'Unprecedented' UK shift emerges day into Trump's Ireland visit: report

An “unprecedented” summit is scheduled to discuss a deal designed to “break-up the United Kingdom,” The Telegraph exclusively reported Sunday, a major development that comes just one day after President Donald Trump landed in Ireland.

Leaders of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are expected to meet Monday in Wales’ capital to discuss launching referendums to declare their independence from the United Kingdom, according to the report.

Just two days before The Telegraph’s report, Trump made the controversial remark that it would be “fantastic” if Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland unified, The New York Times reported, breaking with “decades of U.S. neutrality on an issue rooted in a long history of violence.”

Centuries of British rule brought land seizures, famine and violent suppression of Irish independence movements, culminating in the island's partition in 1921. Decades of sectarian violence known as the “Troubles" followed, ending with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established that any change to Northern Ireland's status would require a referendum.

“Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, there is a potential pathway for an Irish reunification poll to be held,” The Telegraph’s report reads.

“It states that a referendum should be staged if it 'appears likely' that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote to leave the UK... All three parties will agree that their nations should be in the EU, Scotland and Wales as new members and Northern Ireland as part of the Republic of Ireland.”