A new slant on Northern Ireland
Wake Up To Reality, Republicans Are Urged
Monday 16th January 2006

East Belfast Ulster Unionist MLA Michael Copeland has called on republicans to wake up to reality and work at creating a united Northern Ireland.

Speaking at a conference in Cork University, he said that it was interesting to see how little successive Dublin regimes had done to reach out the hand of friendship and understanding to their Northern neighbours. "Continued demands for re-unification of the island of Ireland, outside the context of the United Kingdom, fly in the face of public opinion North and South and represent a wish that has more to do with creative imagination than impassionate reality," he said. "Our first duty must be to work at creating a united and pluralist Northern Ireland, thereby allowing our citizens to accept both the responsibilities and benefits of citizenship and allow our children to become the inheritors of the future instead of the prisoners of the past."