Trump backs united Ireland again, stirring debate over Northern Ireland’s future

US President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his support for a united Ireland, saying it would make sense to bring together the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Speaking as he attended the Irish Open at his golf course in Doonbeg in western Ireland, Trump said: "It just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and you have Ireland, and it would seem to me that one of the naturals of all time is put them together."

The remarks triggered sharp reactions because the question of Irish unity remains one of the most sensitive political issues in Britain and Ireland. Trump had said on Saturday that Irish unification would be "fantastic", prompting responses from leaders in Ireland, the UK and Northern Ireland. Irish Prime Minister Michel Martin urged politicians to "keep a calm perspective" and said some of the reaction amounted to an overreaction.

The issue goes back to the partition of Ireland a century ago, when Ireland won independence from Britain and became a self-governing Roman Catholic-majority country, while a six-county region in the north, then with a Protestant majority, stayed in the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland remained divided between nationalists, most of them Catholic, who wanted union with the rest of Ireland, and mainly Protestant unionists, who wanted to remain British.