Irish Republican News · May 3, 2005

British favour united Ireland - poll

Less than one in three of British voters want the North of Ireland to remain part of their country, according to a new opinion poll.

The online poll is in line with previous polls which have shown strong support for a British withdrawal from Ireland on the British mainland.

Some 46% of those polled by the YouGov organisation for the Sunday Times said they want to see a united Ireland. A quarter said they don’t know, while 30% said the North should remain British.

In other findings, 64% of British voters said they believe the IRA’s armed struggle is likely to be renewed at some point, while 36% said it would not or expressed no opinion.

The North’s political parties are mostly blamed for the peace stalemate, with 42% saying “Sinn Féin and the IRA” are to blame while 18% blame Ian Paisley’s DUP. Just 6% blamed the British government for the deadlock.

* The former head of the RUC’s Special Branch has said that a united Ireland is “inevitable”. In a newspaper interview, Bill Lowry declared that “when we come to a united Ireland there will have to be a new flag and a new anthem, whenever that happens, which I believe is inevitable”.

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