McDonald vows election boost for unity agenda

Mary Lou McDonald said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government needs to indicate the ‘tipping point’ for a referendum on Irish unity.

Ms McDonald, who is seeking to be Taoiseach following the Irish general election on November 29, said a Sinn Féin-led government would take “immediate steps” to progress the goal of reunifying the island.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin would dedicate a junior ministry role to unification under the Department of An Taoiseach.

She also said her party would propose to produce a Green Paper on the matter within 100 days of entering government, followed by the convening of a citizens assembly to provide space for an “inclusive” discussion of unification.

Mary Lou McDonald was speaking on the campaign trail again at the Irish election later this month. She said the British government “needs to start now indicating” what they believe is the tipping point at which they believe a referendum would be called.

“I’ve pursued this with them for a long time through many prime ministers, but I think it’s necessary that the person who is Taoiseach would pursue that because, obviously, that brings it to a different level, and a different proposition,” she said.

Ms McDonald previously said the border poll could be held by 2030.

Under the terms of Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the London government is obliged to call a referendum in the Six Counties if there is evidence of a shift in public opinion in favour of unity, with a simultaneous poll in the 26 Counties.

Earlier this year, Starmer said he was committed to the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, but has also said a referendum on Irish unification is “not even on the horizon”.

Sinn Féin believes that declining support for the union, brought about by demographic change, wil eventually force the British government to act on Irish reunification in line with the 1998 peace deal.

However, many nationalists are increasingly frustrated with the absence of any movement from London, who have a long history of reneging on peace deals. Some republicans never accepted the terms of the 1998 deal in the first place.

Activist groups have been increasingly trying to highlight the absence of a peaceful route to Irish unity.

Lasair Dhearg activists pointed to Britain’s ongoing occupation of the north of Ireland, by changing a sign on the border between Derry and Donegal.

A road sign on the border between the North and the South has been altered to read “Welcome to Occupied Ireland.”

“Despite what we are told by former Republicans and the ruling class in the occupied six counties we are still no closer to unity after 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement,” the group said in a social media the post.

More controversially, ‘Brit Lackey’ was spray painted on the door of McDonald’s offfice in Dublin, “to highlight Sinn Féin’s position in the British Colonial Administration”, according to a social media post by Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland.

The comments come in the wake of intense anger in the North at Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill after she attended an event to honour British forces on Remembrance Sunday.

Families of some of those who died at the hands of British forces in Tyrone issued a statement to condemn the move, while a banner with the word ‘traitors’ was hung from her local constituency office.

Addressing an audience in Dublin this week, Mary Lou McDonald has insisted that a Sinn Féin-led government will put Irish unity at the centre of its “vision for the future”.

Ms McDonald made the comments during her speech at a rally to save Moore Street in the city centre, the site of key events of the 1916 Easter Rising.

The Sinn Féin leader said: “When you walk these streets and laneways of the historic Moore Street and GPO area, you follow in the footsteps of the brave men and women of 1916 who believed with all their hearts in the Ireland that could be.

“That the people of Ireland ‘Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter’ could rise above the divisions of the past and claim a future together in the spirit of fraternity and the dream of nationhood.

“We hold tightly to that dream today. This generation will make it a reality.

“A United Ireland is the very best, most exciting prospect for the future, for nationalists, unionists, and everyone else on our small island. That is why referendums on Irish unity should be held by the end of this decade to allow the people the freedom to choose their future. A Sinn Féin-led government will put preparations for Irish Unity at the very centre of our vision for the future.”

Awkwardly, Ms McDonald later attended a service to mark Remembrance Sunday in honour of the British forces at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

She said: “I have been attending the service for a number of years and always receive a very warm welcome. I attend to extend respect for people who have traditions and perspectives on history that are different from my own, to respect people who gather to remember their dead.

“I think that this is very important as we continue our journey of national reconciliation and to a new future. Nation building is about bringing people together.”

Urgent Appeal