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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thedialog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15151803\/20260914T1642-TRUMP-UNITED-IRELAND-HIBERNIANS-1826211-scaled.jpg\" "\\"TRUMP")
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WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump backed Irish unification during a meeting Sept. 12 with Irish Prime Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin in Dublin, a move that drew praise from a U.S. Irish Catholic fraternal organization, but bucked several decades of precedent for the U.S.\u2019s officially neutral position on the question.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland has been part of the United Kingdom since 1921, after the Government of Ireland Act 1920 divided the island into two parts amid the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence. Divisions became hardened after the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty led to Southern Ireland becoming the majority-Catholic Irish Free State, while Northern Ireland, with its unionist Protestant majority and nationalist Catholic minority, remained in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
While the U.S. has long held an officially neutral position on the question of unification, it has supported the Good Friday Agreement \u2014 the historic 1998 accord that the Clinton administration helped broker \u2014 that effectively ended three decades of violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, often referred to as \u201cthe Troubles.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cWell I don\u2019t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I\u2019d love to see it unified,\u201d Trump told reporters in response to a question on the matter, which he acknowledged was sensitive. \u201cI think it would be great, a great feather in everybody\u2019s cap if that happens. It\u2019s going to happen eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump added the U.K. would likely \u201chave something to say about\u201d his comments.<\/p>\n
Part of the Good Friday Agreement stated that Northern Ireland would remain part of the U.K. unless a majority of its people voted otherwise in a referendum. Trump\u2019s comments came shortly after Andy Burnham, the recently installed British prime minister, said there was not enough public support for such a referendum, calling the concept \u201coff the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some Irish and British officials criticized Trump\u2019s comments. But Martin later told reporters that \u201csome of the reaction is an overreaction\u201d and that Trump often \u201ctakes a different sort of perspective on things.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Trump reiterated his position over the course of his visit, including to a golf club he owns in Doonbeg, Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved the people of Ireland<\/a> and 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 all time is put them together \u2026 many people agree,\u201d Trump later told reporters.<\/p>\n