{"id":624773,"date":"2026-09-14T22:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624773\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T22:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T22:12:10","slug":"sinn-fein-warns-british-government-not-to-block-border-poll-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624773\/","title":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in warns British government not to block Border poll \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> has warned the British government not to block an Irish Border poll, as it joined the nationalist leaders of Scotland<\/a> and Wales<\/a> to sign a pact predicting \u201cWestminster\u2019s time is coming to an end\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> and deputy leader Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a>, the North\u2019s First Minister, travelled to Cardiff on Monday to sign the co-operation agreement<\/a> with Plaid Cymru\u2019s Rhun ap Iorwerth and the Scottish National Party\u2019s (SNP) John Swinney<\/a>, the first ministers of Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n

The memorandum commits the leadership of the three parties to sharing ideas on economic development, the development of energy resources, and international co-operation on issues such as the European Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of our nations has the right to determine its own future,\u201d said the joint memorandum. \u201cMomentum is behind our movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement also called on the UK government in Westminster to \u201cprepare for, plan and facilitate\u201d constitutional change.<\/p>\n

The meeting in Cardiff came after US president Donald Trump<\/a> waded into the Irish unity debate<\/a> over the weekend. While on a visit to the Republic for the Irish Open golf tournament at his Doonbeg course in Co Clare, Trump said he would \u201clove\u201d to see a united Ireland.<\/p>\n

At Monday\u2019s press conference in Cardiff, McDonald said Trump\u2019s intervention showed the US believed reunification was \u201cinevitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this isn\u2019t new. And if there is anything surprising, it\u2019s surprising that there is surprise that a New Yorker, that an American president, would say they see the logic, the good sense, of unity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

UK prime minister Andy Burnham<\/a> has said a Border poll in the North is \u201coff the table\u201d for now, but McDonald said a unity referendum was a \u201cright … [and] we will not tolerate any PM taking that right off the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0SDLP leader says \u2018new Ireland\u2019 is on the way despite Andy Burnham Border poll commentsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The prime minister did not respond publicly as he cancelled all public engagements on Monday following the death of his father, Roy Burnham.<\/p>\n

However, Downing Street told reporters at a briefing in Westminster that Burnham \u201cbelieves strongly in the union\u201d and wanted to focus on the cost of living instead of \u201cconstitutional debates and referendums\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s government partner in the North, the unionist DUP party, criticised O\u2019Neill for attending the meeting in Cardiff and insisted she was not there in her capacity as First Minister.<\/p>\n

Swinney and ap Iorwerth later held a second press conference in the afternoon without Sinn F\u00e9in, to mark the signing of a separate co-operation agreement between the Scottish and Welsh governments seeking further powers and funding from Westminster.<\/p>\n

While ap Iorwerth\u2019s Plaid government is not pursuing a Welsh independence referendum for now, the SNP is pressing Burnham\u2019s UK government for one. Swinney told the Cardiff press conference that he believed Burnham would be \u201cthe last\u201d UK prime minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinn F\u00e9in has warned the British government not to block an Irish Border poll, as it joined the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,7038,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-624773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-irish-politics","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624773","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=624773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}