'Irish Republic has been no place for Protestantism to flourish' says Rev Willie McCrea after DUP founder Wallace Thompson says he is open to dialogue about Irish unity

Rev McCrea was one of Rev Ian Paisley’s early devotees, both politically and spiritually, and served as a DUP through the 1980s, ‘90s, and beyond, until losing his seat in 2015; today the retired Free Presbyterian minister sits in the upper house as Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown.

Mr Thompson was one of the men who helped set up the DUP in 1971, and went on to be an advisor to Nigel Dodds and others.

In interviews with both the News Letter and Radio Ulster, Mr Thompson has today said that his unionism was always driven by his desire to manifest his evangelical Protestant faith.

"Down the years, unionism has been, to me, that guarantor of it – that those things are protected within the Union, whereas they would be in danger outside of the Union,” he told the News Letter.

"There’s no evidence now whatever within the UK that our evangelical Protestant heritage is even respected… I don’t see now that I’ve any great confidence that my heritage is that safe within the UK.”

He concluded: “Therefore I think: how would it be in a new Ireland?”

While stressing he remains a unionist, he said “I’m open to conversation with anyone” about the possibility of Irish unity.

• READ HIS FULL REMARKS HERE: 'I know some fellow Protestants and unionists will see me as weak on this': DUP founder Wallace Thompson says he is 'open to conversation with anyone' on a united Ireland

Rev Willie McCrea was not a founding member of the DUP because he was serving a jail sentence of three months for “riotous behaviour” at the time, relating to an Orange parade in Dungiven (a charge he denied).

He said that so long as someone espouses peaceful scriptural views, "then I certainly respect their point of view – and I respect Wallace can have it".

But he added: "I want to point out to you clearly: it's the very opposite to mine."

Rev McCrea told the News Letter: "Sadly, yes the reality is much of what is happening across on the mainland and with the government would not be in accordance with the scriptural standpoint Wallace would have, and certainly I would have as well.

"Then I look to the Irish Republic, and I ask: what things in the Irish republic would be different to what's in the UK?

"If you look at the things that'd trouble Wallace, spiritually speaking, in the UK, the laws that have been passed in recent years, you'll find those are exactly what is in the Irish Republic.

"With the Irish Republic, if you're looking for some difference as regards spiritual freedom, I can't see there'd be much more spiritual freedom – in actual fact over the years the very opposite has been [true].”

This was because the Republic “was dominated for many years by the Roman Catholic church,” he said, adding: “The influence of the Roman Catholic church in the south may have somewhat weakened.

"But nevertheless certainly it's not somewhere where Protestantism has functioned or flourished over the years…

"The freedom for Biblical Protestantism, Biblical Christianity, certainly has not been something that's been very evident in the Irish republic."

• Apprentice Boys' Easter Monday marches: Details of the main one in Co Tyrone and all Parades Commission restrictions