Devolved administrations in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh should work together collectively in their dealings with London to \u201cbe more than the sum of their parts\u201d, Welsh first minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Dublin, ap Iorwerth said Northern Ireland<\/a>, Wales<\/a> and Scotland<\/a> \u201care following different journeys as nations\u201d, but they have \u201ccore asks\u201d from London \u201cfor equality of treatment\u201d.<\/p>\n His declaration came after he, Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a> and John Swinney<\/a> told the Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> ardfheis in April in Belfast that they would seek to work far more closely together when dealing with No 10 Downing Street and Whitehall.<\/p>\n Then, Swinney said the Scottish National Party<\/a>, Plaid Cymru<\/a> and Sinn F\u00e9in \u201cmay not agree on everything, but what we do agree on is that the people who should decide the future of our nations are the people who live in our respective nations\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> saw pro-nationalist victories in Edinburgh and Cardiff offering support for her party\u2019s long-held push for an Irish unity referendum.<\/p>\n \u201cAnybody listening to those messages can\u2019t miss the fact that we are in really a very special moment. We\u2019ve always had a sense that there is a potential to build something really significant and strong, like Celtic cousins,\u201d she told the ardfheis.<\/p>\n Illustrating Cardiff\u2019s unhappiness with London, ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader who was elected as first minister after the May elections, has yet to meet British prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>, having had a telephone conversation only.<\/p>\n Political instability in London in recent months \u201cmade it difficult\u201d for Starmer to meet, he accepted, but Wales has always known it is \u201cfar too often low down in the pecking order\u201d for No 10.<\/p>\n He had pledged, he said, as Welsh first minister \u201cto stand up for the people of Wales, to stand up for the things that matter to them\u201d in all of his dealings with Starmer\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n [\u00a0\u2018Starmer failed Wales\u2019: Plaid Cymru first minister Rhun ap Iorwerth on nationhood and new challengesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The first minister was speaking alongside Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee<\/a> during a day-long visit to Dublin, where he also met Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> and President Catherine Connolly<\/a>.<\/p>\n Welcoming ap Iorwerth to Iveagh House, McEntee said co-operation between Dublin and Cardiff \u201ccontinues to go from strength to strength\u201d, especially in renewable energy and electricity interconnectors.<\/p>\n Later, the two politicians took part in a forum in Iveagh House on how sports can be better used by the two countries to promote themselves politically and economically on the global stage.<\/p>\n Sport has even greater value than before in such matters, said McEntee, in a world so riven by division. \u201cSport should always be about connection. it should always be about bringing people together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn an increasingly complex world, sport creates that dialogue and that space for connection. It\u2019s a powerful medium to be able to connect us in a common purpose, to sustain our international connections and shared values.\u201d <\/p>\n Using the now global success surrounding the celebration of St Patrick\u2019s Day, the minister said, there are political, economic and tourism gains for Ireland to make from Euro 2028, the Rugby World Cup and the Cricket World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devolved administrations in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh should work together collectively in their dealings with London to \u201cbe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,9686,1556,61,60,77280,1194,3658,1843,3659,43,2443,184171,9036,4381],"class_list":["post-516876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-common-ground","tag-helen-mcentee","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-swinney","tag-keir-starmer","tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","tag-micheal-martin","tag-michelle-o-neill","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-plaid-cymru","tag-scotland","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516876","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=516876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}