'˜We'll see unification of Ireland in my life-time' - George Galloway

The political giant told the ‘Journal’ during his visit to Derry this week that Brexit had proved an “important driver towards unification”.

“It’s kind of a no-brainer if the majority of people in the north want to remain in the EU, they have a ready-made door through which they can pass and achieve that objective. So, in so far that Brexit can be Britain’s difficulty, it can be Ireland’s opportunity, and I hope that people will do that.”

Mr Galloway was a guest at a packed discussion in Pilot’s Row on Wednesday night hosted by Sinn Fein Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney as part of the Gasyard Feile.

Mr Galloway said that as a disciple of the late Tony Benn, he himself was against the European Union and believed it was “anti-democratic and unreformable,” but added:

“Ireland should never have been partitioned in the first place and this would seem an obvious place to start with that demolition of that partition, and I have a feeling it will.

“I’m quite good at predictions, I predicted Brexit, I predicted Trump, and I predict this: if I have a normal life-span then I will see a united Ireland. I believe that.”

Speaking about the Tory-DUP pact, he claimed: “It’s a grotesque coalition I must say.

“Of course, I know that many decent people feel they have to vote for the DUP. I regret that they do, but I know that they do because I have met with them. Since the departure of its leader the late Ian Paisley it’s been all downhill in terms of character.”

He added that he believed Sinn Fein had been left with no option but to pull the plug at Stormont, citing the renewable heating incentive scheme revelations and equality issues.

He claimed the DUP were “keeping in power a party which is responsible for misery and suffering of working class people of all kinds, and in all parts, of the United Kingdom, including the people that vote for them”.

“Ten years of austerity has savagely reduced the quality of life and standard of life of workers in every part of the country.”

Regarding the coalition government, he claimed that people in Britain were “finding the whole thing increasingly repugnant”, adding that the Good Friday Agreement was also being “brazenly and openly breached” by the British government in going into government with the DUP.

“If the British government doesn’t want people so to conclude, well it better tell the DUP- its coalition partners - to get back to business in the Assembly. And the only way to get back to business is by accepting the equality of all the people here in the six counties,” he said.