US President Donald Trump has said he would "love" to see a united Ireland and that it will happen eventually.
"Well, I don't want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I'd love to see it unified," Trump told reporters after a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin.
"The way I look at it, it's going to happen eventually ... I think it would be a fantastic thing.
"Now the UK will have something to say about it ... but I think it would be a great thing."
Trump made the statement after he held talks on Saturday in Dublin with his Irish counterpart Catherine Connolly.
It comes during a weekend visit that's more about a major golf tournament hosted on a course he owns on the country's Atlantic coast. He also met with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin.
He will address the U.S. and Irish business leaders at the U.S. ambassador's official residence in Dublin before traveling to his oceanfront golf club in Doonbeg, on the other side of the country, to watch the Irish Open.
Connolly is a left-wing politician who was among those who protested when Trump visited Ireland in 2019 during his first term in office. She is now Ireland's elected, largely ceremonial head of state. A supporter of the Palestinian cause, she in the past has criticized US policy in the Middle East and called Trump a "bully."
The Irish president met Trump at the end of a red carpet at her official residence. They shook hands and chatted before going inside. He emerged alone a few minutes later and saluted as an Irish Defence Forces band played the US national anthem and inspected an Irish Army honor guard.
Connolly then joined Trump outdoors to introduce the U.S. and Irish delegations before the leaders went back inside for their closed-door talks.Trump's visit is the latest example of blending his official duties and personal interests.
Police put up a cordon around Dublin's 1,750-acre (700-hectare) Phoenix Park, where he met Connolly at her residence, Áras an Uachtaráin. He will meet Martin, the taoiseach, at the government's Farmleigh state guesthouse and stop by Deerfield, the ambassador's residence.
Some residents expressed annoyance over the disruption.
"He's causing mayhem in this city because he wants to go down to Doonbeg and play golf," said taxi driver Christopher Fox, emphatically not a fan of Trump. "The world's in turmoil and this fella's down playing golf."
Trump's son, Eric, says the family is loved in Ireland, despite protests planned over his father's visit.
Speaking to Irish national broadcaster RTE on Friday in Doonbeg, home to the Trump International golf resort, Eric Trump said the course is the largest employer in the area.
"Go down to Morrissey's tavern in Doonbeg and hear from a real Irish person as to whether or not they like President Trump and the Trump family, go have them attest to what we've done for the country and what we've invested in the country and the love and respect that our family has always shown them," he said.
Trump flew overnight to Ireland after observing the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The Republican president spent the two nights before Friday's solemn observance giving lengthy speeches at a political pep rally in Dallas.
Martin invited Trump to visit Ireland when they met at the White House on St. Patrick's Day this year, and Ireland's political leaders will likely see the visit as a chance to maintain warm trans-Atlantic relations despite differences over trade and foreign policy, issues the White House said Trump wants to discuss.
Martin said before Trump arrived that he looked forward to discussing issues of "mutual interest" and "reaffirming the strong economic, cultural and people-to-people ties between Ireland and the United States."
