Congressman Peter King on how Queen's historic handshake could lead to a United Ireland

Irish America does seem to have more than its fair share of "Armchair Republicans" these days though; still thinking that its possible to "reach the future through the past" Fair play to Rebelforce for putting it up to the "Gaelic Hood" though :)

Rebelforce, ''Fight! I'll hold your coat''. Brilliant!!

Peter King and others in the US who supported the losing IRA Terrorism spoud hot air about a United Ireland which is myth but they don't understand it. The people of Ireland and Northern Ireland are the deciders in this matter, not a foreigner like Peter King. And the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland don't want a United Ireland. No doubt that's still not understandable to King and his ilk.

If people like Sandy Boyer and John McDonagh from Radio Free Eireann think the armed struggle should continue, why don't they leave NYC and move to Derry, Tyrone or Armagh and carry on the War? It's very easy to say "Fight! I'll hold your coat". If you really believe that Sinn Fein is wrong and another 10, 20 or 30 years of War is the answer for northern Ireland, than go over there and put your own arse on the front line. I'll do a fundraiser for you in NJ if you get arrested.

Irish America needs to realize that it doesn't matter what Sinn Fein does or does not do, it is we the people who will decide. There could be united Ireland tomorrow and all that needs to happen is for the people to ask for it. It's sitting there waiting and freely available but the people don't want it, not this generation anyhow, and i simply can't see how Marty shaking hands with the Queen is gonna sway one more voter in that direction.

Warrenpoint, the air must be really thin up there which is why youre coming out with such stupidity. People in the Republic dont want the 6 counties and those in the 6 counties dont want to be part of a united Ireland! See, everyones a winner!

Warrenpoint echoes the sentiments of extremist rightwingers across Europe with his last sentence...as slainte9 reminds us, all EU citizens have rights in Ireland, but not many have reached Warrenpoint, apparently...

England and Ireland are now part of the EU. A United Ireland is an anachronism and moot point. Most of the people who think they are English are really descended from Celtic women, anyway. Let's have a public acknowledgement of deeply shared heritage and interests by both sides and get over it. If they can do it in South Africa, why not the British Isles.

Love how the brit posters on here keep referring to the 7% poll.Of course you are going to get a 7% poll result on re uniting Ireland when the poll is carried out by a pro partition british unionist news paper polling in an all unionist/loyalist enclave in Belfast.I thought 7% of unionists wanting to live in a re united Ireland was very encouraging.Ireland= Irish.Love it or leave it

Rubbish Congressman King - Northern Ireland has a democratic process with, at the moment, only 7% of the electorate in favour of a United Ireland and with only a majority of Traditional Nationalists in favour of change. But then you were always an interfering opportunist and totally lacking in judgment.

Congressman King's comments are worthy of noting and we all owe him an eternal debt of gratitude for the role he played in arranging the peace process. McGuinness acted most appropriately by shaking the queen's hand and such a friendly gesture may lead to a disscussion on Irish Reunification. In order to achieve this cherished goal, the Dáil must try very hard to make Irish unity more attractive to the Ulster Loyalists, most, if not all, of whom are very reluctant to sever their links with London and become closely attached to Dublin. One concession the Dáil should consider is to give the North an equal number of Senate members as the South, another'carrot' might be to have a Reunited Ireland to have closer ties with G,B., whose people all Irish natives have much in common with.

Porickseantuny - that will be why the built a new MI5 base in NI recently to compliment the one in London then? Think you will find Independence for Northern Ireland (the next step from the current devolution / NI Assembly we currently have) is more realistic than a United Ireland

Unspoken is the reality that England (of the UK) is tired of supporting NI and would love to jettison NI to the Republic

Closer co-operation North & South between Northern Ireland and Republic and East-West between UK &Ireland is what will happen. We have just had both the Britis-Irish Assembly and the British-Irish Council meetings which brings together the UK Westminster Parliament, Irish PArliament and the devolved Assemblies/Parliaments of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man Tynwald

Peter King needs to pay attention to polls taken on this island to see that the majority arent interested in a United ireland.