Brexit has "changed the rules of the game" regarding the unification of Ireland, the leader of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, Mary Lou Macdonald, said today, and estimated that a referendum on this could be held in Ireland within three years.
"It's not a simple thing. It (Brexit) has changed the rules of the game," MacDonald told the British newspaper The Times, adding that Ireland should "start preparing" for such a referendum, and that "London should also prepare."
Sinn Féin, which won the February 8 election, advocates the unification of the Republic of Ireland and British Northern Ireland, which have been separated since Ireland gained independence in 1921.
That division led to three decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland in the second half of the 20th century, known as the "Riots", between nationalists and republicans on the one hand and Protestant loyalists on the other.
Around 3.500 people were killed in the "Unrest".
The issue of Irish unification has returned to focus thanks to Brexit, which is opposed by the majority of Northern Ireland residents.
Joining Ireland, a member of the EU, turned out to be a seductive idea.
"If you look in the north, the majority are no longer loyalists. The wheel has turned, there's been a generational change. The unification of Ireland is now being talked about across the island like never before in my lifetime," Macdonald said.
According to her, Brexit only "accelerated the story".
Mary Lou MacDonald did much to bring Sinn Féin into the political mainstream, after the party had long been seen as the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
In the recent elections, the party received 24,5 percent of the votes.
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