Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott has responded to Martin McGuinness’s comments that a United Ireland is ‘inevitable’ by accusing the republican Leader of refusing to accept the reality of defeat.
Mr Elliott said:
“Martin McGuinness is in the unenviable position of having to persuade the republican grass-roots that the IRA’s terrorist campaign did not end in failure.
“Having engaged in a near 30 year violent terrorist campaign to end British Rule in Northern Ireland the IRA was forced to accept the grim reality of defeat in 1998. Now it is locked into a partitionist settlement, its political wing administers British Rule in Northern Ireland, it publicly supports the Police and Courts and its Leaders dine with Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle and welcome her on visits to Belfast.
“Is that why so many young republicans took up arms and were sent to their deaths by their terrorist godfathers? The ‘lucky’ ones were sent to the Maze. I doubt they served their time dreaming of a future in which Martin McGuinness sat down to a State Banquet in Windsor Castle.
“Faced with this reality it is little wonder that Martin McGuinness feels the need to tell republicans in Omagh that a United Ireland is ‘inevitable.’ He needs to give them some kind of recognisable vision of republican ideology to cling to, because the reality and scale of the failure of the IRA’s murder campaign is very unpalatable for republicans indeed.
“Recent election results, opinion polls and the Life & Times Survey all indicate an overwhelming majority of people in Northern Ireland in favour of retaining the Union.
“Even if for some inexplicable reason the people of Northern Ireland were one day to vote to leave the fifth largest national economy in the world and take their chances with an economy which has suffered greatly from the uncertainty that has afflicted the Eurozone in recent years, there is no guarantee that the citizens of the Republic of Ireland would want to accommodate us!
“The only thing that is inevitable is that the Union will endure for as long as the majority of people in Northern Ireland want it to. I am confident in the ability of the Union to provide a secure future for all the people of Northern Ireland and to provide the best option for all our people - economically, politically, socially and culturally.”