FROSTY RECEPTION:
‘I conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalization of war and genocide can never be accepted,’ the Irish president said
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he would “love to see” a united Ireland, wading into a politically sensitive subject as he embarked on a two-day Irish visit that blurs the lines between his presidency and personal business interests. After meeting Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin, Trump said reunification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland — split for more than a century — would be “a fantastic thing.” “It’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now,” he told reporters, adding that “the UK will have something to say about it, obviously.”
US President Donald Trump arrives to deliver remarks to US embassy staff at Deerfield Residence in Dublin on Saturday.
The island of Ireland has been split between the Irish republic in the south and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, since 1921. Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland that killed about 3,000 people, a referendum can be held if the British government determines a majority there is likely to favor joining the Republic of Ireland.
