a referendum as soon as possible on unification. just a final thought. i want a referendum.in time. the police and the secret services are very worried about the potential for an outbreak of serious violence in northern ireland. the police have raised their terror alert status to severe and we ve seen at least one very recent attack on a senior police officer. does that affect your thinking and your degree of willingness to intervene in northern ireland? what is important to remember, because you raise a good point, there was universal condemnation of that attack on the police officer. now, that might not have been what would ve happened 25 years ago, but i think that you need to point out here the historical risks that people took to bring about this agreement. and even people who might have a different perspective on history thought that it was important to move forward on a reconciled path. as i ve noted repeatedly, that took place after a referendum question which almost 70%
of aspiration, to bring about this significant achievement. and i think that that cannot be overstated and joe biden wants to be there for obvious and good reason and that is to celebrate what many of us in america believe to be a successful dimension to american foreign policy. right. now, you, likejoe biden, have always put a priority on what is happening in ireland, taking a great interest in it, and you were sitting in the us congress when the good friday agreement was signed. you have a long perspective. ijust wonder how much strain you believe that brexit has put on the mechanics, the basics, of the good friday agreement. well, i think that the framework that was embraced by the prime minister sunak, i think that has gone some way toward getting us through another challenging moment, but one of the problems with brexit is when you have a referendum question and certainly a sovereign
but one of the problems with brexit is, when you have a referendum question and certainly a sovereign people should determine through the ballot box, if they intend to do it that way, their own destiny. i think one of the promises that was offered up in support of brexit by the brexiteers was that somehow all of it would be a panacea and it would be very easy. well, i think that right now people have had a chance to reflect upon that referendum question. referendum questions, as you know, one of the dangers is that they re yes and no questions. they do not generally embrace the nuance of some compromises. the result has been that brexit certainly complicated issues because it fully implemented without the protocol that the former prime ministerjohnson had in fact negotiated, then brexit s conceivably based upon what the european union and the european commission suggested was, it could have returned a hard border on the island between the north and the republic of ireland. and i don t
ok, so you want to see a referendum as soon as possible on unification. just a final thought. i want a referendum.in time. the police and the secret services are very worried about the potential for an outbreak of serious violence in northern ireland. the police have raised their terror alert status to severe and we ve seen at least one very recent attack on a senior police officer. does that affect your thinking and your degree of willingness to intervene in northern ireland? what is important to remember, because you raise a good point, there was universal condemnation of that attack on the police officer. now, that might not have been what would ve happened 25 years ago, but i think that you need to point out here the historical risks that people took to bring about this agreement. and even people who might have a different perspective on history thought that it was important to move forward on a reconciled path. as i ve noted repeatedly, that took place after a referendum
a long period of time. i talked to doug beattie, i introduced him tojoe biden at the congressional luncheon on st patrick s day. and if we have a difference of opinion, that doesn t mean that we can t embrace two traditions living in one community. well, that sounds lovely. that sounds really lovely, congressman, but let me be blunt about it you have an agenda, right? you want to see, in your lifetime, as soon as possible, a united ireland. what i want to see is the acknowledgement in the good friday agreement of what we call the principle of consent, and that means that a designated date that the secretary of state for northern ireland would have the opportunity, if so determined, to call a referendum question. that is not up to me to convince the people who live in the north what path they ought to choose, but it is to point out that i think it s, in fairness, everybody relinquished some part of their aspiration, as i noted earlier, to bring about this historic agreement. just a fi