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Home Page > News > Enda Kenny tells Sinn Fein timing for border poll on United Ireland is all wrong

Enda Kenny tells Sinn Fein timing for border poll on United Ireland is all wrong

Government rejects vote proposal from Gerry Adams

PATRICK COUNIHAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 7:41 AM

Updated Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 9:46 AM

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Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and the leader of Ireland's Government Enda Kenny

Photo by Google Images

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has told Sinn Fein to forget about a border poll on a united Ireland.

The Fine Gael leader has insisted the timing is wrong for any vote on unity.

The Good Friday agreement made provisions for a border poll in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein are pressing for the vote to be called but Kenny has told Gerry Adams in the Irish parliament that now is not the time for such a poll.

Kenny said: “I think we have a lot of work to do both here and up North before people’s mentality and views change about the future of the island.

“It is a matter for the British government to decide whether to agree to have a Border poll now or not.

“Clearly if that were to happen, depending on the result, we would have to consider what would happen here, but I don’t think now is the time to do it.”

Adams raised the border poll issue in the Irish parliament during question time on Tuesday.

The Irish Times reports that Adams told Kenny that DUP Minister Arlene Foster had said her party may support his call for a Border poll under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

Adams said: “A border poll is rhetorically at least one of the main aims of all the main parties.
“All of us have to work with our unionist neighbours to try and bring this about and there is a constitutional obligation on the Government to do so.”

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IrelandNorth | Jan 27, 2013, 06:22 AM EST

48% of NI pop identified as Protestant. 40% as British only. Ergo, 8% of northern Prods consider themselves other than British! 45% identified as Catholic. And 25% and 21% Irish only and Northern Irish only respectively. Therefore, 1% of Catholics consider themselves other than generically Irish. That is, 7% more northern Prods are for unity or secession than are Catholics to remain in an increasingly divergent UK. A credible percentage of southern Prods are republicans, and love their neighbours as themselves, an inconvenient truth which probably causes their northern dissenter brethren to see tham as 'plastic Proddies'.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 27, 2013, 06:21 AM EST

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IrelandNorth | Jan 27, 2013, 05:59 AM EST

Why is An Taoiseach (as a representative democrat) seemingly as afraid of the possible results of participatory democracy plebicite as much as his Ulster/Northern Ireland First Minister comparator? After all, Enda does say it's the Irish government's view that now is not the time rather than the Irish people's view! Is government a service or an imposition? He should stop impeding popular suffrage by prevarication and try a little Irish-American assertive proactivity by setting a date and making the time right. Alas, self-seeking big fish in small ponds are invariably resistant to enlarging the size of the pond they insist on swimming in, in that to do so reduces their relative size.

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seamus60 | Jan 26, 2013, 01:56 PM EST

McDolan. Adams has it all worked out as he explained on the VIEW television programme last week. Even though his figures on the economic argument have too many Billions missing to mention. A fact not lost with some of the Irish press this week. ( though they are for some reason, as usual resigned to not getting milage out of ) He also has a good answer to the migration problem. Lets allow as many immigrants from African states enter in order to AH ?

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seamus60 | Jan 26, 2013, 01:55 PM EST

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seamus60 | Jan 26, 2013, 01:35 PM EST

Adams can`t loose on this one. A smart move by all accounts in respect of how much he and his party have diluted Republicanism.

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FallsRNat | Jan 25, 2013, 08:05 PM EST

gezza's time has come, Price always said that in the event of her death, all her correspondence should be made available, look forward to reading the boston papers on the web

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STEVENSTAR | Jan 25, 2013, 04:55 AM EST

GIVE SEIN FEIN ANOTHER COUPLE OF YEARS AND THEY WONT EVEN BE AROUND ... TOTAL WASTE OF SPACE AND NEVER REALLY ACHIEVED ANYTHING IN IRISH POLITICS...

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FallsRNat | Jan 24, 2013, 05:46 PM EST

I do hope Adams get his vote for a UI. Once the mass exodus of both prods & catholics from Ulster to the UK takes place, the world will see that the great SF plans were nothing more than ruse to free Ireland of the prods. He still doesn't get it, it is about uniting the people in the 32 counties not forcing 1.5m out from the North, it will cause schism & uncertainty throughout the EU. A united ireland on sectarian religious basis, i doubt if even the SI will vote for that.

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6countybrit | Jan 24, 2013, 01:57 PM EST

30 Yrs of Republican voilence (Including the murder of Willie Frazers father wizardofoz) couldn't bring a United Ireland. Northern Protestants will never feel safe in a Gerry Adams model of a United Ireland. Just look at Republican ethnic cleansing in South Fermangh. The Republic of Ireland dropped articles two and three of the Irish constitution which gives them no claim over the 6 counties as part of the GFA. A united Ireland has no appetite with Northern Catholics, mostly middle class who have excelled and embraced Britain more than they have Ireland, backed up by the recent Census results. Those are the facts..take them or leave them. A united Ireland will never happen.LOL.

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cillowen | Jan 23, 2013, 11:48 PM EST

Enda is but a weasel in the mold of the politicians who are and have come before this weasel.

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wizardofoz | Jan 23, 2013, 06:17 PM EST

All reasonably sane people on this island know Ireland will never reach its full potential until it is united and working as one unit. Border polls and talk thereof, at this point in time, blind-side a legitimate political argument. The elephant in the room is the orange order. A few years ago, Feb 2006, a northern sh#t stirrer, Willie Frazer and a band of likeminded idiots (orange men) were given permission to march down O'Connell street and of course they turned up with an abundance of Union-Jacks fluttering in the winter sun. They should have been ignored for the only reason they were there was to make a point. The 'Love Ulster' parade was out to shown northern orange men (and by association, Prods) that the republic did not want a bar of them and it succeeded wonderfully. As they knew it would. Republican Sinn Fein (dummies) swallowed the bait hook-line and sinker and caused a riot the like of which Dublin had not witnessed in generations. Their point made, Frazer and Co retreated victoriously to their northern bogs chanting "the republican bigots hate the Prods." Until this problem is addressed, isolated and defeated, we can never have a meaningful honest debate on what is good for all Ireland. Ball's in your court.

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seanomelb | Jan 23, 2013, 04:58 PM EST

The same old story from Fine Gael "the time is wrong" I've been listenig to this anti Irish rant for 50 years. Kenny like his slobbering Fine Gael party do not have the mettle to fight for a border poll.

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Seanmor | Jan 23, 2013, 03:58 PM EST

As a London-born U.S. citizen, there are few people anywhere on earth who long to see the Irrish nation Reunited as much as I do. But I'm afraid I have to agree with Partitionist Taopiseach Kenny in his opposition to referendun on Reunuification in the Six- Counties at present. However, I don't agrre with the Taoiseach when he states that is is up to a foreign power to decide if such a referendul should be held. I recall hearing British Prime Minister Harold Winson saying on NYC TV in the '70s that "Irish unification was a VALID aspiration". Sadly, the Taoiseach of the independent part of Ireland has done nothing that would make Reunification more attractive to Northern Unionists.

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ancavker | Jan 23, 2013, 03:13 PM EST

I don't understand why Adams is pushing for a border poll. Surely he knows it would be soundly defeated at this time, and then the subject would not come up again for years. Surely he knows this too. Me thinks he has something else up his sleeve. Trouble is I can't foigure out what that might be.

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