![\"Podcast](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1_image-6.png\")
<\/p>\nHow to Gael hosts Louise Cantillon and Doireann N\u00ed Ghlac\u00e1in are taking on the question: is a United Ireland realistic or romantic?<\/p>\n
Podcast hosts Louise Cantillon and Doireann N\u00ed Ghlac\u00e1in with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said a United Ireland \u201chas to be about the unity of people\u201d, in the first episode of a new podcast<\/a> series about Irish unity.<\/p>\n Following on from their viral podcast episode with now President Catherine Connolly<\/a>, where she shared her belief in a United Ireland, How to Gael hosts Louise Cantillon and Doireann N\u00ed Ghlac\u00e1in are taking on the question that has long shaped the political landscape on this island: is a United Ireland realistic or romantic?<\/p>\n Their new six-part series \u2018How To: Unite Ireland?\u2019 welcomes leading figures and academics from across communities on the island of Ireland to discuss this multi-faceted issue of unification, including Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin, GAA President Jarlath Burns<\/a>, PhD candidates Andrew Clarke aka Tanistry and R\u00f3is\u00edn Nic Liam, editor Sam McBride and economist Stephen Kinsella.<\/p>\n In October 2025, BBC Radio Ulster published a podcast series, Borderland, that tackled the question of Irish unity.<\/p>\n While the series explored both sides of the argument on the question of unity, there was one clear agreement: it\u2019s time for the south to seriously engage with the north and question if there is to be any real debate on the possibility of a United Ireland. Notre Dame University are also running a major research project investigating the constitutional future of Ireland called ARINS (Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South) that probes these questions.<\/p>\n This limited series is an answer to this work and looks to further the conversation amongst ordinary young people in the Republic of Ireland. Only 22% of \u2018southerners\u2019 have made repeat trips north of the border so what do we really know about life in the North? What would a United Ireland look like? Is it something we really want?<\/p>\n What does a modern Ireland for all look like? What are the concessions we would have to make and can we make them? This series looks to engage with the question of the North beyond the romantic notions and ask practical questions on how to go about building a United Ireland for all.<\/p>\n Kicking off the series is Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin, who believes \u201cthe hard work\u201d of a United Ireland \u201cis in the reconciliation\u201d.<\/p>\n The conversation delves into the progress of the Shared Island Initiative, the complexities posed by Brexit and the rise of Reform in the UK for the North, how running a border poll and losing would be “pointless”, his thoughts on what being a “republican” truly means and how Fianna F\u00e1il are still the largest Republican party in Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a passion of mine, I\u2019ve been involved in Northern Ireland all my political life\u2026 The Shared Island Initiative is the first serious substantive initiative since the Good Friday Agreement,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n \u201c[The difference the Shared Island Initiative] has made is in terms of connectivity, in terms of people coming together, that is what unity ultimately is all about.<\/p>\n \u201cThe young people are interesting, the way they look at it, they\u2019re not looking at it through the same lens as historically people looked at it.\u201d<\/p>\n On his definition of what is to be a republican: \u201cTo me, republicanism is an inclusive republic, it has to unify different traditions and it\u2019s also a form of government. We\u2019re not into titles, we\u2019re not into any of that, and it\u2019s democratic obviously, and it has a constitution that guarantees fundamental rights to all people. And in the northern context it\u2019s always been about unity.\u201d<\/p>\n On a United Ireland: \u201cMy philosophy is it has to be about the unity of people, in so far as you can go, it\u2019s not just about territory.\u201d<\/p>\n He tells How to Gael that the Good Friday Agreement was a “very privileged moment” to be a part of but that there is a lot of work still being done through the Shared Island Initiative.<\/p>\n He admits that meeting with the Loyalist Communities Council in recent years indicated to him that they felt they had been “left behind” and said that “sense of marginalisation” had to be addressed to move forward.<\/p>\n An Taoiseach also addresses the reclaiming of the Irish flag, how he would like to see more cross-border initiatives like Queen’s University and Dundalk IT coming together, the future Derry to Dublin flight path and suggests an all-island approach to soccer.<\/p>\n Listen to How To Gael new podcast\u2019s series How To: Unite Ireland? now here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Want to see more from the Irish Mirror? 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To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How to Gael hosts Louise Cantillon and Doireann N\u00ed Ghlac\u00e1in are taking on the question: is a United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1843,43,2159],"class_list":["post-356740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}