Anti-protocol rally: we want an apology from Doug Beattie – not a meeting

The Lurgan United Unionists’ spokesmen also said the wider unionist community “awaits a clear and public apology” from Mr Beattie – claiming his stated concerns about the mass rallies were an “egregious slur” against law-abiding citizens.

The protest rally is due to take place in Lurgan on April 8. On the platform will be DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, TUV leader Jim Allister and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.

At the weekend, Mr Beattie said UUP representatives would no longer take part in the rallies as some were beginning to “raise the political temperature” to dangerous levels across Northern Ireland.

“We want to see the protocol replaced and we have been expressing our consistent opposition to it since it was first mooted in October 2019, but where I differ with others is the way in which we approach that. I am a confident, positive unionist representing a party which will engage to bring about change. It is a political problem which will only be solved by finding a political solution,” he said.

“We respect the right of anyone to legally and peacefully protest. However, tensions are rising, with some spokespeople at anti-protocol rallies openly calling for people to get angry and to raise the temperature. Blood and thunder rhetoric from a lectern will not help or solve the protocol problem. This is exactly what we need to avoid. We need to learn the lessons of the past.”

Mr Beattie did issue an invitation to meet privately with the organisers, however, that offer was firmly rejected in a statement issued by the Lurgan United Unionists on Thursday.

They said: “Mr Beattie, having turned down the offer to publicly unite with the wider unionist community, it would be both inappropriate and unnecessary for Lurgan United Unionists to engage in a private forum with Mr Beattie.

“Indeed we would challenge Mr Beattie, if he wants to see the destruction of the protocol and he is prepared to meet in private, why is he not prepared to stand publicly with us and the wider unionist community?

“The suspicion must surely be that such an image is not one Mr Beattie feels will play well with those whom he seeks to court in Alliance and the SDLP. Be that as it may, Mr Beattie has clearly indicated he does not wish to join the united unionist front opposing the protocol.

“It would also be remiss of us not to remind Mr Beattie that the wider unionist community awaits a clear and public apology following his recent comments suggesting that protest rallies were harnessing anger and that those who organised, attended and addressed such were somehow guilty of increasing tension and inciting violence.

“Whether intentional or not Mr Beattie has besmirched and blackened the name of all loyal, law abiding Ulstermen who have peacefully protested against the protocol as well as organisations such as the Loyal Orders established upon biblical and Christian principles.”

The statement goes on to say: “After 24 years of a process of appeasement and humiliation designed to bleed unionism to death, the imposition of the protocol and the consequent constitutional change to Northern Ireland’s place within the Union, the loyalist people of Ulster can take no more – more than enough has been stripped from us over the years, if we do not stand now in defence of our culture, our heritage and our way of life we will bear the shame of being the generation who failed Ulster.”

The statement is signed:

Roy Ferguson – President, Apprentice Boys of Derry

David Martin – District Master, Lurgan District No.6.

READ: Doug Beattie seeks meeting with Lurgan protocol protest organisers

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