Editorial: The pandering to republicans over Northern Ireland by the Irish Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik is no different to the growing nationalism of other Dublin politicians

The leader of the Irish Labour Party has denied that her call for a border poll is motivated by Sinn Fein.

​As we report on page six, Ivana Bacik has said that the Irish government needs to make progress on outlining a timeline for a plebiscite by the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which is a not much more than two years away – in Easter 2028.

While Ms Bacik has denied that her comments party at Labour’s national conference on Saturday was a bid to woo Sinn Fein voters, unionists do need to be realistic as to what is happening.

The entirety of the Irish political establishment is trying both to pander to, and to whip up, the growing Irish republican sentiment south of the border.

This is appalling, and a breach of the spirit of the Belfast Agreement, but is only likely to get worse.

After all, Ireland has just had a republican, partisan president in Michael D Higgins for its supposedly apolitical head of state – a man who never tired of giving his interfering nationalist view on Northern Ireland, yet who then praised himself for his reconciliatory approach. Now it has the Sinn Fein-backed Catherine Connolly as president, who is also keen to see an all Ireland.

And this hardly differs from the other main parties. After all, the former Fine Gael prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has installed himself as chief advocate for ending the UK. His colleague Simon Coveney was similarly partisan and interfering on NI.

The best leaders have in fact, ironically, come from the traditionally republican mainstream party, Fianna Fail. Above all, Micheal Martin has tried to continue to challenge Sinn Fein on its appalling legacy and its ongoing sectarianism. But others in Mr Martin’s party want to see a more overtly ‘green’ constitutional policy.

No wonder unionists did not want to pay respects at Ms Connolly’s inauguration.