Taoiseach Micheál Martin has made it pretty clear he has no patience for the ongoing chatter about a Border poll, saying the subject makes him go “bananas”.
Speaking to Fianna Fáil colleagues, Martin urged the party to stop fixating on the constitutional question and instead get behind the Shared Island initiative, which he sees as the more practical and productive path forward for relations between north and south.
The Taoiseach has long been cautious about rushing toward a unity referendum, and his latest comments show that frustration is still very much alive. For Martin, the constant drumbeat around a Border poll distracts from real, tangible work that can be done right now to bring communities on both sides of the border closer together.
The Shared Island initiative, which was launched under his previous time leading the country, is designed to boost cross-border cooperation on things like infrastructure, education, healthcare and economic development. Martin believes this kind of ground-level work does far more for everyday people than political debates about a poll that remains deeply divisive.
His comments come at a time when the conversation around Irish unity has been picking up pace, driven by demographic shifts in Northern Ireland and a post-Brexit landscape that has changed how many people there think about their constitutional future. Sinn Féin has been pushing hard on the issue, and even within some quarters of Fianna Fáil there are voices keen to engage more openly with the unity question.
But Martin is not one of them, at least not in the way that involves ramping up Border poll rhetoric. His view is that unity, if it is to happen, needs to be built carefully and with genuine buy-in from unionist and nationalist communities alike. Charging ahead with a referendum before that groundwork is done, in his view, risks doing more harm than good.
The Shared Island unit, based in the Department of the Taoiseach, has been funding research and cross-border projects since it was set up. Supporters of the initiative argue it is quietly doing important work without the heat and division that a Border poll campaign would generate.
Critics, however, say it is a way of kicking the unity question down the road and that the political conditions may not always be as favourable as they are now. They point to changing attitudes in the north and argue that a citizens assembly or at least a more open national conversation about unity is long overdue.
Martin is clearly not in that camp. His “bananas” remark, while colourful, reflects a considered political position he has held for years. He wants Fianna Fáil to be seen as a party of stability and practical delivery, not one whipping up constitutional debates that could inflame tensions and alienate potential partners in the north.
Whether his party colleagues will fully fall into line is another question. The unity debate is not going away, and with Sinn Féin continuing to make it a centrepiece of their political identity, other parties are under pressure to define where they stand more clearly.
For now though, the Taoiseach has said his piece. Stop talking about the Border poll, get behind Shared Island, and let the work speak for itself.