Controversial Irish singer Sinead O’Connor took to Facebook on Friday to deny rumors she was contemplating suicide and to rejoice in Thursday’s outcome in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum.
“The post comes hours after Chicago police received a call from police in Ireland, saying that the singer was in the Windy City and threatening suicide,” People magazine reported Friday.
Ms. O’Connor apparently sees in the decision an opening for the reunification of Ireland. “IRELAND IS OFFICIALLY NO LONGER OWNED BY BRITAIN!!!!” she exclaimed. “CONGRATS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD WHO EVER DIED FOR THE CAUSE OF IRISH FREEDOM, AND ALSO TO ALL THOSE INCLUDING MYSELF, WHO HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED MERCILESSLY BY THE IRISH SO CALLED FREE-STATE FOR HAVING DECLARED SUPPORT FOR SINN FÉIN AND THE REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT [sic].”
While voters in most regions of the United Kingdom backed a British exit from the European Union, voters in Northern Ireland and Scotland favored remaining in the EU. The Republic of Ireland is an EU member state and a British exit could have political and economic repercussions related to the border between the Irish state and Northern Ireland.
Northern Irish politicians appear divided on what course to take next. While Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a member of Sinn Fein, called for a “border poll” earlier Friday morning, the Guardian newspaper is reporting that Arlene Foster, the region’s first minister and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, dismissed such a call.
“Martin McGuinness calls periodically for a border poll. If you look at the test for a border poll, that test has not been satisfied and therefore, the secretary of state won’t call a border poll,” Ms. Foster said. “We have nothing to fear. He is being opportunistic and there is no way, that even if there were a border poll — and I don’t want to have one — that it would be in favour [sic] of a united Ireland.”
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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