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Newry and Armagh MLA Gareth Wilson has criticised a Fine Gael document launched at the party's weekend Ard Fheis. Wilson said the document 'A blueprint for a unified Island' amounts to a forum, a junior minister and a promise to keep talking. He said families in Newry and Armagh still live with what was done by terrorists who used the border as a shield and are still waiting for answers. Wilson said unionists will engage with Dublin as good neighbours but will not take part in a process designed to dismantle the Union.
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Speaking about the legacy of the border, Wilson said: “Here in Newry and Armagh, families still live with what was done by terrorists who used the border as a shield, and too many of them are still waiting for answers. The Irish state has never faced anything like the scrutiny it demands of the UK. Dublin should tell the truth about its role in our past before it tries to decide the future.”
On the blueprint itself, the Newry and Armagh MLA said: “Fine Gael has spent five months producing a blueprint, and what it has come up with is a forum, a junior minister and a promise to keep talking. This is a race in Dublin to look the greenest - it has nothing to do with the people of Northern Ireland.
“Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom rests on the consent of the people who live here. Fine Gael signed up to that principle. No forum, no secretariat and no five-year talking shop in Dublin changes it.
“Before Dublin sets about planning a fantasy future, it should be honest about its part in our past.”
Wilson said there is a role for engagement on other matters. “If the Irish Republic wants good relations with its neighbours, there is plenty of real work to do. Unionists will engage on that as good neighbours always have. What we won’t do is take part in a process designed to dismantle the Union we’re proud to belong to.
He concluded: “Northern Ireland has moved on. Dublin would do well to catch up.”
