Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Brexit, the UK Internal Market Bill, the Good Friday Agreement and the future of Irish reunification are on the world stage. Last month, Joe Biden, the incoming President of America, held a campaign event on the Good Friday Agreement, Brexit and the future of Irish reunification. Regardless of his approach to foreign or domestic policy measures or the economy, his keen interest in maintaining the Good Friday Agreement and in Irish reunification is clear and we cannot underscore enough how important his Presidency could be for the cause of Irish unity in a post-Brexit environment.

The ousting of Donald Trump means that Boris Johnson has lost his main geopolitical ally. A supporter of Brexit in the White House has been replaced with an opponent of anything that could undermine the Good Friday Agreement or see a hard border in Ireland. As Trump is consigned to the dustbin of history, it seems likely that the same will go for any prospect of a US-UK free trade deal should Johnson go ahead with his controversial internal market Bill. Any move by the Johnson Administration to undermine the Good Friday Agreement will not be tolerated by the incoming US Administration. Nor should it be tolerated by our Government.

In the Brexit negotiations, Downing Street has stated that significant differences remain between the two sides. Notwithstanding those differences, it is clear that the ground is beginning to shift quickly beneath the feat of the Johnson Administration. Nicola Sturgeon has already stated that, if the Scottish National Party wins a majority in the Scottish election in six months' time, Scotland will hold another independence referendum. As recent polling has shown, there is now majority support for Scottish independence.

Peter Robinson, the former leader of the DUP, has pointed out that an Irish unity referendum is inevitable. Unfortunately, that inevitability seems to have been lost on our Government, especially its so-called republican element in Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil is quick to talk about the idea of a shared island, but it is slow to flesh out what that means and, unfortunately, even slower to do anything about it. The Taoiseach has ruled out a unity referendum for the next five years. Given that the Government seems to stagger from one crisis to another, however, five years is a long time.

The time for a unity referendum is fast approaching. The reunification of this island gets closer day by day. The arrival of Joe Biden into the White House could easily be the last piece of the puzzle in achieving Irish unity. In former President Bill Clinton's view, his big foreign policy achievement was the brokering of the Good Friday Agreement. It seems likely that a big potential foreign policy win for the Biden Administration would be the conclusion of this work, the end of partition on this island and the reunification of our country.

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