In this new Federal Trust video, the former European Commission Representative in Belfast and London, Geoff Martin, predicts that the DUP will soon rejoin the Northern Ireland Executive.
He argues that the recent Windsor Framework has created the conditions for a new economic and political stability in Northern Ireland. This new stability will certainly lead to greater economic and social integration within the island of Ireland. Geoff Martin is doubtful however that it will lead to the political unification of Ireland in the foreseeable future.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
or in the player below:
SPEAKERS:
Geoff Martin OBE, Inaugural head of the European Commission Office in Northern Ireland 1979–1984, and later Head of the European Commission Representation in the UK, 1993–2002.
Brendan Donnelly is the Director of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP.
I studied in Belfast, for an art degree which I could not get in the republic of Ireland and found the northern Irish very friendly .
My mother who came from a Catholic family but landed up with a job as a legal secretary at Stormont which was an amazing feat as Catholics were not given government jobs in the north. I remember the stories she told me and my brother and sister how hard it was to live in Belfast at that time. Luckily she met my Dad who was sent by the Irish Government to sort out the telephone exchanges in the north. He met my mother in stornment and happily for me and my brother and sister we were born in the republic and allowed me to go back to Dublin where I was safe.