UK election exposes Northern Ireland’s deep divisions
BELFAST (Reuters) Political leaders in Northern Ireland are casting next week British election as a referendum on whether voters want to be part of the United Kingdom or neighbouring Ireland.
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a political mural in the Falls Road area of west Belfast, Northern Ireland, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
Britain vote to leave the European Union has raised the stakes in the long and divisive dispute over Northern Ireland status. Concerns that Brexit will lead to a hard border with EU member Ireland have reinvigorated Irish nationalism and its dream of a united Ireland free of British influence.
That in canada goose outlet vancouver turn has unsettled unionists, who back British rule and fear their majority is slipping away in the region of 1.8 million people.
For some canada goose coats people in both communities, the idea of a new, rigid Canada Goose Parka frontier with Ireland stirs painful canada goose deals memories of the British Army watchtowers buy canada goose jacket cheap and checkpoints that peppered the border during decades of sectarian violence that killed thousands.
stakes could not be higher for unionism and for Northern Ireland, outgoing First Minister Arlene Foster said at the canada goose outlet store locations launch of canada goose her buy canada goose jacket Democratic Unionist canada goose outlet toronto factory Party (DUP) election campaign last month.
general election. is inevitably a referendum on Northern Ireland place in the UK, she said, tapping into anxiety among mainly Protestant unionists canada goose clearance sale about becoming a vulnerable minority in a predominantly Catholic united Ireland.
The election be seen in many ways as a barometer on Irish unity Gerry Adams, president of the nationalist Sinn Fein party the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) told a rally last week.
Next Thursday election will see British voters elect 650 lawmakers to the parliament in London. The battle between Prime Minister Theresa May Conservatives and Jeremy Canada Goose Online Corbyn opposition Labour might dominate proceedings nationally but not in Northern Ireland. The Conservatives have no chance of winning a seat in the region and Labour does not contest elections there because of its historic alliance with nationalist party the SDLP.
Instead the vast majority of Northern Irish voters will choose between nationalist and unionist Canada Goose Outlet parties, often represented by posters marked with Irish tricolours or British Union Canada Goose Coats On Sale Jack flags.
The struggle between nationalists and unionists over whether Northern Ireland should unite with Ireland or remain part of the United Kingdom plunged the region into 30 years of violence from the late 1960s which saw 3,600 people killed.
A 1998 peace deal canada goose coats on sale created a power sharing government that has brought Canada Goose Jackets peace and relative prosperity, but has failed to heal the sectarian divide that still defines politics here.
While no one expects a return to the violence of Northern Ireland sectarian tensions intermittingly erupt into rioting.
ELSE MATTERS Sinn Fein won four of Northern Ireland 18 seats in parliament in 2015 with 24.5 percent of the vote and has a chance of winning a maximum of eight on a good day. The DUP won eight seats on 25.7 percent of the vote and also hoping to win up to 10.
While Sinn Fein refuses https://www.canadagoose-coats.ca to take seats in the British parliament, the DUP could have significant influence if May Conservatives have a bad day and need the votes of canada goose replica their traditional allies.
As important canada goose clearance as the seat count for Northern Ireland politics will be the relative strength of the total nationalist and unionist parties vote. Nationalists will be hoping canada goose store to narrow the gap between the 280,000 who voted for their parties at the last Westminster election and the 360,000 who supported unionists.
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past a mural in Lendrick Street, a loyalist area in Belfast, Northern Ireland March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo
just a numbers Canada Goose online game, said Alex Kane, a columnist for Northern Ireland largest unionist newspaper, the Belfast Telegraph. else matters.
A surge in the Irish nationalist vote in a regional poll in March the first election since last June Brexit vote dramatically demonstrated how the referendum changed the political calculus in Northern Ireland.
While the DUP edged Sinn Fein, its advantage shrank from 36,000 to 1,200 votes and from 10 seats to one in the 90 seat assembly. Unionists were stunned to lose their majority in the regional parliament for the first time since Ireland was partitioned in 1921.
For the nationalists, it showed that the day when demographic trends allow them to eclipse unionists may come much sooner than expected and bolstered demands for a referendum on uniting with Ireland allowed under the 1998 peace deal.
(Sinn Fein) have a moment to push the unity which they never thought would come, Kane said.
As in Scotland, it is down to the British government to decide whether canada goose black friday sale to hold such a poll. But as in Scotland, nationalists believe a demonstration of strong support could 2018 canada goose outlet make it politically impossible for the government to refuse.
Polls in the past have shown a strong majority in favour of remaining with Britain, but Brexit has upended many of the basic cheap Canada Goose assumptions of Northern Ireland politics.
we can say the union is safe now we can rest on our laurels and say canadian goose jacket it will always be stable and safe, said Doug Beattie, a candidate for the second largest unionist party, the Ulster Unionists, in the Upper Bann constituency.
WAKE UP CALL
For many unionists the March poll was a wake up call and some voters said they planned to rally behind unionists parties to stop that from happening.
scared people, said Henry McLaughlin, 80, a retired builder who will reluctantly vote for the DUP due to fears that Sinn Fein political Canada Goose sale momentum might force unionists into a united Ireland against their will.