Role for King Charles in “promoting reconciliation” in Northern Ireland and beyond, says DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

Speaking just before the arrival of the new Monarch at Hillsborough Castle, Sir Jeffrey said the new King already has a “very sharp insight into the politics of Northern Ireland.”

But TUV leader Jim Allister told the News Letter that he would say to the King that he hoped the Province’s place within the UK internal market could be restored after the NI Protocol is properly dealt with.

The SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole meanwhile said it was important for someone like him from a nationalist background respecting and understanding the feelings of those from the British-Unionist tradition, and their sense of loss over the Queen’s death.

The DUP leader said: “We will see a King who is very much engaged, sensitive to the political differences here in Northern Ireland, and yet keen and willing to play his part as Head of State of this nation in taking forward the peace process and building reconciliation.”

Sir Jeffrey was asked about the presence of Sinn Fein at today’s event with both Stormont Speaker Alex Maskey and the party’s vice-president Michelle O’Neill in attendance inside the Castle’s Throne Room.

“It is an indication of how far we have travelled in Northern Ireland. I think this would not have been possible and it wouldn’t have happened during the dark days of our troubled past. Of course we have a long way to go, but is a sign of political maturity.”

He added that the King’s presence at Hillsborough shows “he is coming to re-emphasise that he is Head of State.”

Jim”Allister said: “Given the opportunity I will say that I trust that early in his reign that the UK’s sovereignty will be restored in respect of Northern Ireland, in other words that the Protocol, which treats GB as a foreign country, which subjects us to foreign laws, that that would be replaced by the restoration of full British sovereignty.”

The TUV leader stresses that “of course that is a matter for Her Majesty’s Government to sort out rather than His Majesty.”

Mr Allister also dismissed claims in a Dublin newspaper less than 24 hours after the Queen’s death that her passing marked a supposed “earthquake” for Unionists.

“The glue holding together the United Kingdom is the institution of the monarchy notan individual, and that will continue,” he added.

South Belfast MLA Matthew O’Toole said he was in Hillsborough today to “recognise the role the Queen had in terms of building reconciliation on the island of Ireland, and between the islands of Britain and Ireland.”

Mr O’Toole continued: “She (the Queen) had a major historical contribution to that, particularly towards the end of her reign. She didn’t have to do that, but she did.

“We are not a monarchist party and we aspire to constitutional change on this island, but there’s no contradiction with us aspiring to change and recognising the importance of this moment, particularly to people of a British and Unionist background.”