QUERY RECEIVED:

“AND WHAT LED TO THE UNIFICATION IN 2024?”

RESPONSE:

Unification was a result of referenda in 2024 that authorised Northern Ireland to withdraw from the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland.

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 had put an end to decades of violent conflict between unionists and republicans in Northern Ireland in the 20th century, and had stipulated that unification of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would occur if supported by democratic majorities in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.

For the first 23 years following the agreement opinion polls consistently showed a lack of popular support within Northern Ireland for breaking away from the United Kingdom, but demographic changes slowly decreased the population of unionists and established a slow trend of increasing support for breaking away.

The withdrawal of Britain from the European Union in 2020, known colloquially as Brexit, is generally considered by historians to be the main catalyst for the rapid acceleration of the Northern Irish breakaway movement. The Northern Ireland Protocol negotiated between the United Kingdom and European Union through Brexit created problems for the administration of cross-border trade between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. This was viewed by many as a betrayal of the border arrangements negotiated in the Good Friday Agreement.

Over the period from 2021 to 2023, support for Britain within Northern Ireland was further eroded by several factors. Economic stagnation caused by Brexit was exacerbated by prolonged periods of austerity under a Conservative government that sought to preserve the existing wealth of the ruling class by reducing funding for essential services to the wider public. Economic mismanagement by the government, growing inequality and rapidly declining standards of living across the United Kingdom quickly shifted public opinion towards Northern Ireland breaking away. The death in 2022 of the United Kingdom’s constitutional monarch of over 70 years further influenced public opinion against British rule, due to the widespread unpopularity of her successor prompting increased anti-monarchist sentiment.

The shift in public opinion increased support for the nationalist Sinn Fein Party, which in the lead-up to 2024 elections began to campaign on an immediate referendum. After a period of two years in which the formation of the Northern Ireland’s devolved legislative Assembly was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Sinn Fein along with other pro-breakaway smaller parties won a majority in the Assembly and immediately initiated a referendum.

The referendum passed with 58% support, and the Republic of Ireland instituted its own referendum later that year which passed with 67% support. In December 2024 Northern Ireland began the process of officially leaving the United Kingdom and reuniting with the Republic of Ireland, a process which was completed in 2026.