A NEW book has revealed how DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson previously maintained that the Northern Ireland Protocol was a trade issue that would not affect the north’s constitutional position in the UK.
The comments, which feature in ‘Perils and Prospects of a United Ireland’, a new work by Dublin-born academic Padraig O’Malley, contrast to the DUP’s current position on the Irish Sea border checks.
The official DUP position, laid out in the party's seven tests, state the post-Brexit settlement for the north, which includes checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea, is not compatible with article six of the Act of Union 1800.
But in an interview with Professor O’Malley on December 15 2020, just weeks before the protocol came into effect, Mr Donaldson struck a very different chord. “I don’t accept that Brexit has fundamentally changed the constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom," he said.
“What it has done is changed the way that we trade. What it has done is changed the way that we do business, but it hasn’t altered the constitution of the UK.”
Renown as a peace broker in both the north and South Africa, Boston-based Professor O’Malley has a longstanding relationship with Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
He was part of the delegation the academic brought to South Africa in 1997 to meet with Nelson Mandela.
Professor O’Malley also brought Mr Donaldson and Martin McGuinness to Helsinki for a peace summit with Iraqi leaders in 2007.
In his interview, conducted before he became DUP leader, Sir Jeffrey accepted Brexit would redefine north-south relationships, but said: “As a unionist, I don’t see Brexit as a threat to the Union.
“I don’t see Brexit as getting in the way of good relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
“I think that, yes, it will redefine how those relationships go forward.
“It will have an impact on them, but it doesn’t mean that those relationships will fracture.”
The interview came a number of months after he told BBC Spotlight: “In the end, customs checks doesn’t mean that you change the constitutional status of a part of the United Kingdom — that’s not going to happen.”
