Sinn Féin brief MEPs on EU role in Irish Reunification

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald, the party’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty and Midlands Northwest MEP Chris MacManus addressed MEPs from across the EU last week on the issue of Irish Reunification, with MacManus describing the event as “an important building block in the conversation of Unity.”

In her address to MEPs, Mary Lou McDonald spoke of a growing appetite across the island of Ireland for a unity referendum. 

“In Ireland, the winds of change are blowing all around us. Never has the topic of a United Ireland been so widely and so popularly discussed. These conversations are happening in every corner of our island. In every town. In every village. In every city. North and South.”

Pearse Doherty TD presented the party’s publication on the economic benefits of a united Ireland, with subsequent contributions from many MEPs, where a common theme was the request on how other states could directly assist and support the people of Ireland on their path to reunification. 

Speaking after the event Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus said, “Today’s briefing was the first of many similar events. We covered a lot of ground, from the impacts of Brexit to the economic sovereignty of member states and throughout the Q&A support for Irish Unity was ever present. There is now a growing confidence in Europe that the reunification of Ireland is a very achievable target and the support we’ve seen from other MEPs today really confirms that.  Events like this are an important building block in the conversation of Unity and we need to see more of this happening at home too. People all over the island of Ireland need to be engaged in this conversation. The key to a Unity referendum and any subsequent transitional period is dialogue. The conversation on a new Ireland must now start in earnest.” ENDS