Letter: ​These are bleak times for unionists but we must persevere and keep up our opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol

A letter from R G McDowell:
Unionists should keep up their opposition to the NI Protocol and seek an interim period of direct rule rather than return to powersharing at Stormont where they would be implementing their own destructionUnionists should keep up their opposition to the NI Protocol and seek an interim period of direct rule rather than return to powersharing at Stormont where they would be implementing their own destruction
Unionists should keep up their opposition to the NI Protocol and seek an interim period of direct rule rather than return to powersharing at Stormont where they would be implementing their own destruction
By Letters
Published 15th Sep 2023, 00:01 BST

Several prominent people in recent days have suggested that Northern Ireland is on the road to Irish unification.

Who could doubt that the Northern Ireland Protocol constitutes considerable progress for those who hold that aspiration – but it is not a done deal.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Some of that progress may reflect a growing nationalist demographic but some of the progress is because the two governments have chosen deliberately to ignore the principle of consent by refusing to recognise Northern Ireland as part of the UK until a border poll says otherwise.

If we had a border poll in 2023 and a unionist majority prevailed would the Irish government accept that the Irish Sea border must go and any friction would have to go on the real actual Irish border?

It is a bleak time for unionists but we must persevere.

As Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said: “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Unionists have been treated very unjustly in the Brexit arrangements but we must never fail to protest against this injustice. This is not some small minded sectarian dispute that we have maybe been prone to over the generations. This is the most serious threat that Northern Ireland has faced in 100 years. Unionism has an honourable case on this issue.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We are duty bound to respect the outcome of elections which say Sinn Fein are entitled to be first minister. They are. We are not duty bound to accept an Irish Sea border without having lost a border poll and with most unionists having voted (perhaps foolishly) for the winning side of the Brexit referendum.

We must not lend legitimacy to any powersharing arrangements which would put unionist MLAs in the impossible position of Vichy France, implementing our own destruction.

It is time for unionists to call for an interim period of direct rule to remove any doubt that we will return to government on flimsy terms and give NI some actual government instead of the chaos which the current impasse forces on us.

R G McDowell, Belfast, BT5

Related topics:Northern IrelandProtocolNorthern Ireland ProtocolIrish SeaBrexitUnionism