For years, the rise and rise of the Scottish Nationalist Party has been at least on the edges of the debate on Irish unity.
An independent Scotland would strengthen the position of those advocating unity, it was more than suggested.
When the SNP swept to victory in the 2021 Assembly elections, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “The result is significant.”
“I think it just echoes again that politics right across Britain and indeed in Ireland is undergoing a period of fundamental change,” Ms McDonald said.
With the SNP’s Westminster collapse and Labour sweeping seats across the country, a widely held view is Scottish independence is off the table, maybe for a generation.
Two caveats are that the SNP is still firmly in control of the devolved assembly at Holyrood and the vote for Labour might have been as much to do with giving a helping hand in the mauling of the Conservatives.
There is a view that the momentum towards independence in Scotland stirred the debate on relationships and sovereignty on the islands.
The next general election result in the south and maybe a much more inclusive and quieter conversation here are of far greater importance, one observer argued.
Niall Murphy, of Ireland’s Future, does not believe the SNP’s election meltdown and the overall “changed” climate in Britain is related “or comparable to the realities that now face Ireland”.
“The election results in Scotland represent the expressed will of the Scottish people, and their mandate is to be respected,” Mr Murphy said.
“Similarly, the express mandate of the people of our electoral jurisdiction also requires to be respected.”
He argued there is a mandate for a border poll with more MPs returned whose parties “stood on manifestos committed to Irish reunification”.
