Fine Gael push for Northern Ireland to leave the UK 'will likely only strengthen the resolve of unionists to resist'
Unionists have continued to pour scorn on a political drive towards a border poll by Fine Gael, with one unionist MP saying that it will probably only stiffen unionist resolve.
Both the TUV and the DUP were reacting to plans by Fine Gael to publish a case later on this year for Northern Ireland merging with the Republic of Ireland.
Fine Gael leader Simon Harris (the current Irish foreign minister and and tanaiste, and former taoiseach) said on Sunday that his party “will develop a new blueprint for a unified island for our ard fheis this November”, adding: “Some will suggest this is not the right time. I would strongly refute that.”
Yesterday he restated this, and added that “if and when our island is unified, this has to be a home for everybody, for people of all traditions,” including unionists.
Jon Burrows of the UUP had dismissed the proposed plan for unification as a “constitutional pet project” which “barely registered as a public priority” in the Republic.
Now other unionists have added their voices too.
Jim Allister, the TUV leader and North Antrim MP, told the News Letter: “Fine Gael is dancing to Sinn Fein's tune.
“This is all about preening their republican credentials.
“However, they can publish as many greenprints as they like on Irish unity – it won’t move the dial that matters.
“More likely, it will strengthen unionist resolve to neither be coerced or cajoled out of the United Kingdom!”
Meanwhile Gareth Wilson of the DUP, who was co-opted to represent Newry and Armagh in place of William Irwin in January, told the News Letter: “Simon Harris and Sinn Fein appear locked in a competition to outbid one another on constitutional nationalism.”
However, “the reality is that all the blueprints and policy papers in the world cannot change one fundamental fact: Northern Ireland’s constitutional future rests with the people of Northern Ireland”.
He added: “There is no majority for Irish unity and no evidence that one is emerging.
“Indeed, the nationalist vote today remains around 40% – broadly the same level as it was in 1998.
“The people who will determine Northern Ireland’s future live in Northern Ireland, not Dublin.”
He described the planned blueprint for unification as a “constitutional fantasy” and that “Simon Harris would be better focusing on the challenges facing the Republic rather than trying to outflank Sinn Fein on a united Ireland pipe dream”.
Polling results vary, but the NI Life and Times survey – a long-running regular poll of about 1,200 people jointly run by Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast – asks people about constitutional change.
In 2025, it found that 36% of respondents would vote in favour, while 45% would vote against. In 2024, the figures had been 36% in favour, and 42% against.
Fine Gael holds 38 of the 174 seats in the Dail, making it the third biggest party there – just one seat behind Sinn Fein.
Fine Gael’s roots are in the pro-Treaty side of the Irish Civil War which was willing to accept the existence of Northern Ireland, albeit as a waypoint en route towards a possible future all-island state.
It is often seen as the most conservative-leaning of the Republic’s main political parties, and arguably the least focused on constitutional change.
In 2024, its former leader Leo Varadkar was quoted by the Irish Times as saying that “I think almost all trends point towards unification in the next few decades”.