May 9, 2022: Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald (R) and deputy leader Michelle O'Neill (L) hold a press conference following a meeting with NI Secretary of State Brandon Lewis at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein were returned as Northern Ireland's largest party following last week's NI Assembly elections with Michelle O'Neill now First Minister-elect if a power-sharing government can be formed with the DUP. Getty Images

Piers Morgan is a master of adding his two cents and then some to any number of news happenings – just ask Meghan Markle for starters – and now he’s waded into Northern Irish politics after the outcome of last week’s historic election which saw Sinn Féin as the top vote-getter for the first time. 

Morgan, the former CNN star and host of his own new interview show on Fox Nation, thinks the end is nigh for the United Kingdom now that Sinn Féin is the largest party in the North.  

On Sunday, Piers tweeted to his nearly eight million followers, “I don’t think people fully understand the consequences of Sinn Féin’s success.

"We’re witnessing the impending and I think now inevitable collapse of the United Kingdom.”  

More than 29,000 people have liked his tweet, but Northern Ireland unionist politician Arlene Foster, former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, wasn’t one of them.

“I have to say if people are going to comment on NI they should at least have the basics @piersmorgan. Unionism is still the largest designation and nationalism lost more seats,” she tweeted in reply.

Arlene Foster, former First Minister of Northern Ireland, pictured here in July 2020. (RollingNews.ie)

Piers being Piers, he wasn’t about to let Foster have the last word. “You sound like Donald Trump,” he tweeted, and then fired away with another shot: “Here’s a basic fact: Sinn Féin won 27 seats to become the largest party in NI & will now be entitled to nominate a first minister – a first for a nationalist party. Hope that’s basic enough for you @ArleneFosterUK.”

Well, Foster had her own basics to share in response: “Here’s 2 more basic facts – there won’t be a First Minister without power sharing and the FM can’t act without the consent of the deputy First Minister,” she tweeted.

Piers moved on to other subjects after that. Maybe he should invite Foster as a guest on his show for a lively debate.

His Irish bona fides are solid. Piers’ father Vincent Eamonn O’Meara was a dentist originally from Co Galway who died when he was only 11 months old; the Morgan surname comes from his stepfather. In 2019, he received an award from the Irish Post newspaper in London.

"I had my DNA test done last year," he said. "Zero English and almost exclusively Irish. So whether you like it or not, I am one of you." 

*This column first appeared in the May 11 edition of the weekly Irish Voice newspaper, sister publication to IrishCentral.

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