the island of ireland topped the poll for the first time in the centuries since ireland was partitioned. to discuss all that and more, in the studio are brian 0 connell, former bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, eunice goes, portuguese journalist and university lecturer and newly created british citizen, and jeffrey kofman, who s been both a war correspondent and news anchor in canada and the united states. good to have you back with us. jeffrey, let s start with nato expansion. sweden and finland. finland s president sauli niinisto said on friday he s going to ring president putin and tell him that the situation has changed. how big a change is this, do you think? you know, i think if you d looked ten years ago and said this, it was impossible. this was a religion in these two countries, neutrality. the concept of.of being western, but not not glued at the hip or fused at the hip. and i think that this is really affirmation that, while ukraine is losing in the sense
and, you know, that covers everything from basically the end of the second world war up to where we are now, and it s covered generations. and it will be a huge cultural shift as well. ten seconds. well, growing up in canada, i can say that i think- in canada, it sjust not talked about. i i think everyone has enough respect for elizabeth that i no one will talk about it when she s gone. i i think it s an open question. jeffrey kofman, brian o connor, eunice goes, thank you all very much. thank you. bye bye.
being the deadlock. because, as jeff was saying, the demographics is changing and you have an increasing number of people who no longer identify either as unionists or nationalists. just before we move on, i should just say when i mentioned the gordian knot, i was not suggesting a return to violence i was simply suggesting an island of ireland in the european union, a uk wholly out of the european union. that looks like the only simple solution. it s not a simple solution, though. that s the problem. it is. when you come to have a referendum in northern ireland and in the republic of ireland as well, you come into the whole thing of, well, are you prepared to pay for it? 0k, we can change it or we won t. it s going to cost a lot of money. like the reunification of germany all those years ago. it is, on steroids, it really is. but eunice is right because if you look at the election results from the most recent stormont elections there last week,
that s the problem. it is. when you come to have a referendum in northern ireland and in the republic of ireland as well, you come into the whole thing of, well, are you prepared to pay for it? 0k, we can change the flat or we won t. it s going to cost a lot of money. it is, on steroids. it really is. but eunice is right, because if you look at the election results from the most recent stormont elections there last week, you ll see that the alliance party, which is the cross community non sectarian party, is growing fast. and within that, there s a lot of younger people who weren t around during the troubles that we were alluding to. let s end on a slightly happier note, in a sense, and that is the queen s speech. ijust wonder what you all made of. you all made of prince charles s audition piece for becoming head of state. how did he do? eunice?
hello and welcome to the programme that brings together the foreign journalists who write, blog and broadcast to audiences back home from the dateline london. it s been a convention busting week, this one a queen s speech delivered for the first time in 70 years by a royal other than the queen. two countries strictly neutral for 80 years, preparing to take sides. in northern ireland, a party in favour of reuniting the island of ireland topped the poll for the first time in the centuries since ireland was partitioned. to discuss all that and more, in the studio are brian o connell, former bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, eunice goes, portuguesejournalist and university lecturer and newly created british citizen, and jeffrey kofman, who s been both a war correspondent and news anchor in canada and the united states. good to have you back with us. jeffrey, let s start