Overview
The Irish Times quoted David O'Sullivan throughout a March 4 article titled "United Ireland Rhetoric Provoking Unionist Backlash Over NI Protocol." The article discusses how people in the Republic, who unite Ireland as inevitable because of Brexit, are provoking a reaction from unions to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
O'Sullivan, a former European Union ambassador to the United States, says mounting public discussion in the South on reunification is "destabilising" the Northern unionist community. It is also "deeply unhelpful" during tensions caused by the de facto trade border on the Irish Sea as a result of the UK's decision to pull out of the EU, he warns.
"There is a huge responsibility also on the South not to overtalk...about Border polls and reunification," O'Sullivan adds. "This is what is deeply destabilising to the unionist community. Because they do see Northern Ireland having somehow a semi-detached status now which is the sort of ante-room to reunification, which is what some people are talking it up as."
The full article can be read at The Irish Times.