He spent his career in the spotlight, but the world will see very different images of ex-DUP leader this week
Libel law prevents me from saying which Northern Ireland politician I thought most likely to ever sit in a dock facing criminal offences, but it most definitely was not Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
I’m still struggling to believe that someone I’ve known since I entered journalism will appear before Newry Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with historical sex crimes.
Dissident republicans, drug dealers and Donaldson all set to show up in the same venue on the same day. Three weeks on from Good Friday when this bombshell news story broke, it remains hard to take in.
Never before have so many members of the media been poised to descend on Newry Courthouse. Every single second that the former DUP leader is in public view will be scrutinised.
Arriving at the court, talking to his lawyer, sitting in the dock facing the judge, and how he responds to the journalists present, many of whom he will know, will all be under the microscope. Everybody will be watching how he carries himself, his eye contact, his body language.
Will the Christian fish symbol that never left his lapel when he was in frontline politics still be there? Have the events of the last few weeks visibly affected him?
It remains to be seen how much detail the media will actually be allowed to report. Donaldson is far from the only person central to this case. There are those who will not physically be present in court, but who have put their faith in the criminal justice system.
There has been speculation that he mightn’t turn up in person in Newry Courthouse, but rather appear by video link. At the time of writing, it’s understood that no such application has been made by his lawyer.
We haven’t seen Donaldson since he was charged by police with one count of rape, one count of gross indecency, and nine counts of indecent assault – allegations he has indicated he will be “strenuously contesting”.
He’s been bailed to an address in London, but has been keeping a very low profile. He owns a one-bedroom apartment on the Greenwich Peninsula near the O2, the former Millennium Dome.
Yet, despite their best efforts, no journalist has been able to catch even a fleeting glimpse of him. Many have been wondering how and when he will travel to Northern Ireland.
Boarding a plane and sitting with other passengers given the high profile of this case will surely make any flight uncomfortable.
The last images of Donaldson were very different from the next ones we will see. He was at a Christian Easter service at Stormont on Holy Thursday. ‘Prayers for the Assembly’ was a cross-community event attended by some of Northern Ireland’s most senior church leaders.
Sir Jeffrey posed with them at the foot of the steps of Stormont’s Great Hall. He looked happy and relaxed.
At the top of that grand staircase hangs a painting of another former DUP leader. In a characteristic coat and hat, the Rev Ian Paisley gives the impression that he is watching over everything.
Paisley was pushed out of leadership by his colleagues in 2008, but his departure was very different to Donaldson’s. He continued as an MP for two years. Just three weeks after stepping down from the House of Commons, he was made a life peer.
Following his death in 2014, a public memorial attended by almost 1,000 people was held in the Ulster Hall.
Also on the first floor of Parliament Buildings hangs a portrait of David Trimble. Unlike Donaldson, electoral defeat at Westminster preceded his leadership exit.
Trimble resigned after losing his Upper Bann seat in 2005. As with Paisley, he was appointed to the House of Lords.
History has been kind almost universally to Trimble, and partially to Paisley due to him compromising in his latter years.
Sir Jeffrey had also opposed the Good Friday Agreement and, by collapsing power-sharing in 2022, was viewed negatively by a clear majority in Northern Ireland.
However, his successful efforts to restore devolution in January was changing public opinion of him. His personal rating had risen 12 percentage points in LucidTalk’s last poll in February.
Donaldson had finally found his mojo. He worked wonders to bring a majority – albeit a slim one – of the DUP’s officer board behind his deal.
He gave what was hailed as the speech of his life in the House of Commons. He actively sold his agreement to bring back Stormont, and rounded ferociously on his hardline critics.
This was Sir Jeffrey as we’d never seen him. He went from dithering to decisive, from feeble to formidable. He’d been in politics for four decades, but the feeling was that his greatest years lay in front of him.
His place in the history books as a substantial unionist leader appeared to be taking shape, and then everything changed utterly.
Donaldson will now be written about and remembered for very different reasons. He is strenuously denying the charges he is facing but, regardless of the outcome of court proceedings, he will leave public life in a way none of us could have imagined.
There will be no praise from party colleagues or political rivals when he quits as Lagan Valley MP later this year. No peerage will follow.
Holy Thursday was likely his last visit to Stormont. He surely won’t set foot in Parliament Buildings again, and it’s impossible to envisage Donaldson's portrait ever looking down from its walls.
by Ah_here_like
5 comments
Should stand down and have a by election maybe? He’s not convicted but hard to see if he’s doing much for his constituency.
>There will be no praise from party colleagues or political rivals when he quits as Lagan Valley MP later this year. No peerage will follow.
Well there was plenty of praise for former DUP and TUV representative Davy Tweed who was charged multiple times and convicted of 13 counts of gross indecency, who served four years in prison.
Jim Allister, Mervyn Storey and Ian Paisley all paid tributes to him. So let’s not be so hasty.
# exit public life in a way no one could have imagined
He is a sick nonce. The sympathetic tone in this argument is sick.
Did anyone else notice the “libel laws prevent me from which Northern Ireland politician I thought most likely to sit in a dock facing criminal offenses” lol