Tánaiste Michael Martin said the potential for community reconciliation under the Good Friday Agreement had not been realised.
In an interview with the BBC, the Tánaiste declined to say whether he believed he would see a united Ireland in his lifetime, but said he had no doubt that “new political configurations” would emerge across the island,
Martin said the political focus should be on reconciliation.
“We didn’t really fulfil the potential of the Good Friday Agreement on reconciliation, full reconciliation between traditions and communities,” he said, reports Independent.
Mr Martin said there would be “new political configurations” but that the focus should be on “unifying people”.
“I’m a Republican, I’m of the Wolfe Tone tradition, which means uniting.”
Speaking of the Irish revolutionary’s policy, Martin said that it is “in his day Protestant, Catholic and dissenter; in the modern era, by the way, you can add a few more to that”.
“Irish-British people have defined themselves as Northern Irish, you have 20pc of the population in the Republic, not born on the island of Ireland, who are now residents, citizens and so on, like that. So the point I’m trying to make today is, it’s about reconciliation and unifying people. There will be new political configurations of that I have no doubt,” rpeorts Independent.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.