The DUP's Brexit spokesperson Sammy Wilson has accused the Irish Government of pushing for the Good Friday Agreement to be torn up.

Is Mr Wilson living in a parallel universe? Because it is the Tories he is so keen to support with their preparations for a no-deal Brexit who have shown they care less for the agreement on which peace in Northern Ireland has been built over the past 21 years.

Mr Wilson’s comments followed a speech given by the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the annual MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, during which he said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, many people in the north would come to question the union and look towards a united Ireland.

"I think increasingly you'll see liberal protestants, liberal unionists starting to ask the question as to where they feel more at home,” said Mr Varadkar.

"Is it in a nationalist Britain, that you know is talking about potentially bringing back the death penalty and things like that, or is it part of a common European homeland and part of Ireland?” he added.

Contrary to Mr Wilson’s view, the comments were not provocative nor damaging to the Belfast Agreement, rather they were a realistic and truthful assertion of the situation that we are in with the unrelenting hardline stance on Brexit that Boris Johnson has adopted since becoming Prime Minister.

Surely this is obvious to most people, not just nationalists, in Northern Ireland?

In my view, Mr Varadkar communicated what the majority of people are already thinking.

After all Northern Ireland, like Scotland, voted to remain in the EU and discussion around the likelihood of a second referendum on Scottish independence, should the UK crash out of Europe, is nothing new.

So why does Mr Wilson think Northern Ireland is any different?

It is people like Mr Johnson and Mr Wilson, not the Irish government, who are the ones being unrealistic and frankly deluded if they believe Brexit, and particularly this hardline approach that is now so apparent, will not have ramifications for the union.

Regardless of how much Mr Johnson styles himself as the ‘minister of the union’, his actions and failure to provide viable solutions to “the border problem”, never mind a plan for the future, proves otherwise.

For one, the denial that there will need to be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, or that people will not notice any difference along the border, in a no-deal scenario is dangerous and disingenuous. Without a backstop, which Mr Johnson has reiterated will form no part of any deal with the EU, how is the EU expected to preserve the integrity of the internal market?

It is ironic that those who say they care so deeply about the union and wish to preserve it at all costs cannot offer the same logic to the European Commision, whose main objective is preserving the EU.

It has been clear for some time now that geopolitics is the most important aspect for the EU; more important than even the economic hit of a no-deal Brexit, so without a backstop a hard border is inevitable.

Meanwhile, attacks on the Irish government and its Brexit position show how deeply out of touch the DUP are with moderate and middle-class unionists. It was this time last year that former DUP leader Peter Robinson used his invitation to speak at the MacGill Summer School to say that he didn't believe Northern Ireland wanted to leave the UK - but that there was no reason it shouldn't prepare for the eventuality.

At the time, the speech was met with anger among many unionist politicians, the loudest of those being Mr Wilson, who described the comments as “dangerous and demoralising”. While Mr Wilson continues to bury his head in the sand, there is no denying not only a change in demographics, but also a change in mood among many in the unionist community towards Northern Ireland’s relationship with Britain.

Under the tenets of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Julian Smith, can only call a Border poll if there are indications that it would be carried.

While few such indications existed this time last year, it’s clear that the continual destabilising impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland is bringing reunification much closer.

Certainly the fact that the debate around a united Ireland is already taking place is proof of this.