Oireachtas

Taoiseach says he believes there will be a united Ireland in his lifetime

Leo Varadkar said people were ‘reading too much’ into crowds attending Wolfe Tones concert at Electric Picnic

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Mr Varadkar declined to say if he thought there would be a united Ireland in his lifetime. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Mr Varadkar declined to say if he thought there would be a united Ireland in his lifetime. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Olivia Kelleher
Thu Sept 07 2023 - 13:52

The Taoiseach has said he believes there will be a united Ireland in his lifetime. In an interview with RTÉ News at One, Leo Varadkar said that when reunification happens, there would be a million people who are British on the island. The country’s success would be judged by how they and other minorities were treated, he said.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, he declined to say if he thought there would be a united Ireland in his lifetime.

Mr Varadkar also said some people were “reading too much” into the crowds attending a concert by The Wolfe Tones at The Electric Picnic.

“I was at Electric Picnic. I didn’t get a chance to see The Wolfe Tones or The Saw Doctors. You know I probably have a more sanguine view of this than other people. People like ballads and they like songs they can sing along to. I think some people maybe read too much in to the politics of this,” he said.

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“But there is one thing I would say. I believe we are on the path to unification. I believe that there will be a united Ireland in my lifetime. And in that united Ireland there is going to be a minority. Roughly a million people who are British.

“And you judge the success and quality of a country by the wait it treats its minorities. That is something we are going to have to think about.

“Because what is a republican ballad, a nice song to sing, easy words to learn for some people can be deeply offensive to other people.”

The Taoiseach likened the situation to the confederate states of the United States.

“Bear in mind in the southern states for example when people sing about the confederacy and Robert E Lee they think it is an expression of their culture and so on,” he said. “That is what they say. But that is deeply offensive to the minority Black community in America.

“If we are going to unite this country and unite the people of this country a bit like Patrick Kielty says we have to think about how our words and how the songs we sing might be heard by other people.”