Martin McGuinness believes a united Ireland is inevitable and it may happen soon. The North’s Deputy First Minister believes the chances have never been better for a re-unification of the island.
Mr McGuinness, who ran for president as the Sinn Féin candidate in 2011, said that the outcome of future elections will point the way to single republic on the island. “These elections give us the opportunity to take more huge strides towards our ultimate goal, to put our struggle on to a new trajectory where the unity of our country and the establishment of the 1916 Republic becomes inevitable,” he said.
His remarks will not impress Unionists, who are already uncomfortable at the increasing popularity of Sinn Féin in the republic. Mr McGuinness shares power with the DUP’s Peter Robinson in Northern Ireland and if Sinn Féin becomes part of a government in the Dáil, there will be increasing pressure to change the settlement between Britain and Ireland.