BELFAST

THE QUESTION OF a United Ireland should be decided by asking people in Northern Ireland if they want to rejoin the European Union, according to a think tank.

“The matter of a United Ireland has grown beyond mere Irish unity, it is now a matter of membership of the European Union, which should be the major issue in any poll,” says Jack Duller of the Napoleon Institute, based in Paris. “Northern Ireland is already governed by EU economic rules, which is half the battle, so political unity will have to reflect that, allowing for people to vote themselves back into the Union they were forced out of against their will in 2016. It will also give Unionists the comfort of being able to say they never actually voted for a United Ireland, they voted to re-enter the European Union, Northern Ireland having originally voted against leaving in 2016. Make the issue a European one and much of the Irish unity difficulty vanishes.”