{"id":519541,"date":"2026-06-26T13:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519541\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:38:09","slug":"fine-gael-may-discuss-northern-ireland-candidates-mcentee-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519541\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Gael may \u2018discuss\u2019 Northern Ireland candidates, McEntee says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fine Gael may discuss seeking political representation in Northern Ireland as part of its \u201cblueprint\u201d for unification, Helen McEntee has indicated.<\/p>\n<p>The party is working on developing a vision for a united Ireland to be announced at its Ard Fheis later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Fine Gael leader and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said the country must now engage \u201cseriously, responsibly and respectfully\u201d with the future of the island ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which will come during his next tenure as taoiseach.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if she thought Fine Gael should be running candidates for election in Northern Ireland, party deputy leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said: \u201cI think that\u2019s why we\u2019re having these types of discussions now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe T\u00e1naiste outlined just over a week ago that we would, within our own party, be having a discussion on what a unified or united Ireland might look like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s the responsible thing to do. I think we should be having these conversations, not just on a Government or an all-Ireland basis, but within our own parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we have asked, and we will be asking our members, what they see as being the issues that we need to discuss \u2013 whether that\u2019s political representation, whether it\u2019s the impact on our economy, whether it\u2019s the impact socially.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"not-prose no-underline\" data-action=\"click\" data-category=\"Read more article clicked\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/new-uv-artwork-in-irish-passport-with-increased-security-1918950.html\" data-value=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakingnews.ie\/ireland\/new-uv-artwork-in-irish-passport-with-increased-security-1918950.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f443e483-9222-4680-976c-084582036cb9.jpeg\" class=\"rounded-sm object-contain bg-transparent z-10 w-full h-full not-prose\" alt=\"New Uv Artwork In Irish Passport With Increased Security\" width=\"278\" height=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Ireland<\/p>\n<p>New UV artwork in Irish passport with increased security<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd to go beyond maybe what are some of the traditional areas that we tend to talk about, be it the flag, the national anthem and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pressed on whether it was appropriate for Fine Gael to use its subtitle of The United Ireland Party if it did not run candidates in Northern Ireland, McEntee said she wanted to have a united Ireland in her lifetime and added: \u201cSo we need to be having these conversations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why we are having these conversations and any decisions to run candidates will have to be decided by the party more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fine Gael may discuss seeking political representation in Northern Ireland as part of its \u201cblueprint\u201d for unification, Helen&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-519541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519541","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=519541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}