PM talks up hopes for a united Ireland

IRELAND: Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has reaffirmed his aspirations for a united Ireland, saying he hopes that when it comes it will have ‘‘a degree’’ of Unionist support.

He said he wanted to follow the idea of John Hume, the former leader of the Irish nationalist party the SDLP, of an ‘‘agreed Ireland’’.

‘‘Our constitution aspires to there being a united Ireland. I share that aspiration, but only on the basis that it is done by consent. And when it does come about I would like to see it command a degree of cross-community support.’’

He said that, like Hume, he would prefer to talk about ‘‘an agreed Ireland and a set of relationships that we can all be happy with’’.

Last month, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) criticised Varadkar after he said the Irish government would seek ‘‘real and meaningful’’ involvement in Northern Ireland if efforts to restore power-sharing in the assembly failed.

Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, also seized on comments from Simon Coveney, the foreign minster, who said he was a ‘‘constitutional nationalist’’ and would like to see a united Ireland in his ‘‘political lifetime’’.

Coveney had said that the Irish government needed to rebuild its relationship with the DUP. Under

"Our constitution aspires to there being a united Ireland. I share that aspiration, but only on the basis that it is done by consent."

Leo Varadkar, Ireland prime minister

the terms of the Good Friday agreement any vote on unification would have to be passed by a separate majority in both parts of the island.

Northern Ireland has effectively been without a devolved government for a year. Negotiations between Sinn Fein and the DUP have stalled.

Varadkar said that he did not think United States President Donald Trump could play a useful role in breaking the deadlock, unlike some of his presidential predecessors who helped to broker peace deals in Northern Ireland.

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