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Actor Jimmy Nesbitt at home in south London PA

Political leaders and actors among those set to take part in United Ireland rally

Cold Feet star Jimmy Nesbitt will deliver the keynote address at the Ireland’s Future event in Dublin.

LAST UPDATE | 1 Oct 2022

POLITICAL LEADERS AND high-profile actors will be among those addressing a rally on Irish unification in Dublin later.

Pro-unity group Ireland’s Future, which has organised the event in the 3Arena, has said thousands of people are expected to attend.

Actors Jimmy Nesbitt and Colm Meaney will be among those participating.

Cold Feet star Nesbitt, who is from a unionist background in Northern Ireland, will deliver the keynote address at the close of the afternoon-long rally.

Ahead of the event, he insisted he was not jumping on any “bandwagon”.

“I think people are imagining that I’m jumping or joining some bandwagon, and I’m certainly not,” he told the Belfast Telegraph.

“I come from a particular background, of which I am particularly proud of, and I don’t refute or shy away from that.”

Nesbitt said there was a need for a public debate on the issue.

“I’m going down to give my perspective because there needs to be change and there needs to be public debate,” he said.

“Things like this can only increase that public debate. For too long this has all been left in the hands of politicians.”

Leaders of five political parties will also take part in the rally.

Tánaiste and leader of the Fine Gael party Leo Varadkar will give an address, as will Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald.

However, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will not attending and is instead at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Martin said that he didn’t regret not attending the event.

“I’ve been involved in Northern Ireland all my political life. This shouldn’t be a browbeating exercise to say ‘you must be there’,” said Martin.

“I wish everybody the best of luck, I have no issue with discussing these issues.”

fianna fail 283 Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaking to reporters at the RDS today Sam Boal Sam Boal

Martin said that people can speculate on the constitutional question and how a united Ireland might be implemented but he believed the three sets of relationships underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement need to be part of a new state.

“What I’ve always said is that whatever happens in the future on this island, the underpinning relationships, the three sets of relationships that underpin the Good Friday Agreement would still have to be part of any new dispensation on the island.

“What do I mean by that? The British Irish relationship will still have to be there. The North-South relationship, but crucially, the relationship between the two traditions, but also new traditions.”

The stated aim of Ireland’s Future is to promote debate and discussion about what a united Ireland would look like. It is campaigning for a referendum on reunification.

The group contends that Brexit has created a fresh impetus for constitutional change, with more people looking at unification as a way to mitigate the consequences of the UK’s departure from the EU.

Unionist parties in Northern Ireland are not involved in Saturday’s event.

The cross-community Alliance Party is also not participating.

The party, which does not take a position on the constitutional question, said while it was prepared to take part in discussions on the issue, it said it would not be appropriate to attend what it described as a “rally to endorse a united Ireland”.

The event is being held days after census figures showed that Catholics now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland for the first time since the partition of the island.

The Census 2021 figures, published last Thursday, show that 45.7% of the region’s population said they were either Catholic or brought up as a Catholic.

The figures for Protestants (and other Christian faiths) was 43.5% while 1.5% were from non-Christian religions.

Northern Ireland had a significant Protestant majority when it was established in 1921 as part of the partition of Ireland. Its founders believed this Protestant majority would secure the future of the newly-created political entity.

Some nationalists hailed the census results as a seminal moment in the history of the region, drawing a direct link between the religious breakdown and public opinion on the potential reunification of Ireland.

However, unionists criticised this interpretation, insisting religious affiliation is a crude metric to measure sentiment on the constitutional question.

The census figures also included data on national identity.

Census 2021 showed that 31.9% said they were “British-only” and 8% deemed themselves “British and Northern Irish”.

The proportion of the population that said they were “Irish-only” was 29.1% while those identifying as “Northern Irish-only” was 19.8%.

Additional reporting by Christina Finn

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    Mute Ronan Stokes
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    Jun 28th 2014, 7:59 AM

    Have a great day all!!

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    Mute Lang
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:18 AM

    Hope everyone has a fan-bloody-tastic day!!

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    Mute Noble Gas
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:00 AM

    I am the only gay in the….no wait. Have fun everyone!

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    Mute Joanne Champ
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:28 AM

    Have a fantastic day everybody xxx

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    Mute Mike Clinton
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:23 AM

    Happy Pride day folks. This is your day and I hope you enjoy it.

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    Mute Fognostical
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:25 AM

    Enjoy yourselves :-) , as the late Larry Grayson always said “What a gay day!”

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    Mute Maria Dardis
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:43 AM

    Good stuff, fair play to all of you! Have a gteat day. M.

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    Mute kingstown
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:22 AM

    Bet David Quinn and Breda O’Brien will be seething in their pews waiting to scribble down their anti-gay hatred or as they call it -their sincerely held beliefs’

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    Mute John Deegan
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:29 AM

    It’s your day today. Shouldn’t you be happy? I suspect you’re not.

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    Mute Noble Gas
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:31 AM

    It’s all a misunderstanding. They think gay people are a great bunch of lads , but only an invisible man told them that gays were against the natural order of things and shouldn’t have the same rights as straight people. No offence intended – it’s the invisible mans fault really.

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    Mute Danny Rigg
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    Jun 28th 2014, 7:52 AM

    I’m already on the train to Dublin. I hate crowds

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    Mute Mad Taoiseach
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    Jun 28th 2014, 8:01 AM

    Let them March. What harm can be done?

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    Mute Samuel Ista
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:18 PM

    This parade is unsuitable for a city centre in daytime due to the outfits that many of the participants wear. Grown men in leather thongs should not be allowed in public. Personally I find it stomach turning.

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    Mute Jane Travers
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:39 AM

    Anyone know the best spot to watch the parade? I’m dying my hair bright pink in honour of the day that’s in it :)

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    Mute Ailbhe O'Nolan
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    Jun 28th 2014, 11:26 AM

    Woah Jane, nice! Good on ya

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    Mute Jane Travers
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    Jun 28th 2014, 11:45 AM

    Any excuse really, Ailbhe. It was blue and green last week ;)

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    Mute George Hogan
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:58 PM

    @jane
    Bet you’ll look stunning Jane! Happy Pride all. Looking forward to a great day. Get involved people – share the love!
    @ Ailbhe – have a great day, even if you can’t make Pride this year! Great news about your grandparents. Older people are great and can really surprise sometimes!

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    Mute Jane Travers
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    Jun 28th 2014, 2:22 PM

    George, what a lovely positive thing to say! I’m not sure you belong on the Journal ;)

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    Mute Cian O Donoghue
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:26 AM

    How many letters are they going to end up with??

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    Mute significantrisk
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:48 AM

    As many as it takes until “people” includes everyone equally.

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    Mute Cian O Donoghue
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    Jun 28th 2014, 11:07 AM

    Maybe just call themselves people then. No need to differentiate from anybody any other way inclined?

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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:58 PM

    Anybody else find it unusual that the parade got routed across Butt Bridge?

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    Mute George Hogan
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    Jun 28th 2014, 1:12 PM

    Eh, no!

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    Mute Joe The Man
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:09 AM

    Looks like fun!!

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    Mute Stevie J
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:39 AM

    What does the Q stand for in LGBTQ?

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    Mute roryboyle
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    Jun 28th 2014, 9:55 AM

    Queer, men that sleep with men but do not consider themselves gay.

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    Mute Patrick Varley
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:00 AM
    3
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    Mute Patrick Varley
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:02 AM

    It stands for “questioning” surely…

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    Mute Patrick Varley
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:05 AM
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    Mute Jane Travers
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    Jun 28th 2014, 10:38 AM

    It’s “questioning” not queer.

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    Mute Stevie J
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:08 PM

    Cheers

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    Mute Taxi Bill
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    Jun 28th 2014, 11:56 AM

    Enjoy the party, because probably in less than 50 years you probably wont be able to have one at all. As radical Islam occupies much of Europe their tolerances of ANYTHING different (cartoons) gets met with a bullet at the back of the head. (lets face it how many pride festivals are there in Saudi for example) Even now we see “women” and children (not men mind you! ) in Ireland covered from head to toe in black and people hardy bat an eyelid. LGBTQ people fought long and hard for the freedoms you have, well enjoy them while you can!!

    Of course that could NEVER happen in Ireland????

    Well add a little section of the parade to pass by the Mosque in Clonskea and see the reaction.

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    Mute Michael Fallon
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:14 PM

    Down with this type of thing

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    Mute Sheldon Sheridan
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    Jun 28th 2014, 2:36 PM

    40,000 in Dublin? PinkNews is saying there’s 20,000 at London’s Pride today. If the figures are correct, I’m thrilled.

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    Mute Mad Taoiseach
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    Jun 28th 2014, 7:19 PM

    12,488 showed up.

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    Mute Samuel Ista
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    Jun 28th 2014, 12:15 PM

    This parade is unsuitable for a city centre in daytime due to pretty nasty and very sexual outfits that many of the males wear. Men in leather thongs or hotpants, it’s disgusting and perverted and doesn’t encourage respect from straight folk like me. These adult men and women obviously have a twisted sense of their place in society and relish the opportunity to parade their perversion. I guess the vast majority of mature, intelligent, and self respecting gay people stay home today and are very embarrassed by the freaks who claim to represent their sexuality.

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