TRADE unions welcomed Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams’s outreach to unionists yesterday — but challenged him to clarify his vision of a united Ireland.

Speaking at a Sinn Fein conference on the constitutional question in Belfast on Saturday, Mr Adams said a vote for unification could come in a “few short years” if unionist opposition to a new Ireland was “unlocked.”

The party president admitted that the recent UK general election, in which the DUP and Sinn Fein took all but one of the 18 seats in Northern Ireland, showed a “deep political schism.”

But Mr Adams called for engagement with unionist concerns to win them over to reunification.

“We need a new approach, one which unlocks unionist opposition to a new Ireland by reminding them of their historic place here and of the positive contribution they have made to society on this island,” he said.

He said 400 years of Protestant presence was “woven into the narrative that constitutes the history of Ireland,” and that although this narrative has been “troubled at times” it’s also been “dynamic.”

The co-director of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’s anti-sectarian unit Trademark, Mel Corry said Sinn Fein had highlighted the “ills of partition” for years without spelling out its “vision of what a united Ireland might look like for British unionists.”

He warned: “If they are serious about a new narrative that should be welcomed but recent election results point to an increasingly polarised community.

“Mr Adams’s remarks will gain little traction among the DUP, who are milking their new status for all its worth, or indeed liberal unionists.”