Moves to advance Irish unity debate ‘scorched’ by SF actions on parade dispute

Efforts by government parties in Ireland to advance the debate on Irish unity have been “scorched” by the actions of Sinn Féin in the Drumcree parading dispute, DUP leader Gavin Robinson has claimed.

Mr Robinson’s comments came ahead of the expected publication of Fine Gael’s “blueprint” on unification later this week.

Last week, Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said a new initiative was required to challenge all traditions to engage with “hard evidence” on different constitutional frameworks around unity.

Mr Martin said a new approach would first “define what needs to be known” so that people can engage in “informed debate” about proposals for the future.

Commenting on those initiatives, Mr Robinson pointed to the events around the Drumcree parading stand-off in Portadown when Sinn Féin representatives took part in an allegedly unlawful protest against an Orange Order parade proceeding down the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president and Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill are among several senior party figures to have been interviewed by police over their involvement in the Garvaghy Road protest.

“As for Fine Gael this week or Fianna Fáil last week, I mean, God bless them,” Mr Robinson told reporters at Stormont.

“God bless them, because the ground that they are trying to till has been scorched by Michelle O’Neill and her actions.

“The idea that there could be any accommodation for unionists, people that think like me, Orangemen, or anybody that differs from them in their country is for the birds. We have seen what tolerance looks like.

“Ask Heather Humphreys, a former minister of the Irish Republic, who had the temerity to stand for the president of Ireland and yet she wasn’t suitable because she has relations who are in the Orange Order (Ms Humphreys has claimed she was the victim of targeted sectarian abuse during the election campaign).

“We’ve seen what that sort of land of milk and honey really looks like when you look and sound like me and my colleagues. It’s not very accommodating.

“So, I’m afraid that the actions of republicans and nationalists in Northern Ireland have indicated to us all that this ‘Ireland of equals’ is for the birds and there’ll be no accommodation for people like us.”

SDLP leader Claire Hanna rejected Mr Robinson’s assertion.

Ms Hanna told reporters at Stormont: “I think if Gavin Robinson was serious about protecting the Union, and those who make that their political project, they should try and make the status quo bearable for people, and they’re not doing that because we know that on every credible measure of the good things in life, whether health or income or educational and economic opportunities, the Republic is doing better.

“And Gavin Robinson and his party and others are fiddling while Rome burns, frankly, while people’s belief in a future that they can have in the UK and Northern Ireland is ebbing away.

“So, it would suit him a wee bit better to get on with the job he and his colleagues are elected to, to use the power that they currently have, instead of campaigning for the next election.

“So, I don’t think that’s credible. I think the SDLP has been clear and most people here are clear.

“They want all the different identities and traditions of this region to thrive and share this place together.

“That’s not something the DUP have facilitated, but that is something the SDLP has spent many decades trying to progress, and we will continue to do that.

“Quite clearly, Ireland the nation as a whole has shown incredible capacity to change and to adapt, and to accept and celebrate different identities, and we have no reason to believe that would be any different in this constitutional conversation.”