Dodds says Sinn Fein being ‘ludicrous’ by eulogising the IRA while simultaneously expecting to court the Protestant / unionist / loyalist community

Diane Dodds says it is “ludicrous” to expect that people from the wider Protestant / unionist / loyalist community are going to get involved in an Irish unity body created by Sinn Fein, particularly given its IRA associations.

The body in question is called Commission on the Future of Ireland.

Organised by Sinn Fein, it is separate from the Ireland’s Future organisation, which seeks to do much the same thing, but which says it is non-party political.

Sinn Fein’s commission is chaired by MLA Declan Kearney, and “seeks to facilitate a structured, national conversation among the citizens of Ireland and beyond on the future of our island”.

It wants to do this by convening various “people’s assemblies” – and one such meeting is coming up at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on October 12 from 7pm to 9pm.

Sinn Fein says “the Commission actively seeks to engage with the Protestant, loyalist, and unionist section of our people and those with different visions of Ireland”.

Speaking to the News Letter today, Mrs Dodds (who served from 2009 to 2020 in the European Parliament) said: “Being a unionist is fundamental to my politics and fundamental to who I am.

“I cannot imagine why I’d then want to engage over a united Ireland which would destroy the Union.”

She said there is “another dimension” too, namely: “You cannot on the one hand condone murder and eulogise those who were in the IRA, saying there was ‘no alternative’, and then expect unionists to turn around and say: ‘oh I think you are sincere and I must engage with you about a united Ireland.

“It is kind of ludicrous, really.

“What will I be doing [instead]? I’ll be talking about the value and benefit of the Union.

“Billions spent in Northern Ireland to help us over Covid.

“Being part of the fifth largest economy of the world.

“Being part of one of the major defence nations in the world, out defending freedom. We don’t need to engage in destroying the Union.

“We need to explain the benefits of the Union.”

Asked whether, in the hypothetical event of a united Ireland, she would stay in NI, she said: “This is home. And this will always be home.”

But she added: “I don’t think we’re on the brink of a united Ireland and we need to stop allowing them [united Irelanders] to run the argument.”