Ireland’s Future 3 Arena Dublin: Former DUP leader Arlene Foster sets out the benefits of the union ahead of unification rally

Irish Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood are among public figures due to speak at the ‘Together We Can’ rally on Saturday at the 3Arena in Dublin, organised by campaign group Ireland’s Future. The venue can hold 8000 seated delegates. The event made headlines this week when Alliance Deputy leader Stephen Farry declined an invitation to participate, saying it had been “billed as support for constitutional change”.

Former DUP leader Arlene Foster has pre-empted the rally with her take on why the union is a better option.

After the death of the Queen and the ascension of King Charles, she told the News Letter, people across Scotland, England, Wales and NI “showed the strength of the UK” by coming together to celebrate their heritage.

“Those who seek to destroy the UK want to drag us into a narrow nationalist nightmare where we would be robbed of the safety and security that we now enjoy and indeed take for granted,” she told the News Letter.

“As UK citizens we are very fortunate to be a part of the World’s sixth largest economy with all the supply chain and market access that brings - Protocol permitting! The UK has the second lowest public debt in the G7 and despite current market volatility, Sterling has the strength and flexibility to react unlike the fixed nature of the Euro. Also because we have control over our own fiscal levers action can be taken at UK level.

“We are also a country which plays its part in the defence of freedom, especially at present in Ukraine but generally through our membership of NATO.”

She added: “From a social point of view we are highly integrated with the cultural landscape of the UK - from sport to TV we are immersed in an open diverse British way of life - why would we give that up for something much more restrictive? “

The most important conversation, she said, is “why the union works” and that is why she and the Together UK Foundation will be facilitating this conversation in the future, she added.

The BBC has been quizzing Ireland’s Future on the source of funding for the event for several days.

Columnist and former Irish Labour senator Mairia Cahill told the News Letter: “Just as in the Brexit referendum, when a campaign group sprouts up people will naturally ask who is funding it? Who is behind it? Who is benefiting from it? If such a campaign is to influence the constitution of the country my daughter grows up in, then I want to know who is funding it.”

She said that, just as with Brexit, it was important that any campaign for constitutional change should also declare what funding it receives from outside the jurisdiction. Ms Cahill said the 3Arena had told her that the venue costs 65k Euros to hire for a day, or £57k. The 3Arena declined to comment to the News Letter.

Ireland’s Future board member Brian Feeney was quizzed on funding by Good Morning Ulster yesterday. He said many donors pay monthly and that some individuals “give generous amounts” but that it has “no funding” from any institution or political party. The rally coincides with the 80th Fianna Fail Ard Feis this weekend, also in Dublin.