Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott, has welcomed an admission from Sinn Fein MLA Martina Anderson that the “republican family” doesn’t really believe a border poll would lead to a United Ireland.  

Speaking about the interview, which was made available on the internet, Mr Elliott said:

 “I welcome the news that Sinn Fein, in the form of Martina Anderson, have come to recognise what many of us have known for a long time - that a border poll would not lead to a United Ireland.

In fact, it is quite clear looking back over the last decade that the zeal which once existed for a United Ireland prompting fantastical suggestions that it could happen by 2016, has diminished and shows no signs of returning.”

In a recent interview Martina Anderson said - “We’re quite relaxed in terms of a border poll right being called right now cause we actually believe that it should. Now, is that going to propel us into a United Ireland? I don’t think anybody within the republican family believes that it will, but I think what it would do is generate that conversation.”

Ms Anderson’s words will undoubtedly cause angst within her party, but they represent an acknowledgement of the reality.

It is an inconvenient truth for Sinn Fein that the people of Northern Ireland are comfortable and confident within the Union. The people of the Republic are more concerned with rebuilding their economy and the difficulties within the Eurozone than they are with the fantasy of re-unification. Indeed the reception which Her Majesty the Queen received in Dublin and Cork last year demonstrated just how out of touch Sinn Fein with mainstream opinion in the Republic.

Attitudes have changed so much in the Republic that there is even an ongoing discussion about the possibility of them rejoining the Commonwealth.

This is the island we now live on and no one, not even Sinn Fein, can deny the truth forever.”