By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 12 Mar 2016 • 9:59
Martin McGuinness
IRISH Republican politician Martin McGuinness has claimed that there is a democratic responsibility to hold a referendum on a United Ireland should Britain elect to leave the EU.
The leader of Sinn Fein, the largest nationalist bloc in the Northern Irish parliament said “If Britain votes to leave the European Union then that could have huge implications for the entire island of Ireland and, given all the predictions, would run counter to the democratic wishes of the Irish people,”
Within the unionist movement the largest party, the Democratic Unionists are backing the Brexit campaign, but other unionists and the vast majority of the nationalist and neutral electorate are in favour of remaining within the EU.
McGuinness, a former IRA chief, is advocating a border poll which would mean an election held only within Northern Ireland itself, subsequently needing approval from both the government of Eire and the UK parliament.
That wouldn’t sit well with the majority of the nationalist republican movement. Polls indicate that a United Ireland vote held on in the six counties and not across the island would see a majority decide to remain within the UK, although this could change if Brexit comes into play.
Many republicans, however, would consider such a vote a sham, as they consider Northern Ireland simply to be an artificial entity carved out of British occupation, and would hope for a cross Ireland referendum on the issue.
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what a great idea- britain has held onto the five counties for years- mainly due to Belfast ship yard soI believe as britain has given up everything else ‘why not ireland’s 5 counties?Kay
This man is off his head, around 27% of people are employed in the public sector of Northern Ireland. I couldn’t find welfare costs anywhere but I would imagine welfare payouts to be quite high so I would guess those two things alone would fairly much stop any ‘NI leaving the UK’ referendum dead in its tracks.
There is of course the small question of Southern Ireland, what makes this terrorist murderer think the South of Ireland would want the North of Ireland? The huge cost of maintaining N.I. would be impossible for the South considering the huge number of government employees. Does the Southern government even want to be involved in any conflict with the UK over sovereignty of the North, while Southern Irish politicians are now moving on with the times this terrorist is still stuck in the 1690’s
If the people of the South where allowed to vote on any referendum on the North then that would ignite already disgruntled loyalist terrorists, something that would not be of any interest to the south or the north.
If this where put to the vote in N.I. I am 100% sure the vote would be to not leave the UK, the North of Ireland is more loyalist than this man thinks, I doubt even the republican supporters who draw welfare would vote to separate as they know that they are on to a good thing.
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