© Associated Press Photo/Tim IrelandThe flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, top, and the flag of England fly above a souvenir stand on Westminster Bridge following yesterday's EU referendum result, London, Saturday, June 25, 2016. Britain voted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign.
Renewed calls for Irish unity are receiving mass public approval as the UK is in danger of losing more than one province in the wake of their decision to abandon Europe.
The residents of Northern Ireland are lining the streets of Belfast to receive Irish passports and Catholic nationalists once relegated to the backbench of public opinion are now proudly calling for a united Ireland in the wake of the ill-fated Brexit vote that may see a complete unravelling of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland, like neighboring Scotland, voted to stay in the European Union with 56 percent in favor despite Britain as a whole voting in favor of leaving the political-economic bloc.
The chasm in national vision between the various parts of the United Kingdom are beginning to push even Protestant unionists who have long stood against Irish reunification to call for an exit from Britain's reach.
"I was always a 'small u' unionist. But I could not in all good conscience say I could vote for Northern Ireland to remain a member of the United Kingdom," said Christopher Woodhouse, a 25-year-old from Belfast. "I am softening to the idea of Irish unity, purely on economic issues. I am a European."
For years, a vast majority of Northern Ireland's residents - many Catholics and virtually all Protestants - favored remaining part of the United Kingdom citing the economic stability compared to joining hands with their southern kin.
The fallout from Britain's June 23 vote trounced that tried-and-true status quo calculation sending world markets reeling and erasing trillions of dollars in British wealth overnight while many wonder just what the next shoe to drop will be.
"People are saying for the first time in their life they would vote for united Ireland, having never contemplated it before," said Steven Agnew, the leader of Northern Ireland's Green Party. The decision by many of Northern Ireland's residents to embrace unification is not based on ethnic pride, but rather on the economic calamity that looks to punish the UK's most impoverished province more than any other.
Northern Ireland's largest financial institution, Ulster Bank, is already warning that the uncertainty surrounding the terms of Brexit are hindering foreign direct investment into Northern Ireland and look likely to trigger a recession and a surge in unemployment.
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