Next President should advocate for reunification, Michelle O’Neill says
By David Young, PA
The next President should use the office to advocate for Irish reunification, Michelle O’Neill has said.
The Sinn Féin vice president said the winner of October’s election must use their role as head of state to represent the interests of all Irish citizens, including those living north of the Border.
She said that should extend to playing a “role” in planning for Irish unity.
...I think that there's a constitutional imperative for the Irish government to plan for unity, but I do obviously believe that the president also has a role in all of that
The North's First Minister insisted such advocacy would not undermine what is supposed to be, by convention, a non-political role.
Ms O’Neill’s comments in an interview with the PA news agency come at a time when her party has still to publicly confirm whether it will even run a candidate in the October 24th election.
The party hierarchy is set to formally decide later in September whether to stand a candidate or back a left-wing non-party contender, such as already confirmed independent candidate Catherine Connolly.
On a visit to Belfast last month, Galway TD Ms Connolly said she would use her voice “in every way possible” to attempt to secure Irish unity in her term should she succeed in her bid to become President.
Ms O’Neill would not be drawn on what Sinn Féin intended to do in the election.
“You’re not going to get white smoke from me today, no big scoop – we’ve said we’re going to work our way through it,” she said.
“We’ll weigh up everything in terms of any election, whether or not we’re going to stand a candidate, how it will advance what we’re trying to achieve.”
Asked if not running would leave Sinn Féin facing irrelevancy in the campaign, she said: “Well, that’s the call we have to make. Do we enter? Do we not? Which candidate do we stand? We’ve all those sorts of ponderables to work our way through, and we actively are doing that. We’re having all those conversations internally.
“Regardless if we do or we don’t, we want the Irish presidential election to be about the future of Ireland. We want it to be about unity. We want it to be about Ireland’s place in the world. We want it to be about Irish neutrality. We want it to be about young people. We want it to be about the future. And we also want it to be about where I think the wider public are with the conversation around unity, the fact that more and more people are in that space.
“I think this election allows us the chance to talk a lot more about Irish unity.”
On the issue of any future president taking a proactive stance on unification, Ms O’Neill said: “It is the President of Ireland representing all of the Irish citizens, including us in the north, and that’s the point that I keep coming back to – whoever is occupying the office of Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) needs to ensure that they actually look after the interests of all of the Irish people, including us in the North.
“And I think that, to me, is what I want to be a focus in this presidential debate and all the conversations that we’re going to have from now until the 24th of October.”
Asked if representing the interests of Irish citizens in Northern Ireland should extend to advocating for unity, she added: “I believe so, because I think that there’s a constitutional imperative for the Irish Government to plan for unity, but I do obviously believe that the President also has a role in all of that.”
She added: “I think it would be important that when it comes to having a president in the Áras, that (the President) actually fulfils and upholds Ireland’s place and our place within the Irish nation.”
Under current rules for Presidential elections, Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland can stand as a candidate, but they cannot vote.
Ms O’Neill reiterated her call on the Government to hold a referendum on extending voting rights to people living in the North.
“The presidential election is so important for me,” she said.
“In the Presidential election, the biggest democratic deficit is that I could be a candidate, but I can’t vote for the President. That, to me, is such a weakness and something that needs to be addressed.”
She added: “As an Irish citizen, I’m entitled to vote for my Uachtarán, my president. And the Irish Government needs to fix that anomaly.
“We can’t have another presidential election in seven years’ time and have Irish citizens in the North still denied their opportunity to vote for their President. So, I’m going to continue to hold the Irish Government’s feet to the fire around the fact that they need to change that and fix that.
“They have said previously that they would, but here we go into another Presidential election in the next number of months, and Irish citizens in the North are still being denied that opportunity.”
