London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 01, 2025

United Ireland? UK election results ‘reflect dramatic & historic shift in Northern Ireland’

United Ireland? UK election results ‘reflect dramatic & historic shift in Northern Ireland’

Historic election results in Northern Ireland which saw pro-Irish nationalists overtake pro-British unionists for the first time indicates the demographics of the region are moving in favor of a united Ireland, analysts told RT.
With the republican Sinn Féin holding onto all of its seven seats and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) winning two seats – while the hardline unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) lost two – parties that believe in advancing the cause of Irish unity are now in the majority.

Given that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), signed in 1998, includes a provision for a united Ireland by referendum, nationalists will now be making it a more “pressing issue” than ever before, journalist Finian Cunningham told RT.

Cunningham said that the unionist majority in Northern Ireland was always a “legacy of British colonialism” whereby the region was gerrymandered to give the British a mandate to rule over the territory.

The Belfast-born journalist said Thursday’s election results reflect “quite a dramatic and historic shift” but added that it’s been clear for some time that the demographics were always going to move in favor of nationalists.

Cunningham noted that while British PM Boris Johnson is enjoying a crushing defeat over Labour and a decisive new majority in parliament, things are not looking good for him in Scotland or Northern Ireland, which are going in the opposite political direction to England and Wales. Both voted against Brexit by significant majorities in 2016 and are both itching for change.

Cunningham said that the election results also decreased the chances of fresh civil unrest in Northern Ireland. With the DUP weakened and no longer kingmakers in the House of Commons, Johnson will be free to go ahead with his Brexit plan to implement an administrative border in the Irish sea – rather than a hard border on the island of Ireland, which could have sparked nationalist anger and potentially republican violence.

The DUP was vehemently against a sea border, seeing it as a kind of “symbolic separation” from Britain, or a first step on the road to a united Ireland, but now that they have lost their leverage and are out of the picture, their stance isn’t politically relevant, Cunningham said.

There is a risk that some unionists might be antagonized by a sea border and by the nationalist push for unity with the Republic of Ireland, but the likelihood of any serious violence is decreased by the fact that a hard border has been avoided, he said.

Unionists will have no choice now but to respect the democratic mandate of the people of Northern Ireland, which is pointing toward a united Ireland – something which was always going to be “inevitable” given the changing demographics, he said.

Political analyst John Laughland agreed that change is afoot in Northern Ireland and that the DUP has been weakened. Similarly in Scotland, he told RT, independence will become a “substantial issue in the years to come.”

On the issue of a united Ireland, however, he said that “nothing is inevitable in politics” and he does not see it as something that will happen soon.

“The more immediate question will be Scotland, not Northern Ireland,” he said, though he admitted that where Irish unity is concerned, “things have shifted slightly toward that outcome at some point in the future.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×