Reunification of Ireland? “Trump’s words did not surprise me”

“ Ai was not surprised by the President's words. He believes that the union is the logical path of setting up the island,” Micheál Martin told journalists after lunch with the American President, who is visiting Ireland to participate in a golf tournament.

During lunch, Micheal Martin explained to Donald Trump the 1998 Holy Friday Agreement and political developments since then.

“ I think that if everyone keeps calm and perspective, we will move from there”, he said.

The controversy, especially in the United Kingdom, arose after the explicit support of Donald Trump on Saturday for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, currently under British sovereignty.

Today, Trump insisted on his position, considering it “natural that they are together” the two Irish.

Donald Trump argued on Saturday that the reunification of the Republic of Ireland with Northern Ireland “will happen eventually”.

“I don’t want to cause problems, but I would love to see it unified,” Donald Trump said in a meeting with Micheal Martin in Dublin.

For the US President, the reunification of Ireland would be “a fantastic thing”, which “will happen eventually”, but for that to happen, the UK will also have a say.

Northern Ireland was divided between two communities: nationalists, mostly Catholics, who wanted union with the rest of Ireland, and the Unionists, especially Protestants, who wanted to remain British.

Tensions between the two factions were dragged by three decades of confrontation.

In 1998, a peace agreement put an end to the conflict, but left the final status of Northern Ireland undefined (keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom but establishing that its future status can be decided by referendum if the majority so wishes).