What does the future hold for Unionism?
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The Pat Kenny Show. With Timber Living Log Cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts. Now, it's the 12th of July, the highlight of the Northern Ireland marching season. Traditionally, it's a day of celebration for the loyalist community. But following a tumultuous couple of years culminating in last month's conviction of former DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson for the gravest of sex offences, many unionists may feel they have little reason this year to bang the drum. To consider what all of this means for the future of unionism and for politics more broadly in Northern Ireland, I'm joined by Deirdre Heenan, Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University and a political commentator.
Deirdre, good morning and welcome. Good morning, Pat. So it should be a different mood in unionism, in loyalism at this 12th because of what happened to Geoffrey Donaldson.
How did Jeffrey Donaldson's conviction change the mood of the 12th of July marches?
He brought it on himself, of course, but convicted on the gravest of charges. Is that how unionists are feeling?
Well, I think, as you rightly say, as celebrations for the 12th of July are about to kick off, it doesn't feel for political unionism or indeed unionism that there's much to celebrate. Allegations of sleaze, sexual harassment by Donaldson have emerged since his conviction for child rape. And there are claims that the party officials within the DUP turned a blind eye to reports of drunken behaviour, projectile vomiting, sexual harassment and people are really now questioning will this episode really begin to see the decline of the DUP as an electoral force and what will that mean then for unionism, unionism in general and what will it mean for power sharing here in the north?
Now the question of His behavior, I mean, projectile vomiting on the mayor of Beijing seems like something that should have been reported. I mean, just imagine if it happened anywhere else, it would be splashed all over the place. There'd be resignations. There would be scandal. How was that kept under wraps?
Well, I think that is the question that people are asking themselves, but also people, particularly people who voted for that party. And many people talk about not only they voted for the party, but their fathers voted for their party, their grandfathers voted. Or, you know, it's a generational thing, but people feel that they have been completely hoodwinked. And that is why political unionism is facing this existential crisis. Remember, the The conviction of Geoffrey Donaldson and the subsequent allegations has shattered the image of this God-fearing party. These Christians, fundamental Christians, who felt it was their job to tell people what their moral standards should be, how they should live their lives.
And I have no doubt when Gavin Robinson came out after the conviction and robustly said, you know, this is absolutely appalling, a violent, wicked man. We want nothing to do with him. He perhaps thought, well, I can now draw a line under this and we can move on. That is not happening. It has snowballed. It's allegation after allegation. And a large part of this is the public saying, as you rightly say, how did this happen? How did we not know? Or more importantly, who knew? Who knew what? Who knew when? And what the public were shown, what the public were told, was clearly a hypocrisy of the highest standard. So you feel hurt. You feel you're made a fool of. And how do you recover? How do the public come back in less than a year's time and say, after all, we're going to vote for this party again?
We're going to go back and have faith and trust and confidence in what we are told.
Now, the elections next May, isn't it? There will be assembly elections and local elections simultaneously, which complicates matters for the parties, because if you lose in one, you tend to lose in both.
Yes, it is complicated, but we are already on election footing. We can see the behaviour of the large parties. It's about looking to their base, trying to shore up their base. But regardless, in terms of unionism and indeed across the political piece here, voters here are alienated, disillusioned and really feel that we are in a process of drift.
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