A New Year begins today, but an old and very familiar problem continues to plague our politics.

In an interview last week, the Sinn Féin leader, Mary Lou McDonald, indicated her party would seek to further advance the entirely legitimate aspiration of Irish unity in the event of securing a place in the next Irish government. When asked if this could involve the establishment of a new minister with responsibility for Irish unity, McDonald signalled that may well be something she would consider as part of a commitment to intensify preparations for unity.

Nothing Mary Lou McDonald said should have been particularly noteworthy. After all, Sinn Féin exists as a political party for the pre-eminent purpose of achieving Irish unity. As the only party to invest the time, energy and personnel to develop a country-wide party with elected figures at every level in the post-partition era, it should surprise no one that, in the event of finally holding office in Dublin, it would seek to make amends for the negligence of its predecessors and introduce a step change approach with regard to planning for constitutional change.

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