Did anyone ever refer to the male first ministers as grandfathers? What a ridiculous and patronising way to end this interview. Well done Michelle for treating this man with respect despite the inappropriate nature of his questions and comments at times.
im in the UK and support a united ireland, it would be best for all. everytime i hear michelle, she seems to be a great leader. dosent waffle on like our mp's etc. good luck to her and ireland
O'Neill has the unique courage of a fighter, but the tact and patience to see the long term goal without the violence and rancour. Ballots not bullets.
The best of luck to her. I was brought up in the unionist tradition but I must say I think Michelle is great - pleasant and respectful of all traditions. Reunification wouldn't be a bad thing as long as all traditions are respected - and if the deal was right, particularly as part of the EU. The TUV are showning themselves to be true dinosaurs, hopefully they will wither on the vine....
End of the day the orange of the Tricolour stands for Protestant faith so it’s incumbent duty of all Irishmen to ensure the civil rights of Protestants and other faiths is respected in the new united Ireland like it was for Southern Protestants during creation of the Free State.
This Lady seems to be The Real Deal and I just hope she can deliver on all that she said for ALL the people of Northern Ireland, it's a place that is very dear to my heart as I spent best part of 20 years in Belfast
Once the immediate crises under control , it might be time to start looking at how it would be possible to be British within Ireland -a mirror of what the GFA delivered for the nationalists. Don't think the DUP would be the people to start that conversation though.
There are massive problems with United Ireland, higher taxes, illegal immigration problems, housing crisis is worse, cost of living is worse. If we united I would immediately start thinking about legal immigration myself
And dont forget we have a club of 26 other friends who will help too. Its nice to have close trading friends and not be sitting on our own as our small businesses collapse.
Yes I think Ireland will do a better job then we Brits ever did there, it has been a disaster and a drain on us Brits, I suppose we are handing back a mess to Ireland but they will be financially helped by the EU and the USA!
Why not respect the vote of the Irish people in 1918? The north was fabricated to create an artificial unionist majority. Time for the British to exit Ireland, like they did Hong Kong and everywhere else. @@Lando-kx6so
@@Lando-kx6so Not a question of people in UK being fine with it. It’s already enshrined in Good Friday Agreement which has already determined that’s how it will be and it’s not up to the Uk.
Even if a united Ireland did come into existence, It would not be a smooth and easy event. Even if the vast majority of Ulster unionist remained peaceful during this time... If a very small minority of Ulster unionist decided to put up an armed response, The Irish state wouldn't be able to cope with it. That is the *FACT* The irish defence forces are under funded and under equipped, and under manned. There are barley 6,000 troops at the moment. How can they deal with it? They couldn't! Please understand this very real fact. A legal democratic yes vote for a united Ireland doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be smooth sailing.
Are they still called Ulster Unionists if they live in Cavan, Donegal or Monaghan, or would they just be called Irish? Would a Unionist live in that part of Ulster or would they cross the border into Northern Ireland? Ulster is not Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is not Ulster, never was and never will be.
@@9inchsnails829 hasn’t been part of Ulster for over 400 years. But given the republican history of the Wee County, I wouldn’t think that too many people living there would describe themselves as Ulster Unionists. Thankfully, Unionists on our island are largely confined to Northern Ireland, although the sectarian Orange Order does hold an annual fancy dress walk in Donegal to mark the 12th.
It’s a fact that to be successful a terrorist organisation, which is what it would be, needs the support of the population it operates in. In this day and age are there really sufficient numbers of Protestants that would feel that strongly to take up arms? I’m not sure. It might operate for a year or two but the vast majority would see it changes nothing to their everyday lives, and it would die off.
take away the support of the police, and england, the unionists wouldn't have enough funding to suport 600 terrorists let alone 6000, and lets not forget how long it took the IRA to go from 2000 members to over 200000 after just one mass casualty event, the unionists have always been outnumbered, they were just well funded, and well protected.
This is fantastic news for us all in the UK. Ireland deserves to be one nation. The DUP and other silly religious unionists have ruined not only NI but the UK too with their Brexit support. Good riddance I say and roll on a new ear when Ireland is whole again.
Personally I’m not bothered either way. I want whatever the people of Northern Ireland want. My only concern with re-unification is that it could get violent and chaotic. It doesn’t have to be though. As long as people can choose Irish or British citizenship or both, and the human rights of all are respected, then I don’t see what the issue is.
Good for Ireland if that's what it wants, and hopefully they will be happy. Probably won't be good for any Irish 🇮🇪- English 🏴 relationship though, they're an Anglo phobic party so Ireland will essentially become a hostile state to England 🏴. I think we'll see things like special arrangements being ended and Ireland 🇮🇪 being forced to defend it's own air and sea space as well as an end to the common travel area meaning all the Irish 🇮🇪 citizens here either applying for settled status or being deemed illegal immigrants, the same for the English 🏴 in Ireland 🇮🇪. We'll have to just watch the events unfold but I think if it's something Ireland 🇮🇪 wants then it's good things for them. Personally I'm of the opinion Scotland 🏴, Wales 🏴 and England 🏴 should all be independent and just have to live as neighbours.
@@hey12542neighbours can be good neighbours. To the extent that SF may be perceived as anti-British or anti-English, it is useful to point out that that SF, even if the largest party north and south, do not have support of much more than 25% of the vote and the vast majority of people in Ireland see Britain as a neighbour even if they do not understand why they voted to leave the EU.
It's never gona happen. The Irish economy can't handle, nor does it want to have to deal with that scenario. It's definitely not going to happen if NI is a free access route to the EU for GB. They'd never give something of that value away
I think they are that stupid they probably don't and think it was the Tories who sold them out. I remember telling DUP supporting Brexiteers back in 2015 voting to leave was the worst thing that could ever happen to the union and the idiots still backed it when nationalism was on the decline and the DUP won a record number of seats when their leader was seen as a modernising moderate unionist.
Absolutely right! Michelle O'Neil stated in 2016 that even though Brexit would make reunification more likely Sinn Fein was against it because it would be bad for the whole of Ireland. Well she has been proved right!
@vonryansexpresseverybody has lost. Open your eyes. An X-Factor style vote on a subject too complex for the vast majority of England to understand. Only devious politicians with an agenda would agree to this. They’re laughing all the way to the bank - at your and the vast majority’s expense 🙄
If the British and the Unionists are so confident that the majority want to remain in the UK let's have the vote and put the matter to bed for another few generations.
A pole now would destroy any chance of a united ireland for a long time…nationalists have to be mature about this and not get emotional…easier said than done for a few of them
@@bmcb3064 Polls now suggest numbers are running at almost 50/50 give or take a few percentage points eitherway. With a rigorous campaign from every party in the south, and half of them in the north along with huge support from the EU and USA for a yes to reunification, it would comfortably pass in the morning regardless of the dog whistling from unionists and threats from a few dozen drug dealing "loyalist".
@@joeduffy3309pretty much true but I’d suggest we still wait a year or two just to ensure comfortable ‘Yes’ victories. Every year more and more nationalists reach voting age.
So funny. The interviewer asked if the events of the past were wrong if he felt that was a fair point he himself would have begun this by apologizing for his country past.
Forget the flower of Scotland, this lady is a flower of Ireland 🇮🇪 🎉UK 🇬🇧...may god give her strength to give peace and unity, love and respect to all.
1970s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years." 1980s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years." 1990s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years." 2000s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years." 2010s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years." 2020s - "Irish unification is coming in the next few years."
A border poll this generation would risk unleashing dark sectarian forces that for 25 years have laid dormant. The Scottish and EU referenda created bitterness and division where none existed previously and raised far more problems than they solved, can we realistically expect a border poll now to settle anything? I hope that these are just words from O’Neill to keep supporters happy and that in reality Sinn Fein is wise enough to understand that a border poll is a hornet’s nest that nobody should want to kick. The troubles need to have passed from living memory before anyone seriously considers opening this Pandora’s box.
Yes. Democracy must be respected. If Nationalists are able to respect democracy, I'm sure unionists can. "NI" as a territory is the source of all the bitterness. It was set up in an undemocratic way, it was set up for sectarian reasons. Once it is democratically voted out of existence, the reasons for bitterness will be gone.
I think it is optimistic to the point of naivety to think that centuries of hatred will be erased by a simple vote. Also, all nationalists can respect democracy so I doubt all unionists will be able to. Thousands of people were killed by nationalists trying to enforce their will on the majority from 1969 -1997 and periodic attacks and murders take place to this day.@@Macca-rb5ok
@@williamwallace4924 and the DUP are anything other that preserving the union with the UK ?? No other substance to them except of course bleeding the British taxpayer dry!
I believe the UK does care. I personally lived through the troubles and watched British soldiers beaten to death by the IRA, I am now 63 years old, and will never forget that day those two soldiers were murdered. Northern Ireland is British terrorty and nothing to do with the Irish.
Yes we do. But we are also aware only half of the northern lrish want to remain in the Uk. So the only solution is joint governance by Britain and lreland.
I hope that North Ireland, Scotland and Wales may stay in UK forever, unity is the strength of a country. The last Hongkong governor Chris Pattern is a Irish and Sir David Wilson, the governor before him is a Scottish , many colonial officers contributed a lot to Hong Kong' success were from different regions of UK, they worked in harmony to develope Hongkong from a fishing village to a very prosperous international city, I just don't want to see the split of UK. China hates UK very much, she always want to see the split of UK as I know
The Empire is thankfully dead. We want to live in real countries now, nation-states with natural identities, not multi-racial Kowloons for the benefit of a tiny greedy and selfish oligarchy. "Britain" has always been a foreigner's concept of our archipelago. Saor Alba.
As a citizen of the Republic I suggest not to worry about this prospect. It will not happen until the North and South of Ireland wish it, and the South has no interest in taking on the liability that is currently Northern Ireland. Our general concern eased with the the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement which took a major step towards removing the apartheid nature of previous administrations. It is a pity that the UK opted for Brexit.
Partition is Wrong and its Immoral, A United Ireland is an Honourable Aspiration, We all should be Persuaders and United Irelanders, as that's the best solution for All our people, Everyone should Google MODELLING IRISH UNIFICATION and ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF A UNITED IRELAND
But look at the results when they were asked to pay for it. My own expectation is that the post brexit arrangements in the north will be so beneficial over time that they will find it hard to forgo those advantages.@@user-ze8yy8jg1f
Britain at one stage controlled India Australia,America Canada etc in fact most of the world but things change and Ireland is on the same journey . We all want peace ,prosperity and security for our families and what we have to decide how best to achieve this . For my part the British government don’t really care about us , nor the Scot’s or maybe even the Welsh . Time for the next step forward in history
Both the First Minister and her deputy have something unique in common. Their feminism, and with that goes a greater ability to care for and nurture those in their charge. By working together they can succeed at taking the conflict out of politics and look at government from an entirely new perspective.The stage is set to improve not only conditions in NI but with North/South cooperation the entire Island will benefit. It would be a mistake to slavishly follow trends in Britain at the current time. A new chapter has begun.
Onwards to a new Ireland brothers give the sinners a chance on both sides of the border one thing for sure they can’t do any worse and I’m sure they’ll do a great deal better🇮🇪💚
Irish capitalism is still capitalism. An Irish state remains a state. Even if a united Ireland somehow happens things will continue to deteriote for working class and marginalised people, who would continue to be exploited and dispossessed etc.
Absolutely. James Connolly said much the same. A United Ireland ruled by capitalism is just a West Britain with green branding. But priorities…get the Brits out the North first and then create a United Irish Republic based on Irish socialist values.
Breaking News: Michelle O’Neil leads orange march. Violenceensues. It makes me laugh how she condemns the violence but she’s disagreeing by shaking her head.
That whole "shaking your head while saying yes really means no" pseudoscientific nonsense has been known to be false for years. That's, like, 1960s pop-psychology lmao but go off
There would have been no armed resistance if the English did not occupy the North of Ireland. No part of England is occupied by Ireland..Will we call London.. Dublon..
@@MrMieltenThink that's a very misguided view. Infact I think British 🇬🇧 culture in the pro union areas will get even stronger. Pro unionists won't stop being pro union just cause Ireland decided to unite. It doesn't work that way.
@@hey12542What is British culture in NI?? Bon fires burning other nations flags and effigies of Irish politicians and silly men marching in oranges sashes that ain’t British culture sorry. Most of us in England want Irish unity we can’t keep bank rolling NI going forward!
@MrMielten Don’t think the British culture is going anywhere in a united ireland if anything it’ll spread throughout the whole island again like it once was.
I think the Republic of Ireland will get very bad indigestion trying to absorb Northern Ireland and will not be the same country afterwards if it does manage it.
Ireland would not be funtioning if it was not in the EU. I've got grandparents from both sides of the border and this women is very naive. Making Northern Ireland part of the Eire would create so much violence. It would also bring poverty. Ireland is not very good at major industry. Great at farming, the arts and being a low tax sector but not running major industries.
I think NI would benefit by becoming a devolved part of ROI. Northern Irish can have both Irish and British citizenship, and rejoin the EU which they voted to remain in.
@@VectorTracker because your position is crap. @TheEarlsRenegade I'm not saying NI can't eventually become a full part of ROI. I'm saying devolution for NI in ROI would work for everyone: Irish, British, and Northern Irish. It would benefit all of us. What are the downsides?
@@sillypuppy5940 dup won't be in the Dail Did we keep ne loyalist parties after independence? No Why tf would we allow a pro union party in our government that would cause riots across ireland
Brexit it is not only getting UK poorer day after day.. It will also reunify Ireland sooner than some could think... So, definitely : Every cloud has a silver line 🎉
That is some outlandish comment right there. The goal of Brexit was Britain leaving the EU, the propaganda your spouting is just that and is factually incorrect. I'm not saying I agree with Brexit as I voted remain but after seeing the years of hatred from EU 🇪🇺 countries towards England 🏴 I'm not surprised England 🏴 voted leave.
A very interesting prediction .... Mary Lou could not predict what she would do if she attained power relating to Drew Harris were he still to be in office.
It blows my mind that anyone could believe a Border Poll would be so simple and, most importantly, peaceful as all this conjecture people who are clearly not from NI are making. Anyone who has spent even just five minutes in NI knows, deep down, a Border Poll campaign and ensuing result would very quickly unravel two decades-worth of work to keep a lid on very fragile peace. With the greatest respect to her, she got 29% of the vote at the Assembly Election on an increase of just 1% of the vote. Hostilities, history and identity run deep in NI and she, nor Sinn Féin, are not going to win over Unionists (even the Unionist-light who make up the majority of Alliance votes) just because she is a fresh and seemingly pleasant face in politics. Personally, I think she is being hugely irresponsible by talking of any such Border Poll in such a way that will eventually goad Unionists probably to the point of collapsing Stormont again and we're back to square one. Yes, it's Sinn Féin raison d'être to argue for a United Ireland, it is their right and their end game but let's not get carried away and let sleeping dogs lie.
Completely agree. Also, the deal NI has with both access to the internal U.K. market and EU gives it a great position in my opinion. And nobody is making NI stay in the U.K., it’s great that it is part of our family of nations and they are an integral part just as Scotland, Wales and England are
Your forgetting about the other parties like SDLP, PBP, and Greens who are also nationalists. Calling Alliance voters "unionist-light" is simply incorrect. In the 2022 Stormont election, the Alliance vote transfers were 10.0% to unionists, 58.3% to nationalists/republicans, 8.7% to others, and 22.4% were non transferable. So if anything they are "nationalist-light"
One thing I've not seen mentioned is the mass immigration into the Republic. In 10 yrs that is going to be a lot worse, will it still be the same feelings on both sides of the border?.
The immigration statistics don't lie. Unfortunately it's the immigrants getting the blame for the Irish governments failure to provide enough affordable housing for it's citizens especially in Dublin. Ireland has the money to build 100,000 affordable homes in and around Dublin every year. But restrictive and slow planning policies mean only a fraction of what is needed gets built and balloons rental prices which benefits all of Ireland's elected landlords.
Everyone celebrating this is ridiculous. Sinn Fein are open border supporters. Irish people will be a minority on the island in decades. Already 20% of the Republic is foreign.
20% were born abroad, some of whom are Irish people born to Irish people who were living abroad at the time of their birth. Our largest single emigrant group are the British. Many young British graduates seek jobs in Ireland, marry Irish people and go on raise Irish families. The idea that Welsh, Scottish and English people are some sort of evil threat to us in Ireland is not what most of us feel.
Polls 😂 ehhh look whos first minister. Scottish independence support doubled from pre vote "polls" to the referendum result. I'd question who runs these polls and what their agenda is. Why do they get these divisive questions so wrong but then relatively accurate when it comes to general elections. Did they poll the tens of thousands of people from NI that live in the Republic? Of course not. Only poll that matters is a referendum and there will be one coming.
With the SNP to be fair to them they kept winning majorities, no wonder they assumed they would win. As it would seem there are Unionists who still vote for the SNP.
A united Ireland could be a huge challenge, like getting eggs out of cake after its`s baked. But, good luck to the people if this is what they really wish. A rocky road it might be, but maybe there`s a nice pub at the end of the journey.
How articulate every Sinn Féin spokesperson is compared to the DUP, TUV or UUP equivalent. With a tiny bit of luck Emma Little-Pengelly might even crack a smile when she speaks though.
@@joprocter4573 her Dad was convicted of being a member of the PIRA. No secret there. Emma’s father, Noel, or is it John now, was convicted for trying to buy weapons for Ulster Resistance, the then military wing of the DUP. He was also named as being involved in the weapons consignment from South Africa in the mid 80’s that were used by the UR, UVF & UDA. Some of these weapons ended up in the hands of the Glenanne Gang, a group of RUC, UDR and loyalists who targeted and murdered innocent Catholics.
Where. IS. THE. NATION. WHERE IS. GREAT 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧. Britain 🏴🇮🇪🏴. And ? 🏴. And. Where is. OUR. KING. OUR. DEMOCRATIC. AND HONEST. GOVERN MENT. . 🕌🕌🕌🕌🕌☠️🫢🫢🫢🫢. We have. Poverty. U. Dafyydd. 🏴🏴🏴Have. Huge. Money 🏴🏴🏴
I would love to see a united ireland but sinn fein need to make sure and get the priorities of everyone right because there policies seem to be getting out of touch with what the people really want.
