N.Ireland’s DUP warns of ‘divisive’ Irish unity referendum

With pro-Irish nationalists Sinn Fein expected to win provincial elections this week, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader warned against a “divisive” referendum on Irish unity on Monday.

Voters head to the ballot box in the UK province on Thursday with polls predicting pro-Irish nationalists Sinn Fein will become the largest party in Northern Ireland’s regional assembly.

That could enable the former political wing of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA) to lead a power-sharing government for the first time.

Pro-UK unionists like DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson who have held power for more than a century since Northern Ireland was created, argue Sinn Fein will use power to push for an all-Ireland plebiscite on re-joining the Republic of Ireland to the south.

“It’s a clear choice in Northern Ireland at this polling day. It is between the DUP and our five-point plan to address the issues that really matter to people in Northern Ireland and Sinn Fein’s divisive border poll,” Donaldson told AFP in an interview.

Thursday’s vote follows a torrid year for the DUP, which in February withdrew its first minister from Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements, prompting the executive’s collapse.

The party has refused to return to the Stormont government unless changes are made to the trading rules in the province agreed between the UK and the European Union, known as the Northern Ireland protocol.

Unionist leaders argue it has created an internal border with mainland Britain across the Irish Sea.

Donaldson, campaigning in the town of Hollywood, also hit out over reports that Sinn Fein had sought a dialogue with the political wing of the New IRA in 2020.

The militant group, one of a number of dissident republican paramilitary groups opposed to the shift towards non-violent tactics to bring about a united Ireland, has admitted responsibility for the 2019 slaying of journalist Lyra McKee.

“Sinn Fein want to work in alliance with dissident republicans, people who are continuing to engage in violence, people who have committed murders on our streets in Northern Ireland,” Donaldson said.