{"id":75629,"date":"2025-09-20T17:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75629\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T17:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:35:13","slug":"dup-leader-rounds-on-republics-intolerance-of-protestant-culture-dismisses-irish-unity-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/75629\/","title":{"rendered":"DUP leader rounds on Republic\u2019s \u2018intolerance of Protestant culture\u2019, dismisses Irish unity \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gavin Robinson<\/a>, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party<\/a>, told its annual conference how a united Ireland was not inevitable and would not happen in his lifetime. <\/p>\n

Mr Robinson said \u201cin no circumstances\u201d would he see \u201cthe break-up of our Union\u201d and said the DUP would continue to build support \u201cfor the pro-Union case\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said nationalism\u2019s electoral support had \u201cbarely\u201d changed in the past 25 years and he said he was \u201cconfident\u201d a prediction by Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill<\/a> of a Border poll by 2030 would swiftly \u201cmelt away\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Robinson also used his speech at Saturday\u2019s conference to criticise what he said was the \u201cinstitutional intolerance of Protestant culture and heritage\u201d in the Republic of Ireland. <\/p>\n

Referring to controversy over Fine Gael<\/a> presidential candidate Heather Humphreys\u2019 Orange Order background<\/a>, he described it as \u201ca country where candidates for their highest office are vilified because of their religion and their family\u2019s connection to the Orange institution\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said the Irish government \u201cclaims neutrality, but lectures the world on human rights\u201d, saying it should come as no surprise it made \u201cmoral pronouncements\u201d on what he described as \u201cIsrael\u2019s<\/a> just war in Gaza<\/a>\u201d and it wanted \u201cto be pen pals with Hamas<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"GavinGavin Robinson also spoke of ‘illegal, uncontrolled immigration’ and gender identity. Photograph: Peter Morrison\/PA <\/p>\n

During a panel discussion titled Promoting Northern Ireland\u2019s Place in the United Kingdom, Prof Peter Shirlow, director of the University of Liverpool\u2019s institute of Irish studies, discussed pro-Union events he has held across Northern Ireland and said the response had been consistently positive even among non-unionists. <\/p>\n

Panel chair Sammy Wilson, one of a number of speakers at the conference who stressed the need to promote the Union in an upbeat manner, said there was \u201ca world of people out there, maybe not committed DUP supporters, but who want to stay part of the UK\u201d. <\/p>\n

The East Antrim MP said the party \u201cmust find a way of getting our message out to them\u201d. <\/p>\n

Several hundred delegates attended Saturday\u2019s conference at the La Mon House Hotel outside Belfast. <\/p>\n

A protest was held outside by members of the Burke family, who held placards featuring statements including ones saying \u201cDUP denies Christian belief\u201d and accusing the party of \u201csacrificing children to LCBTQI+ agenda\u201d. <\/p>\n

Inside the conference hall, there was a standing ovation for Mr Robinson as he addressed his second conference as party leader. <\/p>\n

His was a confident speech \u2013 reflecting the level of support he enjoyed in the party \u2013 which was clearly looking ahead to the 2027 Assembly<\/a> election and, though it was not referred to by name, conscious of the need to see off the threat from the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice<\/a> (TUV). <\/p>\n

There was the customary emphasis on unionist unity, but also a strong defence of devolution \u2013 the TUV opposes the Belfast Agreement \u2013 and the DUP\u2019s return to Stormont last year. <\/p>\n

He also mentioned the \u201cimpact of illegal and uncontrolled immigration\u201d, gender identity and the party\u2019s support for \u201ccommon sense\u201d over \u201cradical woke ideology\u201d. <\/p>\n

Reacting afterwards, Jon Tonge, professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, said: \u201cThis year was a return to form for the DUP and a no-holds-barred speech by Gavin Robinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big message was \u2018Stormont over Starmer\u2019, so there was no prospect of collapsing the Assembly and that\u2019s a much more positive message, a sensible message, to go into the Assembly election with.\u201d <\/p>\n

Waiting for them will be TUV leader Jim Allister<\/a>, who Prof Tonge said was preparing to pounce on every mistake the DUP made. <\/p>\n

The decision the party would face was whether to go on the direct attack against the TUV as the election loomed, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe DUP\u2019s got its zip back,\u201d Prof Tonge said. <\/p>\n

Mr Robinson earlier this week said it would be ridiculous to call, 19 months out, the start of the Assembly election campaign.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not how it felt here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis, to me, fired the starting pistol,\u201d Prof Tonge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, told its annual conference how a united Ireland was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,31778,4776,18,13,14,553,40332,3761,6,555,19,17,3857,51351,11,12,15,16,34866,5,954,51352,51349,7,8,51350],"class_list":{"0":"post-75629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-democratic-unionist-party","11":"tag-dup-links","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-fine-gael","16":"tag-gavin-robinson","17":"tag-gaza-strip","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-heather-humphreys","20":"tag-ie","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","23":"tag-jim-allister","24":"tag-latest-news","25":"tag-latestnews","26":"tag-main-news","27":"tag-mainnews","28":"tag-michelle-o-neill","29":"tag-news","30":"tag-northern-ireland","31":"tag-republic","32":"tag-stormont-assembly","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-topstories","35":"tag-traditional-unionist-voice"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}