{"text":[[{"start":7.52,"text":"US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would “love to see” a united Ireland and that reunification was both inevitable and would be “a very cool thing” in remarks that angered Unionist parties."}],[{"start":19.28,"text":"“I’d love to see it unified, I think it’d be great,” Trump told reporters after talks with Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland. “It’s going to happen eventually.”"}],[{"start":34.12,"text":"Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks broke with decades of careful diplomacy by the US, which played a pivotal role in bringing both sides together to agree the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, ending the Troubles."}],[{"start":43.76,"text":"The three-decade-long conflict involved republican paramilitaries fighting to reunite the island of Ireland, which was partitioned in 1921. They were opposed by pro-UK loyalist paramilitaries and the UK security forces."}],[{"start":58.12,"text":"Nationalist party Sinn Féin, which is committed to Irish reunification and seeks a referendum on the issue this decade, “acknowledged” Trump’s comments."}],[{"start":66.24,"text":"“The conversation on Irish unity has shifted,” Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said. “We have secured peace, and as we approach the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement our national journey is now reunification, which is organised, planned and a peaceful transition.”"}],[{"start":84.04,"text":"The reunification drive has been gathering pace in recent years but under the terms of the peace deal, only the UK can call a referendum on the subject once it appears that a majority of the population in Northern Ireland would be in favour. Polls so far show that only a minority support reunification."}],[{"start":101.72,"text":"Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly said she had discussed Northern Ireland with Trump in brief talks and highlighted “the long and challenging road to peace”."}],[{"start":110.2,"text":"The UK government said Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s view on the Good Friday Agreement remained unchanged."}],[{"start":116.88,"text":"Burnham stirred controversy on a visit to Belfast last month when he said a referendum was “off the table”. Officials said he meant the issue was not on the agenda for his talks that day."}],[{"start":126.68,"text":"Trump’s comments angered Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-UK political group, the Democratic Unionist Party, which said Ireland’s constitutional future “will be decided by the people of Northern Ireland, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington”."}],[{"start":141.96,"text":"DUP leader Gavin Robinson wrote on X: “As unionists, we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish Republic.”"}],[{"start":151.72,"text":"Former Irish ambassador to the US Daniel Mulhall described Trump’s comments as “extraordinary”."}],[{"start":158.12,"text":"The US president, who was set to attend the Irish Open golf tournament at his club in the south-west village of Doonbeg later on Saturday, said Irish reunification would be “a great feather in everyone’s cap . . . I think it would be a fantastic thing. Now the UK will have something to say about it obviously. But I think it’d be a great thing. How can it be bad?”"}],[{"start":178.32,"text":"Gregory Campbell, a DUP MP, said US help was “best based on bringing people in Northern Ireland together, not introducing a topic guaranteed to divide further”."}],[{"start":188.04,"text":"Robbie Butler of the smaller Ulster Unionist Party said: “Presidents are entitled to their views. They don’t get a vote in Northern Ireland.”"}],[{"start":195.48,"text":"Claire Hanna, leader of the small nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, which backs reunification and the creation of a “new Ireland”, said Trump’s intervention “underlines as clearly as anything that change is happening”."}],[{"start":209.12,"text":"Trump later tried to make light of his comments, saying in a speech at the US ambassador’s residence in Dublin: “They asked me a question ‘what do you think about unification’. I gave a nice answer, I think . . . I said it would be a very cool thing.”"}],[{"start":221.64,"text":"But he added: “It’s one of those questions that no matter what you say . . . there’s no good answer.”"}],[{"start":231.56,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789262600_9648.mp3"}