THE UNITED KINGDOM’S union is under “unprecedented pressure from a rising pro-independence tide”, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said.
Ahead of the Dáil debating and voting on her party’s Irish Unity Bill this week, McDonald described “history unfolding”.
She was speaking during an address to her party’s annual commemoration to United Irishmen leader Wolfe Tone at Bodenstown, Co Kildare today.
She said they were gathered not only to commemorate and honour the past, but to “testify that together we will unite Ireland and bring about a New Republic of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
McDonald welcomed Fine Gael’s recent announcement they will publish their proposals on Irish unity, and the SDLP’s Irish unity conference in Belfast last week.
She said they now “need to see positive movement and enthusiasm” from Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
McDonald said Sinn Féin has had “unique experience” of the challenges involved in advancing a united Ireland in their sharing office with unionists at Stormont.
“We share office with others whose instinct is too often to resist change, block progress and hold back political, social and economic development,” she said.
“But that has not stopped us providing leadership.”
The Sinn Féin president also emphasised that momentum towards Irish unity is continuing to grow.
“The election of nationalist governments in Scotland and Wales underlines that Britain’s union is under unprecedented pressure from a rising pro-independence tide,” she said.
“I believe that the time has come for a United Ireland.
“The planning and preparation must start now … because we now have an unprecedented opportunity for all parties to enter the conversation and begin planning for unity with enthusiasm.”
She called for words to be matched by action.
“The Irish Government must establish the structures, allocate the resources and begin the detailed work of preparing for constitutional change in partnership with communities across this island,” she said.
“Despite the clear provisions of the Good Friday Agreement, and the profound implications of reunification for every aspect of Irish life, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have yet to demonstrate the urgency this moment demands.
“The greatest threat to stability is not preparing for constitutional change. It is refusing to prepare.
“Irish unity must be shaped through careful planning, democratic engagement and honest discussion.
“That work cannot be delayed any longer.”
She went on: “Next week, the Dáil will debate and vote on our landmark Irish Unity Bill.
“It calls on the Government to draft a Green Paper and establish a Citizens’ Assembly.
“If passed, it would represent a significant step forward and put planning for a United Ireland at the top of the agenda.
“History is unfolding before us.
“What matters now is that the conversation deepens, that the preparations start, and that whoever next occupies 10 Downing Street realises that Britain can no longer fix the boundary to the march of this nation.”
Referencing Tone’s Protestant background, McDonald said ordinary Catholics, Protestants and Dissenters had “far more in common with one another than with those who sought to keep them apart”.
“Recent scenes of racist violence and attacks on the streets of Belfast were a stark reminder that division and scapegoating remain potent forces,” she said.
“Irish republicans reject racism just as we reject sectarianism.
“The answer to social and economic challenges is not to pit working people against one another, but to unite people around their shared interests and common future.
“That is why I say directly to working-class unionists and Protestants – you have more in common with your nationalist neighbour than with the wealthy interests that profit from division and inequality.”