Ireland’s Future figure declared all DUP voters ‘c***s’ and said party ‘spreads hatred against women and non-white people’

In the messages he called all DUP voters “c****”, the Orange Order a “putrid shower of dangers” (sic), and condemned the commemoration of a murdered UUP man.

Ireland’s Future says its aim is “campaigning for a referendum on a New and United Ireland,” and that “no matter your background or identity – this is your conversation”.

The organisation has tried to strike a conciliatory tone towards unionists, saying that their views must be taken into account as part of any “new Ireland”.

One of the movement’s key figures, Belfast law professor Colin Harvey, has previously said he wants an “open, respectful and inclusive conversation about the future".

Ireland’s Future created a major stir with a giant conference in the 3Arena in Dublin on October 1, featuring not just nationalist / republican politicians, but the NI actor James Nesbitt too.

The latest instalment of its island-wide roadshow will be on Wednesday at 7pm in the Ulster Hall, Belfast city centre; Ticketbrite says all online tickets are sold out.

There will be over a dozen contributions during the event, with the keynote address being from Michael Russell, president of the SNP.

‘BETTER PROSPECTS FOR OUR YOUNG’:

One of those slated to speak was Andrew Clarke.

He was billed as the third-from last speaker, just behind Prof Harvey, on the topic of: "Better prospects for our young."

Mr Clarke was also involved in the big Ireland's Future event in Dublin on October 1.

PR material at the time described him as a Belfast man of a "British / Unionist background" and a former student of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI, also known as Inst.), who was on an Ireland's Future working group.

He is reportedly aged 26 or 27.

A prolific user of Twitter under the name @mrtanistry, a small selection of his tweets from the last couple of months include the following:

> November 15: (In response to a UUP tweet marking the anniversary of the IRA murder of churchman / politician Robert Bradford):

"He was in the Ulster Vanguard movement and had the enthusiastic backing of the national front.

"He said that Northern Ireland's political history was one of which he was proud.

"Subsumed into the all-encompassing, nuance-free, amorphous and cleansing afterlife of 'victimhood'…

"It's still jarring when Unionism's 'progressive' party see no issue in honouring and celebrating the life of a very open Unionist supremacist."

> November 13: In a series of tweets following a clash in which anti-immigrant National Party members claimed they were attacked by masked "anti-fascists" at Lough Erne Resort (after which, one man faced weapon and attempted GBH charges), Mr Clarke wrote:

"The far-right should not feel welcome, safe, or tolerated anywhere in Ireland. Kudos and congratulations to those who ran them out."

> November 13: The DUP "are a party of hatred and oppression and I have zero tolerance for them or the bigots who support them".

He added: "The DUP are a vile party. They work tirelessly to perpetuate hatred against women, against the LGBTQ+ community, against anyone who isn't a white PUL.

"If you vote for them, you are a c***... a hateful party arguably defined by their fundamentalist noncery and sheer hatred for non-white PUL people".

> November 10: In response to a tweet about people condemning poppies (in which the tweeter said that "a large part of the population on this island wear a poppy; does SF intend creating a lower tier of citizen?"), Mr Clarke said:

"Nobody wants to create a lower tier of citizen but yes I do believe openly espousing support for British colonialism in a place where it cultivated and developed its most brutal colonial strategies should probably at the very least be met with a raised eyebrow."

> November 10: "King Charles III met Diana when he was 28 and she was 16. Queen Elizabeth paid for Prince Andrew's court fees. That entire rotten family is full of war criminals, child abusers, and criminals. Abolish the monarchy and throw them in the sea."

> November 9: In response to someone throwing eggs at King Charles, Mr Clarke wrote: "Not one direct hit. What a waste."

> November 7: "British people do this mental thing where they take old racist aristocrats and war criminals and transform them into quirky, relatable Marvel characters and then get offended when you don't buy into it. How many films portray Churchill as a bumbling but loveable grump? Vile."

> November 7: The day after the latest series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here began, controversially featuring Tory MP Matt Hancock, he replied to another Twitter user: "I just know we're both rootin’ for a certain someone to die in the jungle on tv this winter".

> November 3: "The GAA has never restricted someone from playing due to being Protestant. The most prestigious trophy in the GAA is named after a Protestant.

"Any conflict with the British Security Forces stemmed from the fact that the police and army were agents of oppression. Not complicated."

> October 29: "Sinn Féin's principle for not taking seats in Westminster are part of a long history of abstention - they take part in local devolved government. The DUP's principle for not taking seats in Stormont is hating Catholics."

> October 27: "In the coming days you will see Unionism once again coalesce into a mess of brinkmanship, supremacism and confused victim-narratives. I think anyone with a shred of self respect should be re-evaluating their relationship with Northern Ireland, Stormont, and the United Kingdom."

> October 25: “F**k the DUP and every witless mucker who votes for them xxx"

> October 23: "Sinn Féin aren't bullying D4 newspaper columnists into silence through legal threats but at this stage I wouldn't be that unhappy if they did. Years after Ireland is United, these weird people will be studied and written about as a bizarre quirk of Partitionism."

> October 17: "Election looming! Time for the UUP to live up to their name and come out swinging for Abortion rights, Language rights, and wholehearted condemnation of Orangeism and the hatred it has bred...”

> October 7: "The Orange Order, a supremacist cult, investigates and dictates the actions of a democratically elected political leader, egged on by sideline spoofers and extremists. Take *no* lectures from Unionism on your politics."

> October 5: Responding to a news article about Home Secretary Suella Braverman's desire to enact the government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, he said:

"It's seeing stuff like this that awakens in me a radical and burning need to sever my home from the cancerous influence of Westminster and British Conservatism. These ‘people’ are monsters."

> October 4: Responding to an article in the Belfast Telegraph, he wrote:

"'Britain is like the lover'. Britain was a colonial power that to this day benefits from the centuries of atrocities they committed on this island. For the love of Christ in a United Ireland we are outlawing opinion pieces."

> September 29: Alongside a picture of the Orange society’s stand at Queen’s, he wrote:

"QUB Orange Society. Here you can oppose bilingualism, promote sectarianism, and awkwardly quote Animal Farm in an attempt to proselytize your hatred to young students who are looking forward to a brighter future. Disgusting…

"Genuinely sickening stuff. I long for a day when this sort of carry on can't get a foot in the door at most events."

> Sepember 25: "Your daily reminder that as people angrily huff and stomp their feet about what the IRA did 20+ years ago, the UVF is one of several still active, still armed, still recruiting Loyalist terror groups that have a direct and integral role on Unionist policy."

> September 18: "The real answer is that from its modern roots, the real core of Irish Nationalism (aka Republicanism) has been democracy, anti-imperialiem, and economic+social equality. Not seeking domain nor domination of anyone, only self governance and liberty from British Imperialism."

> September 8: "I know people look down on mockery of the death of the Queen, and point to disrespect of other's culture.

"The Royal Family (past and present) represents for millions of people a symbol of hurt, hatred, oppression, and elitism. Unsurprising that many aren't really moved…

"Nobody is raising a glass because an old woman has died, because she isn't just some old woman. That entire family is riddled with sex pests, war criminals, rotten corruption and enablers of all of the latter.

"I am thoroughly unmoved by any want for mourning."

> September 6: "[With sarcasm] Don't forget that the Orange Order is merely cultural expression; refusing to tolerate or engage with it is bigotry."

He added: "I cannot wait for this putrid shower of dangers is consigned to history forever. Ulster's shame."

> September 6: "Some nonce outside City Hall today with a megaphone. Spouting stuff about Ulster Loyalism, Israel, and sinning. I would love to see these ghouls run off the streets for good…

"If they're free to subject us to this tripe I should be free to huck rocks at them for a laugh."

> September 6: "My take on the new cabinet appointments is that no Tory should ever be given any power in any context and that they should thrown in the ocean."

> September 5: "There needs to be a slur for southern political commentators who share every single Anti-Provo post as a bash at the Shinners but who don't otherwise engage whatsoever with victims of any other shade.

"Alternatively we should be legally allowed to batter the head off them."

‘KEEP RELIGIOUS VIEWS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS’:

Mr Clarke's Twitter biography describes him as “local man, Lundy, and Irish Republican”, and states that he uses the pronouns “he/him/sé”.

Last week he also called for legal curbs on evangelical Christians being able to preach in the street.

He referred to a video in which an unnamed man at Belfast’s Cornmarket calls on passers-by to "stop living wrong, and start living right".

The man in the video said: "We're living in sin, drunk or on [this?] drugs. We're losing this generation to the devil and we need to fight back. We need to come back to God, we need to pray, we need to preach Jesus Christ of Nazareth."

Mr Clarke wrote in response: “The easiest way to tackle this is to push for the banning of religious speakers from public spaces.

"Belfast city centre will never be dynamic, popular or at all decent as it is is infested with hate preachers.

"This dose in particular needs locked up.

"I have no problem what your religion is. Just do it behind closed doors - such as those on the front of a church."

The above tweets are just some of the quotes going back to the start of September this year.

Mr Clarke has been on Twitter since July 2019.

The News Letter sought to reach Mr Clarke via Twitter, but no response had been received at time of writing.

Ireland’s Future was likewise contacted.

It referred the News Letter to Mr Clarke’s statement of regret.

• This article originally said in error that Mr Clarke had referred to Edgar Graham, not Robert Bradford. Mr Graham was a UUP man killed by the IRA in south Belfast in 1983; fellow UUP man Rev Bradford had been killed by the IRA in south Belfast in 1981.

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• Free speech latest: New law ‘could see street preachers banned’

• Hate crime review: Presbyterian Church calls for guarantee that quoting the Bible will not be illegal