Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Loyalists who are opposed to the Northern Ireland Protocol “haven’t got a clue” about how it works, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Brexit Institute at Dublin City University (DCU) today, the former Fianna Fáil leader said loyalists view the arrangements as being solely about identity.
Unionist politicians have since hit out at the comments.
Great contribution from ex-#Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in our Q&A, exploring impact of #NIProtocol on #GoodFridayAgreement, potential border poll and whether most people understand the Protocol #NIProtocolConf@DCU pic.twitter.com/qhXq67UrH2
— DCU Brexit Institute (@DCU_Brexit_Inst) November 18, 2021
The former Taoiseach said the contentious post-Brexit arrangements are not properly understood by the community, and viewed as a backdoor to a united Ireland.
He said: “I spend a lot of my life still in the North. The reality is in East Belfast and in the ghettos and in the areas where you’re likely to get trouble, is that people haven’t got a clue about the protocol, not a clue.”
“They see it as identity.”
“They see it as a road to the Dublin Government taking over again and this is a pathway to that.”
“That’s the hard reality.”
”The protocol was designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, by introducing controls in the Irish Sea on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Implementation
The EU and the UK remain deadlocked in negotiations over its implementation, with the new barriers to East/West trade creating tensions in some loyalist and unionist communities.
Bertie Ahern, who is one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement, said the idea that Protocol is about trade “just passes them by.”
He added: “In fact they’re not interested.”
“It’s seen as a trick by the south to move the border from across the island, and to put it down the Irish Sea, as a trap for government.”
“That’s how they see it.”
“Even those who you might consider to be a bit more intelligent and articulate. That is the difficulty.”
Ahern said negotiations over the protocol are made more difficult by this view.
He said: “We’re trying to do two things.”
“We’re trying to solve the difficulties of medicine and meats and everything else in the protocol.“
“But there’s another issue in the protocol, and that’s what is in the head and the ideological one, and that’s a far more difficult one to deal with.“
“(DUP leader) Jeffrey Donaldson well understands how we might get over the detail, and the reason he keeps on about the other issue is because he’s trying to – which I don’t blame him for – he’s trying to serve the loyalist community as well.”
Coming from the Dublin elite the snide comments in this piece about loyalist communities are despicable. https://t.co/y5ABz9YGNg
— Diane Dodds MLA (@DianeDoddsMLA) November 18, 2021
DUP reaction
DUP MP for East Belfast Gavin Robinson called on Ahern to apologise for his comments.
“To associate East Belfast with a ghetto and suggest loyalists are not able to understand the protocol is demeaning and degrading,” he said.
“People in my constituency who can’t get their Amazon parcels from another part of the United Kingdom well understand the impact of the protocol.”
“Rather than belittling those who oppose the protocol, Bertie Ahern should seek to understand why not a single elected unionist in Northern Ireland supports the protocol.”
“As a man who was central to the Belfast Agreement being negotiated, Bertie should be honest in recognising that the protocol does alter Northern Ireland’s status within the United Kingdom single market without any consent from people living here.”
Senior DUP MLA Diane Dodds was also critical.In a post on Twitter, she said: “Coming from the Dublin elite the snide comments in this piece about loyalist communities are despicable.”
EU package
Speaking earlier, the Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the EU had offered a comprehensive package to the UK, aimed at easing the effects of the Protocol.
He said: “This package represented a significant compromise for the EU.”
“The lack of any evident reciprocal willingness to compromise from our UK partners to date has been deeply disappointing.”
“The protocol was agreed by Lord Frost and Prime Minister [Boris] Johnson, approved by this British government and ratified by the current UK Parliament.”
“They have a duty to deliver on their commitments.”
“It is very important we do not lose sight of the goal here, ensuring an outcome that is best for the people of Northern Ireland.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Good man Bertie, euros or sterling for that gig ?
@Brian Murphy: Bertie was schooled by Haughey, Martin was schooled by Bertie, FF the most corrupt party in the history of our state. The poor quarehawk thinks he has a chance of becoming president, lol.
@Frank Cauldhame: yawn.
@Siobhán Breen Malone: But Frank is right siobhan.
@Frank Cauldhame: He needs to be shorter to be president.
@Siobhán Breen Malone: Yawn? Maybe have a coffee and wake up to the institutional politics FF have offered this country. Scandal and sleaze and you ‘yawn’ at this? Problem 101 this country has is an inability to hold its democratically elected politicians to a higher standard. Have a voice, one way or the other, don’t just ‘yawn’ FCS.
He’s not wrong in this case……. Never thought I say that about anything Bertie has uttered.
@Peter B: in fairness, it isn’t just about trade as increased trade in the island is likely to bring more unity in the long run
@Peter B: He’s 100% right in what he is saying.
@Peter B: Agreed he helped in our peace process and was a good negotiator, but also created a huge tax burden on our countrym
@Dizzy: Bill Clinton played a role in the GFA also but he is, like Bertie, hardly what you’d call a man of virtue. Unfortunately John Hume is no longer with us, he was the greatest negotiator of those talks and had an unblemished character.
@Frank Cauldhame:
Rubbish he was forced to the table by Clinton and Albert Reynolds,
The GFA is the 1921 treaty repackaged as new
Except for power shearing, it was John Major who started the ball rolling not Hume or the SDLP. They where left with no choice,
@Ciaran: gangster
An ex minister of finance should’ve known how a bank account works.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: brilliant
Why are the media giving this guy any airtime?
@pkunzip doom2.zip: because, like it or not, he knows his stuff on this particular topic.
@pkunzip doom2.zip: the man was instrumental in the good Friday agreement
Da money I got for dis event wasn’t lodged.
Fock off Bertie, the general public don’t want to see hide nor hair of you.
My thoughts exactly when I seen his name…..fook right off. Oh, is there a presidential election soon???!!@!!!….. expect to hear more and more of this guy over the coming months
@:
@Go On: I never thought I would say this but it is nice to see one of ‘ our’ politicians make a stand against DUP fake news. Will never ever ever ever vote for him but for the first time I do agree with him
Loyalists oppose everything regardless of who says it, even if it Bertie or even Paddy the Plasterer (sorry just had to get the dig in)says it.
A prize gombeen of the highest order. A total embarrassment.
Nevermind Loyalists, the British government who negotiated it haven’t a clue how it works
Despite how you feel about Bertie he is right here.
Reminds me of you Bertie when you were Toiseagh bless ya, you hadn’t a pot to piss in let alone a bank account.
@Mick Andrews: Allegedly their was that bank account in Manchester. But when questioned at the tribunal. Bertie was asked ‘if he had an Irish bank account.’
Anyone going through a divorce needs foreign bank account. Not just politicians.
Away with your Shoebox Bertie.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this but I agree with Bertie on this, and just as I typed that my gag reflex kicked in. Ghetto is a fair term for impoverished area with higher crime rates and less education so the DUP need to get a grip asking for apologies for a correct assessment. The DUP have been dragging their heels building customs infrastructure for nearly a year now.
Don’t dare apologise.
Usually these stories bring out a lot of talk about Boris and Brexit and Unionists being from the Jurassic era, it’s refreshing to see people have overcome all that and all it took was Bertie to appear!
Those who complain the most, often know the least.
it was very insulting to the great intellects of Loyalism such as Jamie bryson.
@matthew o reilly: and how is Jamie vindaloo bwyson these days?
Why don’t ye use the picture from the zoom instead of the one from 1997? Because he looks like a troll who lives under a bridge now?
Ah bertie what rock were ya hiding under
Emotional identity issues need very delicate handling.
Bertie, 5hut y0ur trap and climb back int0 that 5leazy 5ewer where you’re living off a pension for a job that you failed to do
Says Paddy the plasterer.
Time for this discredited politician to leave the stage.
Every few weeks i see a bertie “thinks” article.Gonna say it once…no bertie im not gonna vote for you when you run for president. (unless theres any extra bags of swag left in yer wardrobe, and you can give me a “dig out”?) ahhh jazus……
People should check out the BBC”s take on this they are more or less a tabloid at this stage.
It’s coming to winter time, it’s wet it’s cold it’s miserable, so the chances of trouble are slim
The headline needs spell checking.
@Patrick Corr: Go on, enlighten me
Like him, dislike him, he nailed it. Nobody else can say what he said.
As so many here have pointed out he is an ex politician.
Politicians cant, well reasonable ones that don’t like to cause chaos at every hands turn.
The people that will do best out of the Protocol is the people of Northern Ireland.
You could not make it up, except we have seen it before.
Back to the old joke, “Ulster says NO!!!! Now what was the question?”
have your say