Comment

John Walsh: DUP and Sinn Féin need to shift positions on any border poll

The unionist community need to accept that a united Ireland is a legitimate aspiration, but Sinn Féin needs to stop putting a border poll front and centre of its agenda

There is likely to be a border poll, but over a ten-year time frame – and there has to be extensive dialogue before it can take place. Picture: Getty

When the Good Friday agreement was designed, it was on the basis that both Britain and Ireland were members of the European Union. The border was made invisible through common membership of the EU customs union and single market.

When Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, it upended the institutional architecture underpinning the agreement. There are question marks about the future viability of the accord amid the ongoing suspension of Stormont and the ...