Arlene Foster says united Ireland campaign can be ‘depressing’ for unionists – but her new group will soon ramp up its own pro-Union efforts

Arlene Foster has said that, rather than feeling “very depressed” in the face of a highly-active Irish unity campaign, unionists should take heart from the fact that her own pro-Union lobby group will shortly begin ramping up its activities.
By Adam Kula
Published 28th Sep 2022, 17:53 BST
Arlene Foster in 2015Arlene Foster in 2015
Arlene Foster in 2015

The former DUP leader was speaking ahead of a large-scale summit organised for this Saturday in Dublin by lobby group Ireland’s Future.

The event in the 3Arena (which reportedly has a seated capacity in and around the 9,000-mark) will bring together celebrity actors Colm Meaney and James Nesbitt alongside Irish-American and Northern Irish politicians to discuss the prospect of Irish re-unification.

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Yesterday, UUP MLA Tom Elliott told the News Letter he feels there would be merit in unionists staging their own similar event.

Mrs Foster (leader of the DUP from December 2015 to May 2021) unveiled her plans for a new group called the Together UK Foundation a couple of weeks ago at a meeting in Belfast.

And today she told the News Letter that a launch event for 100 “people of influence” is planned for London on November 23.

She said: “The idea behind Together UK is to have a UK-wide organisation, not just dealing with republicans in Northern Ireland but also in Scotland as well.

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“The idea is we will be organising conferences, seminars, putting out publications, and it’s on a completely non party political basis; obviously I’m not a member of the party any more, and the people on the board are from all sorts of backgrounds.

“I know sometimes when unionists see what is happening from the united Ireland people, they get very depressed.

“But I’m saying there’s already a foundation in place and we’re developing all that.

“We’ll be working with the government at Westminster, and indeed with the Labour Party because there are some people in the Labour Party who are pro-keeping the Union together.”

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She said a united Ireland would be an economic “nightmare,” and pointed to the fact that 33.3% of people in the 2021 census say they are Irish “despite all of the campaigning and negativity towards the Union”.

“People understand they have got benefits within the Union,” Mrs Foster said, “and what we need to do is really enforce that and underline that” – though she acknowledged that “it’s not as sexy to talk about the status quo as it is for republicans to talk about change”.

More from this reporter:

• Ex-Alliance figure Trevor Lunn tells News Letter why he now leans towards Irish unity ahead of large-scale nationalist/republican ‘Together We Can’ summit on Saturday

• A Sinn Fein President of Ireland? Renewed push under way to extend voting rights from Republic of Ireland to include Northern Ireland