In the backroom kitchen of a plush Canberra hotel, Mary Lou McDonald leans forward as the prospect of violence is raised.
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"It won't happen. I'm not for moving on this."
Speaking to The Canberra Times before wrapping up a two-week tour of Australia, the woman driving the push for a united Ireland is emphatic.
"People have worked really hard to build the peace, and people have embraced it ... I will not tolerate or countenance any talk of a return to conflict."
McDonald is a new-breed leader of Sinn Fein, a left-wing political outgrowth of the Irish Republican Army, and seems on course to become Ireland's next prime minister.
Peace lasting since 1998 - enshrined by The Good Friday Agreement - is based on borderless coexistence between Ireland and Northern Ireland, still part of the UK.
But Brexit, against the wishes of Northern Irish voters, raised unwelcome questions on an island with a history of sectarian bloodshed.
McDonald predicts a referendum to unite the two within a decade, and says Australia's own republican movement can take note.
"Whatever way we write the next chapter of our history books, and we are writing it now, it will be done peacefully and it will be done democratically."
'Very dangerous waters'
The political chaos in London has jolted a reunification movement already gently propelled by demographics.
Fearing tensions a border on the island could inflame, a compromise was reached: checking goods coming from Britain in the Irish Sea, leaving Northern Ireland tethered to the European Union's common market.
But the deal broke a pledge from UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who assured unionists, bristling at the prospect and intent on remaining part of Britain, that it would never happen.
The announcement sparked riots in Belfast last year, a reminder of the sectarian currents which still bubble under the surface.
The UK's Tory government is now scrambling to reverse aspects of the deal, which Dublin and Brussels say violates international law.
"Boris Johnson's interactions with Ireland have been wholly and entirely negative. In fact, he and his administration in plain sight have undertaken a series of very serious attacks on the Good Friday Agreement," McDonald says.
But with Johnson's scandal-plagued premiership coming to an end, McDonald holds out little hope relations will improve under his successor, either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss.
"We're in very, very dangerous waters with the behaviour of the Tory government ... I think [the new Prime Minister's] instincts will be the same as Johnson's: to play to the gallery of the hard-right."
Unpicking the issue must be done from within the island of Ireland, she insists.
McDonald has worked hard to throw off "beards and black leather jackets" she once said dominated perceptions of Irish republicanism. It seems to be working, too.
Her colleague Michelle O'Neill will lead Northern Ireland if and when a dispute over the resumption of parliament is resolved. Sinn Fein has also streaked ahead of the major parties in polling in the Republic.
It is a remarkable turnaround for a party which won just ten per cent of the vote a decade ago.
'Visceral reaction'
But in the minds of some voters, particularly unionists and those with memories of the Troubles, McDonald may struggle to throw off the green garb of paramilitaries historically linked to Sinn Fein.
She has "no problem" acknowledging the suffering of unionists at the hands of the IRA, but stresses "in the same breath it's very important" to note the oppression of republicans by the British military and their paramilitary proxies.
"We can all have visceral reactions to each other ... [But] we have to ask ourselves: do we get into kind of a zero-sum blame game, or do we constructively, with the sense of compassion and respect, acknowledge people's different lived experiences?"
But can a party once headed by former IRA honcho Gerry Adams lead a country in which unionists feel respected?
McDonald immediately admonishes the question.
"This isn't about a united Ireland under Sinn Fein, let's scotch that at the get go. The building of a new united Ireland is so much bigger than [one party]."
Unionists will campaign for the status quo - "Not only do I accept that, I respect that" - but they cannot have a veto, she stresses.
"They still have very clearly their place, their space and their hand in designing and creating this new Ireland."
Fifty per cent plus one vote would secure reunification - "We won't allow a different democratic standard to be applied for Irish reunification as for the maintenance of the Union" - but McDonald is seeking a broader mandate.
She hopes Australia and "democracy lovers everywhere" will be "enthused" by the prospect. And with the Albanese government aiming for Australia's own referendum on a republic in its second term, she offers advice of her own.
"Have the homework done, put in the legwork. Include, inform, and enthuse people. If you do those three things, you will have a very lively debate, you will have an informed debate."
Could the party which has splintered Ireland's two-party system prove a model for the centre-left movement which shook Australia's political orthodoxy in May? McDonald is more circumspect.
"You have to be careful not to extrapolate from the particular to the general. Each political ecosystem is quite unique. But there are trends that you can read across. I suppose what the Sinn Fein story demonstrates is that change is possible."
'Nowhere to hide'
McDonald has followed Amnesty International in labelling Israel an "apartheid state" and says Palestinian self-determination will be a centrepiece of Sinn Fein's foreign policy agenda.
She is not alone in Ireland, which has consistently voted in the UN to condemn Israeli settlements deemed illegal under international law.
Visitors trudging the wet streets of Belfast may notice a mural of an IRA gunman alongside a Palestinian Liberation Organisation fighter. "One struggle," is emblazoned underneath.
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Asked what binds two peoples so distinct in geography and language, McDonald pauses for a moment. Ireland is an "outlier" even among Europeans, she replies.
"We were on the receiving end of colonialism and imperialism. We know how that feels, we know what that means. We have nowhere to hide on this question."
But Australia's consistent support for Israel, often as part of a tiny minority in the UN, will not be a roadblock to its relationship with a Sinn Fein-led Ireland. "As friends and as allies, we talk to each other and we recognise each other's positions," McDonald says.
"But I will always, in a very direct way and with absolutely no ambiguity, set out Ireland's analysis of the situation and what needs to happen: international law has to prevail."