LONDRA – Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has seen Belfast, the latest film by Kenneth Branagh, Oscar winner, set in the bloody Troubles of the Northern Irish capital. “Yeah, and I liked it,” he whispers in a bittersweet tone. The leader of the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party), the largest unionist and Protestant party in Northern Ireland, 59, one of the most influential politicians of his generation, decided to embrace politics when his cousin, Samuel Donaldson, was killed in an IRA bombing in 1970. Samuel was the first policeman to perish at the hands of the Republican terrorist group during the Irish Civil War.
Sir Jeffrey was 8 years old then. It was a watershed moment for him and his family (Donaldon was the eldest of 8 children), which was then followed by another murder: that of Samuel’s brother Alex, also in the police station, this time in Newry, USA. 1985.
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So Donaldson, aged 16, decides to join the “Orangist Order” and then the youth section of the Ulster Unionist Party. Subsequently, he became an assistant to controversial MP, accused of racism, Enoch Powell and then to UUP leader James Molyneaux, until he took over as MP in Westminster in 1997 after his death. The next year, Donaldson clashed with his party over the very first version of the Good Friday Peace Accords in Northern Ireland, and so he moved on to Dup.
“I have always been interested in politics,” he says now, “especially after those tragedies. Because only with politics can conflicts be resolved and not with violence. Do I have nationalist or Catholic friends? Of course, the peace process has helped to build relationships between communities, but now there is a great danger “. Donaldson continues in a calm but firm voice, “if we don’t solve the problems related to the Brexit protocol on Northern Ireland. We must not jeopardize what we have achieved in 25 years in a relatively peaceful Northern Ireland. I appeal to Europe and the Irish government: do not damage the Good Friday Peace Accords. And don’t let Northern Ireland become a football or battlefield between the EU and the UK “.
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Yet Donaldson and the DUP are a cause of enormous concern for all of Europe. Because the party, the main unionist community, has so far refused to form a “sectarian” government (as required by the 1998 peace accords) with Sinn Féin, the Irish nationalist party and former political arm of the IRA terrorists. Last May, Sinn Féin became the most voted party in the elections in Northern Ireland and therefore now has the right to name the local prime minister, in this case Michelle O’Neill. For what is a first for the party since its founding in 1905 and for the history of Northern Ireland, the bastion of unionism and Protestantism on the island. But Sir Jeffrey and the Dup have so far vetoed the formation of the executive: “First we must get rid of the Protocol on Northern Ireland”, is the dogma of Sir Jeffrey. And so Northern Ireland is blocked, without a government and new, dangerous tensions are feared.
The Protocol on Northern Ireland is the agreement reached two years ago by the European Union and the British government after Brexit and which, through a customs border, today splits the United Kingdom in two: Great Britain on one side and Ireland on the other. North on the other. Because the agreement imposes customs controls on goods, animals and merchandise between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and vice versa. A measure, conceived to remedy the damage that Brexit could bring to peace on the Irish island and which avoids the re-installation of a dangerous and incendiary border between the two Irish ones. At the same time, it protects the European single market from possible deregulation and lowering of quality standards by the UK.
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But this is a solution hated by Donaldson and the Dup, because they fear that they will be increasingly isolated from the British Crown and pushed towards a future reunification of Ireland. So, now Sir Jeffrey and his unreservedly approve Boris Johnson’s latest “nuclear” move, namely that of unilaterally abolishing the Protocol with a bill that has now arrived in Parliament, after having signed it only two years ago. “We are very happy with this.”
But isn’t this a move that increases tensions even more, Sir Jeffrey?
“No, it is the only solution to preserve peace in Northern Ireland, according to us unionists. But it will take time for the law to pass. We want to wait to see real progress against the Protocol, especially on the border between Great Britain and Ireland. North that definitely damages the latter, before returning to form an executive in Belfast and defend the Good Friday Agreements. Because politics must continue in Northern Ireland, but without this Protocol “.
However, it is estimated that it will take a year for this bill to be fully approved in Westminster. Should we therefore expect new elections in Northern Ireland, given that the Good Friday agreements are inevitable after six months without a government?
“Let’s see what progress the law is making in Parliament in Westminster. We will decide gradually according to the real changes that will take place to the Protocol. There is always the possibility that the EU will yield and admit changes to it. But at the moment there is no they are signals in this sense. For this reason it is important that the government of Boris Johnson acts unilaterally against the protocol “.
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But do you trust Boris Johnson, after he deeply disappointed or betrayed you two years ago by signing that Brexit protocol on Northern Ireland himself?
“You believe that the prime minister now genuinely wants to find a solution to this problem. He told me that he is very committed to this goal.”
Your decision to unilaterally remove the protocol has unleashed the fury of the EU, which threatens retaliation. Aren’t you afraid of them?
“We are in contact with the EU and with the vice president of the Commission Sefcovic, as well as with the Irish government. But so far neither the EU nor Dublin have made it clear that they want to move from their position”.
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The Irish Prime Minister, the “Taoiseach” Michéal Martin, has called the new British law against the protocol “economic vandalism, unilateralism of the worst kind”.
“Martin has to be careful what he says. The Irish government has to make a clear choice: the protocol or the Good Friday Peace Accords. There is no alternative. What matters more to Dublin? Peace and stability in Ireland. of the North or a Protocol which, among other things, destroys the local economy? That is the decision. The two cannot coexist “.
Yet several associations of Northern Irish entrepreneurs and the same economic data of the first months of 2022 say the opposite: the economy of Northern Ireland seems to enjoy the special status of belonging to two different markets (European and British) and in fact it is the area which today grows more in the UK along with London.
“That’s not true. We have many other entrepreneurs who tell us the opposite. The truckers’ association has declared that with the protocol the prices for the transport of goods from Great Britain have increased by 30%, all this affects citizens at the supermarket , which among other things are less able to supply their shelves. And this happens when customs controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland have not yet gone to full capacity. When that happens, it will be a tsunami for us “.
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But it’s also an ideological question, isn’t it?
“We must be free to trade with our own country, as is the case in the rest of Europe. Border controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are absurd. We don’t want to limit trade with the EU, we just want to restore that. natural with our own country “.
But now Europe is threatening to exclude Northern Irish companies from the European Single Market if the British law against the Protocol continues.
“Oh yeah? And how will they do it? Will they really put a boundary between the two Irish girls, the very ones announcing they want the opposite” to protect the Good Friday peace accords? They should have an examination of conscience “.
What is it like to govern with Sinn Féin, for a decidedly unionist party like yours?
“There are obviously many differences and inconsistencies between us, but a coalition government is always the same, with the same challenges, whether in Northern Ireland or in Italy”.
Do you think Sinn Féin has severed all ties with the IRA?
“No, and the Northern Irish Police Chief (Chief Constable) confirmed it: there is still an IRA board of directors that is still linked to Sinn Féin, according to the same report.”
But Sinn Féin won the last election. Do you fear a reunification of Ireland?
“No, not at all. The polls are constant and every year they show that at least 60% of the population want to continue to stay in the Kingdom. Our unionism is much stronger than Sinn Féin, even in the local Stormont Parliament. Furthermore, Sinn Féin has no won the elections. Or at least we are not talking about a historic victory. They only have 29% of the votes and 27 seats, they did not win one. While the unionist front has split into multiple parties. To say that they have achieved a historic result is only a myth. So it is not true that we are moving towards a reunification of Ireland. “
But, according to demographic trends, nationalists and Catholics will soon be a majority in Northern Ireland as well. Are you unionists undergoing some sort of siege syndrome?
“Absolutely not. Take these numbers with a grain of salt. There are fewer and fewer declaring themselves Catholics or Protestants, and there are many Catholics against reunification. Not surprisingly, every year, every poll in Northern Ireland speaks of 60%. overall against reunification. And this figure does not change “.
The United States and the administration of Joe Biden, of Irish descent among other things, are very critical of the new anti-Brexit Protocol law and your barricades.
“It worries me that so many in the American establishment do not understand the reasons for us unionists. After 25 years, they should have realized that peace is something that takes two. Northern Ireland is something very complex. Bill Clinton, for for example, he came here without prejudice towards both political sides. I hope that the American leadership will abandon this partisan approach, which does not help anyone “.
Do you think Joe Biden is too biased on the Irish question?
“I think there are many in the current US administration who do not have a balanced approach to the Northern Irish question. Biden was not balanced in this regard, unlike his predecessors.”
Sir Jeffrey, but in the end, after all this political chaos that we are and are experiencing, do you regret having supported Brexit, along with Dup?
“No. We knew that the first post-release years would be complicated. But I am convinced that the freedom of Brexit is a good thing for the country, which is why it will prosper.”