Brian Feeney and I were once guest speakers at a united Ireland conference hosted by Sinn Féin in Dublin’s Mansion House in January 2017.

They loved Brian (and who doesn’t, of course), but not me.

I still remember the wall of silence that greeted my comment that there was no aspect of a united Ireland which could safeguard my unionist identity.

Quite a few of them were also really grumpy when I added that Sinn Féin was entirely the wrong vehicle to promote the benefits of Irish unity to a non-SF audience in Northern Ireland.

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When I was leaving afterwards, a member of the audience stopped me: “You’re right about a border poll being off the agenda.”

She then went on to explain that the last thing an Irish government wanted any time soon was having to deal with “hundreds of thousands of pissed off unionists who found themselves on the losing side of a poll”.

I was particularly struck by what she said next.

She argued that Sinn Féin had one goal and one goal only. The problem was that they hadn’t convinced a majority in Northern Ireland that Irish unity was a runner and were nowhere close to convincing a majority in the south.

When I asked her why........

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