Bertie: “will there be a united Ireland?”

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The Today programme asked Mr Ahern [mp3] the big one this morning: “Prime Minister, do you think there will be a united Ireland in your lifetime?”. Leaving aside the fact that they failed to address him as Taoiseach, here is his unedited answer…

I, I hope we, we can move to a situation where the co-operation, ahh, on this island, on things that make sense to co-operate on, like we’re doing at the moment on tourism, on matters of trade, on things like electricity, and, on health issues, we should continue to try to build up our confidence over that period of time. And then, ahh, in another time, people might, on the basis of consent, see that a united Ireland is the right thing to do. It’s not going to happen in the short term and I don’t think it’ll happen in my political lifetime.

The interview is available as part of the BBC’s podcasting trials.

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