Brexit Supercharges the Political Push Toward a United Ireland
Sinn Fein was once disparaged as the political wing of the IRA. It’s now on course to be the biggest party in both the north and south of the island.
Graffiti on one of the Peace Walls in Belfast promoting the reunification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.
Photographer: Larissa Schwedes/picture alliance/Getty Images
One potent force is emerging from the torpid dispute over Northern Ireland between the U.K. and European Union, and the potential consequences could redraw the map more dramatically than Brexit.
Sinn Fein, whose ultimate goal is a united Ireland and the end of British rule, is leading the polls ahead of critical elections to Belfast’s power-sharing assembly on May 5 after pro-U.K. unionist parties lost ground since the divorce from the EU. It puts Sinn Fein on course to take the post of first minister for the first time just as the party’s popularity has also swelled in the Republic of Ireland because of discontent over the economy.