Trump backs united Ireland again, stirring debate over Northern Ireland's future

Donald Trump again endorsed a united Ireland during a visit to Doonbeg. His remarks revived a highly sensitive constitutional debate governed by the Good Friday Agreement.

In Short

• Micheál Martin urged calm, calling some political responses an overreaction
• Partition left Northern Ireland in the UK, dividing nationalists and unionists
• The Troubles killed 3,600 people before the 1998 accord curbed violence

US President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his support for a united Ireland, saying it would make sense to bring together the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Speaking as he attended the Irish Open at his golf course in Doonbeg in western Ireland, Trump said: "It just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and you have Ireland, and it would seem to me that one of the naturals of all time is put them together."

The remarks triggered sharp reactions because the question of Irish unity remains one of the most sensitive political issues in Britain and Ireland. Trump had said on Saturday that Irish unification would be "fantastic", prompting responses from leaders in Ireland, the UK and Northern Ireland. Irish Prime Minister Michel Martin urged politicians to "keep a calm perspective" and said some of the reaction amounted to an overreaction.

The issue goes back to the partition of Ireland a century ago, when Ireland won independence from Britain and became a self-governing Roman Catholic-majority country, while a six-county region in the north, then with a Protestant majority, stayed in the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland remained divided between nationalists, most of them Catholic, who wanted union with the rest of Ireland, and mainly Protestant unionists, who wanted to remain British.

In the late 1960s, those tensions erupted into three decades of violence known as The Troubles. Paramilitary groups on both sides and British troops were involved, and about 3,600 people were killed in bombings, shootings and other attacks. A 1998 peace accord, in which the US played an important role, largely ended the violence. The Good Friday Agreement left Northern Ireland's final constitutional status unresolved, while allowing people to identify as Irish, British or both.

Under the Good Friday Agreement, a referendum on unification can be held if polling suggests it would be likely to pass, although the UK government says that threshold has not been reached. Ireland would also have to approve such a change in a referendum. While peace has largely held, divisions remain over the legacy of the conflict and over identity, and Northern Ireland's future within the UK or a united Ireland is still unresolved.

Trump said on Sunday that his comments were "only my opinion", but added that he had received "so much support". The British government tried to play down the remarks. Prime Minister Andy Burnham's office referred back to his statement last week that he was "100%" behind the Good Friday accord and that the UK would only consider allowing a referendum "when public opinion has changed to the point where the call has to be considered".

Opposition UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Trump was "shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension". In Northern Ireland, Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson said on X: "Northern Ireland's constitutional future will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people."

Trump's comments were also notable because previous US presidents, including those with Irish roots such as Joe Biden, have avoided speaking directly on the issue of unification. Sinn Fein, which supports Irish unity and was allied during The Troubles with the Irish Republican Army, welcomed Trump's remarks despite having little in common with him politically. Gerry Adams, who led Sinn Fein when the Good Friday Agreement was signed, said the "remarks by President Trump on the issue of Irish unity are welcome, even though we profoundly differ with him on many other matters".

All the main political parties in Ireland support unification in principle, but Sinn Fein says Martin's centrist government has not prepared for it. Martin said some of the reaction to Trump was "an overreaction" and noted that the US president had previously asked whether there would be a "merger" between Ireland and Northern Ireland. "It shouldn't be a surprise. He takes a different sort of perspective on things, we know that," Martin said on Sunday. He added: "I believe in Irish unity. Many political parties in the Republic believe in our unity. But we also of course believe in the Good Friday Agreement."

Trump's intervention has again pushed the question of Irish unity into the spotlight, but the constitutional position of Northern Ireland remains tied to the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and to the views of voters on both sides of the border.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends