Chris Maccabe: Ex-NIO man says Irish unity possible in 20 years

Chris Maccabe worked in the Northern Ireland Office during the Troubles and the peace process

"If it could be worked, it would be excellent."

That's the verdict of a former top official in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) on Irish unity.

Chris Maccabe joined the NIO in 1971 as one of the first "locals" to enter the government machine in Northern Ireland.

He worked there during the Troubles until 1980, then returned in 1992 and remained throughout the peace process and into the first decade of devolution.

Now the man who helped bring about paramilitary ceasefires in the 1990s and worked on the Good Friday Agreement negotiations has told BBC News NI he believes current British governments would "generally have no objection" to a united Ireland.

"The Good Friday Agreement, however, provides a legal and internationally binding requirement for a majority in Northern Ireland to wish that," he told Good Morning Ulster.

"That was very important. But I don't believe that this British government, or any other British government, would have taken action to prevent that.

"Back in 1972 I saw a top secret document, I was in the secretary of state's office so I saw this from Alec Douglas-Home, former prime minister and current foreign secretary, saying that 'we need to get out of Ireland, I don't want direct rule'."

'10-year target unlikely'

Speaking to the Irish Times Mr Maccabe said unity was coming, but by degrees and he reiterated that to Good Morning Ulster saying Michelle O'Neill's 10-year target was "unlikely".

"If you ask me, within 20 years, there's a likelihood. I'm not saying it couldn't be within 10 years, but I think I'd be foolish and I would just be taking a punt if I said I was certain, or pretty certain it was going happen within 10 years.

"I did see with the entry to the European Union, I felt that the islands were evolving into a new state years ago. A new state of mind, where we could all co-exist in our own way and get our own identities.

"But the break with Europe moved that [Irish unity] out again."

Chris Maccabe said despite his unionist background his identity is Irish

In the 10 years working away from the NIO he was a special assistant to then RUC Chief Constable Sir John Hermon and was director of regimes in the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

He returned to the NIO in 1992 as head of its political affairs division and then went on to be political director.

'Direct honest dialogue'

Mr Maccabe, who sits on the SDLP's New Ireland Commission, also said although he is from a unionist background his upbringing shaped his views on the future of Northern Ireland.

"My identity is Irish," he said.

"That didn't prevent me working happily for the Northern Ireland Office throughout my career, but my identity is Irish. And all the things I'm interested in - music, the arts, sport - seem to be in an Irish connection."

In his role at the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, Mr Maccabe travels the world using the diplomacy skills he learned in Northern Ireland in places like the Basque region of Spain, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Lebanon and Iran.

"I'm working with an international team," he explained. "The former deputy head of the Indian Army, a former minister from the South African post-apartheid government and senior ambassador from Ecuador and a Sri Lankan academic.

"And it's all about dialogue, direct honest dialogue.

"I just had a feeling that it was time to say what I've always believed and what I've written about, what I've spoken about elsewhere and given lectures here, there and everywhere," he added.

You can hear more of Chris Maccabe's interview with the BBC on Good Morning Ulster on BBC Radio Ulster between 06:30 and 09:00 GMT.