Trump asked President Connolly if Irish unity would be ‘resolved’ during her lifetime

US president Donald Trump asked President Catherine Connolly if she believed the question of Irish unity would be “resolved” in her lifetime during a meeting at Áras an Uachtaráin last weekend. “He asked me my thoughts on the North, and I referred back to the Good Friday agreement in 1998 and [the issue of] consensus … He asked me specifically, ‘Would it be resolved during my lifetime?’ And I said I hoped it would,” Connolly said on Thursday. The 1998 Belfast Agreement stipulates that Irish unity must be agreed to by a majority of people in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Connolly said that during the 20-minute meeting, she spoke about her role under the Constitution before Trump raised the question of unity. His public remarks on the question caused significant political reaction during his visit to Ireland. READ MOREThe President was speaking on the second day of an official visit to Scotland. Asked about her conversation with Trump on Israel’s actions in Gaza, and whether she described it as a genocide, the President said: “We discussed genocide. We discussed that we will never accept genocide, and we can never accept the normalisation of war, absolutely we discussed it.”Connolly also addressed the prospect of a European Union “security council” raised by the bloc’s leader Ursula von der Leyen this week. “I would have concern that the language in relation to war is intensifying, and the absence of diplomatic measures to stop war and to bring peace is of deep concern to me, and I’d say the majority of people in Ireland,” Connolly said, while stressing she had not read in detail about von der Leyen’s comments. [ Donald Trump’s comments on unity crossed a lineOpens in new window ]On Wednesday evening, Connolly attended a private dinner hosted by Britain’s king Charles. She is attending further engagements in Glasgow and Coatbridge on Thursday.