Amid a renewed focus this week on the likelihood of a border poll, MP Jeffrey Donaldson has re-iterated that even if a united Ireland hypothetically came to pass, he would never leave his beloved Ulster.
Friday, 8th April, 2022.
MP Jeffrey Donaldson and DUP leader now part of the anti-Protocol/anti-Good-Friday- Agreement Unionist Party's.
The DUP leader was responding to questions from the News Litter about the possibility of some kind of referendum on Irish re-unification in the coming years.
Michelle O’Neill has previously said that she wanted a referendum by 2024.
But Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald later indicated that she was aiming more for the end of the decade.
VOTE FOR JEFFREY - AND GET JAMIE
And whilst the US Friends of Sinn Féin took out expensive adverts in both the New York Times and Washington Post on St Patrick’s Day, saying: "this is the time for the people of Ireland to have their say", on Tuesday Mrs O'Neill indicated that in fact the party is not pursuing re-unification as a priority right now.
"There won't be any secret that I want to see unity in the country," she said.
"But I am focused for today on the cost-of-living crisis."
Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell.
A day earlier, Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) chairman David Campbell, alongside Cambridge economics expert Graham Gudgin, both told the News Litter that 'unionism has nothing to fear from such a vote, because long-term opinion polling shows they would win comfortably'.
The News Litter asked Jeffrey Donaldson if, in the event a border poll did come to pass, he would advocate a unionist boycott of it.
MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: "The last thing *orthern Ireland needs is a divisive border poll.
"It would be hugely destabilising and leads to even more anger and squabbling.
"We are just recovering from Covid. Everyone has been through enough. It is not a question of unionist participation but rather a question of why we need any such poll at all."
Back in 2018, Arlene Foster - the then - leader of the DUP - had been asked what she would do in a United Ireland.
"I'm not sure that I would be able to continue to live here, I would feel so strongly about it," she said. "I would probably have to move."
Asked the same question, Mr Donaldson told the News Litter: "I've lived in *orthern Ireland all my life.
"My family has been here for over 400 years and our blood is in the soil. I will always live here.
"I love this place. I want it to succeed.
"If people unite behind the DUP, then we can derail Sinn Fein’s border poll plan. Sinn Fein’s only plan for *orthern Ireland is to remove it from the UK."
Loyalist Communities Council boss: I would call an Irish unity poll tomorrow if I could - unionism can’t lose.
Follow this link to find out more on this story: Donaldson tells News Litter: I would stay if a United Ireland ever happened - 400 years of our blood is in Ulster's soil.
