Boris Johnson is 'on course to upend our peace and prosperity,' says Irish politician

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to Northern Ireland, where he met with the country's five major political parties on Wednesday, did not go smoothly. Protesters gathered outside the Northern Irish parliament building, Irish unification talk stirred, and there was reportedly no indication of progress on restoring Belfast's devolved government.

Johnson said he places "huge importance" on the Good Friday Agreement, the peace agreement that ended the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998 and which some have argued could be threatened by the implementation of a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a deal in October.

But not everyone was buying Johnson's rhetoric. Nichola Mallon, the deputy leader of Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party, a party that supports Irish re-unification, said she came away with the impression that the prime minister has no understanding of the issues facing Northern Ireland.

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Mary Lou McDonald, the president of Sinn Fein, a pro-unification party that stretches across the border, said Johnson is "on course to upend our peace and prosperity."

The leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party, which is propping up the Conservative government in Westminster, were kinder to Johnson, and dismissed the idea that a no-deal could threaten the Northern Irish peace process. The Ulster Unionist party, on the other hand, let Johnson know that a no-deal Brexit is "bad outcome."