Alf McCreary: The UUP seemingly appears to have an irresistible electoral death wish

The current row is complex, with Doug Beattie claiming “irreconcilable differences” between him and some party officers, a claim which has since been strongly denied.

This is all the more unfortunate in the wake of a noted UUP victory with Robin Swann gaining a Westminster seat in the recent election.

Whatever the details of the currently unseemly mess, it seems clear that this internal unrest has been smouldering on for some time.

Some people claim that the row is over the leader’s freedom to lead, whatever that means, but for those of us outside the party it is striking that the UUP seems to have an irresistible electoral death wish, despite its attempts to prove the contrary.

Sadly all of this reminds me of my early days as a Belfast Telegraph reporter and feature writer, fresh from Queen’s University with his shiny honours degree in Modern History.

I was innocent enough to believe that the IRA border war of the 50s and the political ice between Stormont and the dark days of an isolated Republic under the narrow vision of Eamon de Valera were long behind us.

How wrong I was when I entered the Telegraph building exactly 60 years ago, on September 1, 1964.

I discovered that the brave new world which Terence O’Neill was trying to promote would be much more difficult than we liberals thought.

Gone was the folksy ultra-conservatism of Lord Brookeborough who was so popular with the rural hardline grassroots, but the new vision of O’Neill in reaching across the divides in the North and across the border was hard to sell.

Sadly, he was a shy and somewhat aloof figure, and not a good political salesman.

Once he had taken the historic step to invite the Irish premier Sean Lemass to Stormont, his political career was on the line.

The upsurge of the Civil Rights Movement from 1968 onwards was a lever by which the baleful and ambitiously ruthless Reverend Ian Paisley used every opportunity to thwart forward-looking unionism, and on April 29, 1969 O’Neill had to resign.

In my new book ‘Keeping the Faith’ I chart every step of that tortuous path, partly because I was there and experienced it at first hand.

It is important to remember that only weeks previously there was a general election on February 24, 1969 when O’Neill did better than expected.

The voters returned 27 pro-O’Neill candidates compared to 10 who were anti-O’Neill but significantly the tub-thumping Ian Paisley received only 1,414 fewer votes than the prime minister himself, and that was a humiliation.

O’Neill retired as a broken man to England, and with him went the last chance for the UUP to remain a significant party which might just drag Northern Ireland into the 20th century, never mind the 21st.

Since then it has been all downhill with a succession of UUP leaders, some of whom are best forgotten, and a dwindling vote.

Now we have reached another impasse, and whoever has the courage to take the poisoned chalice of leading a party which seems impossible to lead will need a very thick hide and nerves of steel.

There hardly seems to be an ideal candidate for such an impossible job, and the decline of the UUP seems more likely than not.

All of this is disturbing to those of us who want the best for all the people in Northern Ireland.

I come from a traditional unionist background, though I long since stopped voting that way.

The Union is still vital for the well-being of this Province, in the absence so far of any viable alternative, but unionism in general – and not just the UUP - is infinitely capable of shooting itself in both feet, not just once but repeatedly, to the point where it is barely able to walk in its major political confrontation with a cynical and at times too cocksure Sinn Fein, and a resurgent Alliance Party which still has major gaps to fill, particularly on constitutional issues.

Future historians who look back on recent decades in our history here will be astonished how unionism virtually ate itself alive through endless in-fighting and bickering which has almost terminally weakened its once seemingly endless domination of the political landscape.

Cynically, the republican movement has rewritten history and claims that they were ‘the good guys’ and that their militant wing had no option to go to war.

This is nonsense, but unionism has not had clever enough leaders or spokespersons to expose this for the nonsense it is.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has used every opportunity possible to try to convince voters, particularly the young who don’t know about the Troubles, that Irish unity is the best way forward.

Given such a background, it is sheer madness for unionism to fight elections from three different camps, the UUP, DUP and TUV, but it is unlikely that this will change any time soon.

Recently, Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots urged unionism to look outside its own supporters, and to encourage people from ethnic and other communities to back the Union.

This was well-meaning but laughable, if it was not so serious.

Peter Robinson, the last really able unionist strategist to hold power, said exactly the same over at least a decade ago.

So long ago, poor Terence O’Neill said much the same, and look what happened to him.

He asked people: “What kind of Ulster do you want?” A large section told him what they wanted, resulting in blood and tears.

Today Ulster unionism and not just the UUP stands at the cross-roads.

What kind of Ulster do they want, and will they be able to deliver any hope and vision for all of us while their endless in-fighting and bickering continues?

I hope so, but I doubt it

Alf McCreary’s new book Keeping the Faith is published by Messenger at £12.95 and is available in local bookshops and on Amazon