Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said Scotland's "inspiring" referendum on independence would accelerate a vote to unite Ireland, a prospect quickly dismissed by Unionists who share power in Northern Ireland.
Scotland spurned independence in a historic vote that threatened to rip the United Kingdom apart but an electrifying campaign has emboldened separatist movements across Europe from Catalonia to Flanders.
Predominantly Catholic Nationalists in Northern Ireland, who remained part of United Kingdom in a northern province dominated by Protestants after the Irish state secured independence from Britain in 1921, maintained a studied silence in recent weeks.
Although the pro-British Protestants still make up a majority of the Northern Irish population, Nationalist leader Adams intensified his push for a border poll - which is allowed no more than once every seven years under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal.