A NEW ADVERTISEMENT campaign calling for a referendum on Irish unity organised by the Friends of Sinn Féin will be placed in several major US newspapers today. 

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post will carry half-page ads under the title “A United Ireland – Let the people have their say.”

The ad will also appear full-page in the Irish Voice and the Irish Echo. 

“The Good Friday Agreement provides for a referendum on Irish Unity. It is for the people to determine their future,” the ad states, appealing to the Irish government to “promote and plan for unity.

“As Americans, we call upon our government and public representatives to urge the British government to set the date for the Unity Referendum.”

The ad campaign was organised by Friends of Sinn Féin, a US-based organisation endorsed by the party, and is supported by a number of Irish-American groups including the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish American Unity Conference and the James Connolly Irish-American Labor Coalition.

“With your support we can be the first generation of Americans to visit a free and united Ireland,” it states.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald welcomed the move by Irish-American groups to call for a referendum.

“Irish America has been central to the signing and safeguarding of the Good Friday Agreement,” she said, noting that “the central principle of the Agreement is the right of the people to determine their constitutional future. A unity referendum is the measure of that right and an essential commitment of the Agreement.”

Washington 

The ad comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin prepares to hold a bilateral virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden on St Patrick’s Day – the first meeting of the two leaders since Biden’s inauguration in January. 

Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will today address a virtual meeting of the Friends of the Caucus on Capitol Hill alongside EU Commissioner Mario Sefcovic. 

The two men will brief members of Congress in Washington over last week’s decision by the UK government to unilaterally change the way the Northern Ireland Protocol is being implemented.

Coveney last week expressed frustration at the UK’s decision to unilaterally extend a grace period that was given to supermarkets in Britain exporting agri-foods to Northern Ireland.

Coveney has said the European Union member states now see that “they are negotiating with a partner they simply can’t trust” and this is why legal options are now being considered.