THE UK Government could face a court challenge to force an Irish unity referendum, according to the deputy leader of Sinn Fein Pearse Doherty.
Under the Belfast Agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State has the authority to call such a referendum once it appears as though a majority of Northern Irish voters would vote in favour.
But the rules as to how that would be judged are not clear, with Doherty telling the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Donegal that the UK Government has accepted that the Northern Ireland Secretary’s decision could be judicially reviewable.
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“If he or she were to trigger a referendum where in his or her view there was no support for united Ireland, then he or she could be taken to court. The opposite is also the case,” he said.
“You could have a situation where through the court you could force the Secretary of State to trigger this.
Doherty (above) added that he believes such a referendum will happen within the next few years, adding: “It isn’t about the romantic notion of four green fields. It’s actually to deal with the nuts and bolts. What does the economy look like? What does the health service look like? How does our social welfare system work in a united Ireland?”
He said that a referendum is inevitable, and spoke of Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey, who was the party’s first councillor elected to Belfast City Council in 1983.
“[Unionists then] used to lock the doors, change the meeting rooms, they used to spray air freshener. Behind him they used to throw oranges at him in meetings,” he said.
“Why do I say that? It is not about bragging. It is again to show people that demographics and change is happening dramatically in the north. So, is there going to be a referendum? Absolutely. Unionism knows that. The other political parties in the state know that.”
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