Doug Beattie Infamous Election Poster
'The Hangman's Noose'
Mr Beattie also hit out at one of the speakers at the event who referred to him as a "traitor". The UUP leader, who has refused to attend the rallies claiming they were raising tensions, said he would "not be bullied, intimidated or distracted".
Mr Beattie announced he would not attend the events after a security alert halted a peace-building event in north Belfast which Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney had been addressing last month.
Ongoing intimidation of UUP leader Doug Beattie the smashed window of his constituency office in Portadown.
Since then, his constituency office in Portadown was attacked and the front window was smashed by a brick.
Reacting to Friday night's events, Mr Beattie said: "It is a poster and some mindless idiots have put a noose around my neck on it - they are not reflective of the vast majority of people who were there. "A poster can go in the bin, a window can be replaced. "My concern for the people of *orthern Ireland remains. Nothing has changed."
Mr Beattie, an Army veteran who has been decorated with the Military Cross, said he was disappointed at being branded a "traitor" by a speaker at the event. He said: "That is where my main disappointment is, in being called a Lundy and a traitor when I'm clearly not. "I am a unionist who supports the union, who will do everything I possibly can for the people of that union.
"I will neither be bullied nor intimidated nor distracted from the path that I believe is the right path for the people of *orthern Ireland, so nothing has changed whatsoever.
"Those who called me a Lundy and traitor or put a double-knotted noose around my neck on a poster are not the people who stood beside me in battle. "They are not the people who I served alongside who were some of the finest men and women who have ever donned the Queen's uniform, as we literally bled blood, sweat and tears in the heart of battle, in the service of our country. "A minority shout the loudest and make a lot of noise as they seek to raise temperatures and create instability in *orthern Ireland, but I believe the silent majority in *orthern Ireland will want no truck with those comments and will despair at the type of leadership it represents for unionism."
Mr Beattie added: "I don't blame the vast majority of people who were there. The people who did it are the ones to blame, they are the ones who have to answer the questions and we should not lay the blame at the feet of others when it was mindless individuals who did it."
Mr Allister said he removed the poster of Mr Beattie from view because he felt its presentation, whether intentional or inadvertent, was "entirely inappropriate".
Follow these links to find out more about this story and the ongoing anti-Protocol rallies: Loyalists Reject Doug Beattie Noose Claims - MJS Writing.
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