Prominent Brexiteer and former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has claimed that a United Ireland will happen "one day".
Nigel Farage, who is now a presenter with the conservative-leaning TV channel GB News, also revealed that he "always got on well" with Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald.
Farage additionally claimed that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar once asked him for a selfie.
Farage told the Irish Times that he believes a united Ireland will happen but said it will not happen in the immediate future.
"One day there will be a United Ireland. But it’s not on the horizon immediately. Just for practical reasons," Farage told the Irish Times.
Farage added that Britain has a "historical affinity" with Ireland and said that cannot be lost in the event of a united Ireland.
"We in Britain have this historical affinity with Ireland that can’t be lost. We’ve got all these relationships, see? I have huge love and respect for the Republic. I just think you’re in the wrong place on the European Union," Farage told the Irish Times.
Farage said he always got on well with Mary Lou McDonald when she was a MEP but said his relationship with former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams was more difficult.
Farage, who has Irish ancestry through his great-grandmother, declared his affection for Ireland and discussed the 1916 Rising during the wide-ranging interview, stating that the British "f*cked it up".
He told the Irish Times that Irish history would have "probably" turned out differently if the British authorities had not executed the leaders of the rebellion, fueling nationalist sentiment in Ireland.
Farage also discussed the 2008 and 2009 Lisbon Treaty referendums in Ireland, when UKIP and Farage's Eurosceptic colleagues in the EU parliament were accused of interfering in Irish politics.
Farage proudly told the Irish Times of his role in distributing an anti-Lisbon leaflet to almost every home in Ireland shortly before the second referendum. Farage said he worked with right-wing Irish politician and Irish Freedom Party founder Hermann Kelly to use EU money to distribute the leaflets.
"Kelly and I, my God, we got up to some stunts. We were in a group in the parliament with access to European funds that could be used to spread information about the EU. When they set all of this up, they naturally assumed it would be used to spread positive information. They never factored in someone like me. We got on to the Irish Post Office, and did that huge mailout."
Farage says he often visits friends in Ireland and says people are "inquisitive" when they see him in Dublin pubs.
"One or two are rude but most people aren’t."
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