Varadkar: United Ireland possible in hard Brexit

A hard Brexit will force communities in the North to consider the possibility of a united Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

At the MacGill Summer School in Donegal, he again said the withdrawal agreement would not be reopened and the backstop must stay.

Asked how a disorderly Brexit could change the relationship between Ireland, the North, and Britain, he said it would “raise very serious questions about the future of Northern Ireland”.

“Certainly in the event of a no-deal, more and more people in Northern Ireland, would question,” he said. “People who might be moderate nationalists, who might be Catholics who were more or less happy with the status quo, would look more towards a United Ireland.

“I think increasingly we are seeing liberal Protestants and liberal Unionists starting to ask the questions as to where they feel more at home. Is it in a nationalist Britain that’s potentially talking about bringing back the death penalty, or is it part of a common European home and part of Ireland? I think one of the things ironically that could really undermine the union is a hard Brexit.”

Mr Varadkar said that, in the event of a hard Brexit, the Government here would have to consider how it could facilitate people from the North in our society.

“If there is a hard Brexit on October 31, if the UK takes Northern Ireland out of the EU against the wishes of the majority of people ... takes away their European citizenship and undermines the Good Friday Agreement ... those questions [of a united Ireland] will arise and we have to be ready for that.”