Existence of Northern Ireland ‘a source of hurt’, Fianna Fáil TD says

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

A Fianna Fáil TD has said it is a “source of hurt” that Northern Ireland “exists as an entity”.

Cathal Crowe made the remarks during a Dáil session to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The session involved a series of TDs giving statements on the topic while members of Ireland’s Ukrainian community watched from the public gallery.

Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko was in Leinster House for the occasion.

While expressing that Ukraine’s territorial boundaries must be retained, Mr Crowe drew a comparison to the Anglo-Irish Treaty under which Ireland became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire while Northern Ireland opted out of the Irish Free State.

The signing of the agreement formally ended Ireland’s War of Independence, but precipitated the Irish Civil War, which was fought between the provisional government and the anti-treaty IRA.

Fianna Fáil as a political party was forged from the anti-treaty side of the war.

Speaking in the Diál, he said: “Ireland, as a member of the European Union, needs to stand resolutely with the Ukrainian people so that they get peace but, more importantly, that their territorial boundaries are retained.

“Anyone who studies Irish history – we are all experts on it down here, but maybe our Ukrainian friends do not know Irish history so well – will know that Ireland endured 800 years of invading forces and plantations.

“In 1921, it was believed that in 1922 a deal could be brokered, and it would lead to peace and we could still have territory.

“It does not, because there is still a corner of our country occupied. We had the Good Friday Agreement, but it is only a stepping-stone to unification.

“It is a source of hurt for this country even a century later that Northern Ireland exists as an entity.”