A REFERENDUM on Irish unity is "realistic" in the next four years, an MEP has said at an event dedicated to the Celtic Alliance.
Organised by the Greens/European Free Alliance parliamentary group, MEPs in Brussels hosted an event in the European Parliament titled: “10 years on: time to end Brexit? Can Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland lead England back into the EU?”
The event featured former SNP Europe spokesperson Dr Philippa Whitford, leading Brexit critic and writer Anthony Barnett, ex-Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans, and Sinn Fein MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan.
During the discussion, Boylan said that Irish unity is “the only solution to the problems of Brexit” and the simplest path for Northern Ireland to rejoin the EU.
Boylan pointed towards the recent announcement from Ireland’s Taoiseach and the cultural movement in which a united Ireland is “the popular thing”.
She later added: “Last week as well, Sinn Fein brought forward legislation as a private members bill to set out the framework for the process because we’re looking at having a – our hope is – to have a referendum in 2030.
“We believe that is actually a realistic timeframe, it gives the preparatory time, and we’ve also called for a citizen’s assembly on the united Ireland.”
The legislation, if enacted, would compel the Irish government to produce a green paper on Irish unity, establish a citizens’ assembly on unification, hand oversight of those initiatives to the Dáil and Seanad, and place a responsibility on the Taoiseach to regularly make progress reports to the Oireachtas parliament.
Boylan had earlier highlighted that more people in England are “realising Brexit isn’t working”, as seen in last week’s polling which showed 61% in Wales thinking Brexit was a mistake and 56% in England.
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She added: “But it was never intended to work for them. Everybody knows Brexit was sold as something that was never going to happen.
"Take back control and all of the very simplistic slogans, but underneath it, it was nothing more than about closing borders and retreating back from the world.”
Going back to the original question of whether Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could lead England back into the EU, Boylan said: “From Sinn Fein’s perspective, that is not the question we’re asking, and I imagine most of the pro-independence movements feel the same, because I don’t think the focus should be coaxing Britain back into the EU, but more about forging our own pathways back to EU membership.
“After the betrayal with the Brexit vote, I think none of the three countries have the responsibility to guide England anywhere, back into the EU fold, with all due respect to them.”
She added: “I think this is a mess that can only be solved by English people themselves and it should not hold us back from where we want to be and the future we want to see for the people who live in our respective countries.”
