Government may be giving false hope to Unionists - McLaughlin

The British Government must ask itself if it is giving ‘‘false hope’’ to unionists in Northern Ireland by maintaining its presence there, a leading Sinn Fein figure argued tonight.

In a speech developing his party’s case for a united Ireland to party activists in Cork, Mitchel McLaughlin welcomed Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble’s recent call for a referendum next year on the province’s future in the United Kingdom.