Politics

Good Friday Agreement is 'tool box' for achieving Irish unity peacefully, says Mary Lou McDonald

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald in her office at Leinster House. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald in her office at Leinster House. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald in her office at Leinster House. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Wire

THE Good Friday Agreement has provided the "toolbox" to achieve a united Ireland without risking a return to violence, Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The Sinn Féin leader dismissed suggestions that a bid for Irish unity would spark a violent reaction from loyalism.

She described the 1998 accord as the "compass" that would enable peaceful navigation towards an united Ireland.

"That's why it's so important that people like me, and people across Irish republicanism and nationalism, but also in unionism and loyalism, are very clear that whatever our views or whatever our desired outcome, that the only way forward is democratic, peaceful and orderly," she told the PA News Agency.

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin wanted to hear unionist and loyalist opinion "so that everybody is in a shared space in respect of that issue".

She said the "democratic architecture and process" ensured all views could be heard.

"There is no reason, there is no excuse, there is no basis for violent actions by anyone," she said, noting that the sporadic anti-protocol violence was "advanced by a small group of people".

She called for a citizen's assembly on a border poll to take place as soon as possible, insisting it would be the first order of business should Sinn Féin triumph at the next election.

The Sinn Féin president believes the Twelfth could be "a nice summer public holiday" and transformed in to "something positive".

"I think you could move beyond the kind of rancor sometimes associated, many times associated, with that time of the year" she said.

"It was very problematic in the north, as we know, and we could turn it into something positive. I think that could be a really interesting conversation."

She rejected the notion that unity would be "simply bolting the north on to the south".

"Because partition has meant that duplication and we lose in that – it's costly, it's inefficient and it holds us back," she said.

"So, we would want to be very careful about not making that mistake again."

She said "careful consideration" would be given to giving unionist politicians a quota in a united Ireland parliament.

"Our unionist population would have a considerable representation in an all-Ireland parliament, actually much stronger than their current strength at Westminster, for example," she said.

"So it's certainly not something that I am advancing but I'd like to hear the argument for it, I'd like to hear how that works out and what exactly that means."

The biggest issue, Ms McDonald believes, will not be around symbols, but public services such as healthcare.

"When I am out and about over many years, talking to people, and discussing the prospect of change and unity, the first thing that's raised with me is healthcare," she said.

"Not flags, not anthems, not any of that. The first issue that people raised with me as a matter of practical concern is, will I have to pay to see my GP?"

She reiterated calls for the British government to set out the conditions necessary for a border poll.

"I want them to set out their stall publicly and then we can analyse that and we can debate it," she said.

"But there has to be some indication now, officially, of how the British state or or a British prime minister would regard that we have arrived just a moment for the referendum to be called.

"It's been extremely unhelpful that they wouldn't set that out."