s sentiments in his keynote speech, saying, ‘Any change must be people-led and solutions can’t be forced on those people’.
He added: ‘We need to bring this discussion out of the Dáil, out of Stormont, out of Whitehall, out of academic fora and into the town halls, the village halls, the church halls, the orange halls.’
Mr Nesbitt, who comes from a Unionist background, said moving to England at 19 gave him ‘quite a shock to be regarded as Irish for the first time – particularly by the English who don’t really distinguish between north and south’.