Loyalists have reason to be angry but they should hold fully to non violent spirit of 1998

The withdrawal of the Progressive Unionist Party’s support from the 1998 Belfast Agreement is a serious development — at the very least symbolically.

The PUP, which was traditionally seen at the political wing of the UVF, has been central to the peace settlement in Northern Ireland.

Loyalist terrorism was wrong and unjustified, even though they say that it was retaliatory, pointing out that republicans carried out almost twice as many killings as them.

The IRA is itself aware of that imbalance and it alleges collusion so widely as to imply that all state and loyalist killings were done in concert. This, while patent distortion, still gets nowhere near the republican tally. In truth loyalists had barely any help, evident in the highly sectarian nature of their murders — something which made their violence all the more deplorable.

The UVF, unlike the IRA, did in 2014 express “true and abject remorse” to all innocent victims of their violence — although this is little compensation to relatives of the dead.

The PUP have not the clout of Sinn Fein because unionists have never voted for parties linked to paramilitaries.

Billy Hutchinson was justified yesterday to cite an incremental weakening of the Union, despite 1998’s principle of consent — a weakening this newspaper has chronicled for years.

The Northern Ireland Protocol is only the most serious milestone in that trend, which also includes the dilution of the three strands that was so evident last year when Julian Smith and unionists let Simon Coveney jointly author the 2020 New Decade New Approach deal, which delved deeply into matters which should be solely the domain of Stormont.

One of the most devastating critiques of the Irish Sea border was made by John Larkin QC in the legal case against it: “If the power to make law for Northern Ireland can be given to Brussels, it can be given just as legally to the Oireachtas.”

The anger of loyalists is understandable but we urge them to adhere fully to the non violent spirit of the 1998 settlement.

——— ———

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdowns having had a major impact on many of our advertisers — and consequently the revenue we receive — we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Visit

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions

now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Ben Lowry, Editor