Features

For the first time ever—after local elections in the United Kingdom in May 2026—the devolved national parliaments in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales now all have pro-independence parties as their largest legislative constituent: the Scottish National Party in the Scottish Parliament, Sinn Féin in Stormont in Northern Ireland, and Plaid Cymru in the Welsh Senedd. With independence and re-unification desires growing across the Irish and British islands,

On his recent visit to Ireland, United States President Donald Trump told reporters that he “would love to see (Ireland) unified,” and added, “it may as well happen now.” He continued, “

Leader of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth, Leader of the Scottish National Party John Swinney, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Féin Vice-President and First Minister for the North of Ireland Michelle O’Neill came together to look at how the parties can work constructively with one another in the shared interests of the people they represent.

Then he said that President Trump had called for a United Ireland. I responded, “Wait, what?”  He told me he was in Ireland and that the President had called for a United Ireland while sitting beside the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, at a press conference in Dublin.

A colleague of mine once said something that stayed with me since. When her parents died, and their siblings died, she said ‘we’re moving to the front line’. The battle metaphor was not lost on me.