President Donald Trump would “love” to see Ireland and Northern Ireland unify.
The two have been separate since 1921, when the Government of Ireland Act 1920 partitioned Ireland. The partition sparked violence between those for and against it, and the ramifications of that divide are visible today in cities like Belfast, where miles of Peace Walls separate Irish nationalists and republicans, who were mostly Irish Catholics, and unionists, who were mostly protestant.
The 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to The Troubles, stipulated that the U.K. Secretary of State can call a referendum in Northern Ireland and should do so if it appears likely that a majority of Northern Ireland voters would vote in favor of Irish unification.
“Well, I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified,” Trump said, NBC reported. “It’s going to happen eventually.”
“Now the U.K. will have something to say about it,” the president added, according to the report, “but I think it would be a great thing.”
Trump made his remarks while with Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
During a later gathering with business leaders, Trump acknowledged that the question has “no good answer.” However, he added, “It would be, I think, a very cool thing, to be honest with you.”
The sentiment drew a rebuke from Northern Ireland’s unionists.
Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland voters must vote in favor of unification for it to happen. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently said a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom was “off the table.”
According to GB News, polling of 1,534 Northern Ireland electors in June by the University of Liverpool found that 49.7% did not support unification, compared with 35.8% in favor, while 4.7% “do not know” and 9.8% “neither agree/disagree.”
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