July 14, 2023 - 12:30pm
Former first minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster has said her biggest regret is not bringing down Theresa May’s government over her proposed Brexit deal. The admission came in an interview with UnHerd’s podcast These Times, in which Foster discusses her time as first minister during which she signed a confidence and supply agreement to keep the Conservative Party in power after the 2017 general election.
In the interview, Foster rejects the idea that she should have accepted May’s “soft” Brexit deal, in which the whole of the UK — including Northern Ireland — would have remained in a customs union with the EU, thereby avoiding some of the most invasive border checks now required to manage trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland under the so-called “protocol”.
Instead, the Baroness says the real lesson she has taken away from her time in office is that she was not hard enough with the UK government from the beginning, failing both to secure a role for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in the Brexit negotiations and to pull the plug on the confidence and supply agreement when it became clear May intended to permanently bind Northern Ireland to EU single market rules.
Foster’s reflections on her time in office were part of a wide-ranging interview in which she also spoke openly for the first time about the DUP rebellion that forced her from power in 2021, naming Edwin Poots and Ian Paisley Jr as the “ringleaders” of the plot. The interview also covered her time growing up in Fermanagh during the Troubles, when the IRA attempted to murder her father in what Foster said was a form of ethnic cleansing from Republican terrorists trying to create a “Brit-free zone” along the border with the Republic.
In the interview Foster also argues that:
- Northern Ireland should never have been given its own parliament and would today be better off had it simply remained a normal part of the UK without devolved government in 1922.
- People on the mainland are too “glib” about the demands placed on unionists in Northern Ireland to share power with Republicans, some of whom committed terrorist attacks.
- Sinn Fein is still not being honest about the sectarian nature of the IRA’s terror campaign during the Troubles, which is holding back peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
- That she was removed from power, in part, because of her Anglicanism, her relative liberalism and the fact that she is a woman.
The interview is available in full here.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeCan’t disagree with her on anything she has said; especially bringing down the government. Supporting the awful Theresa May was a terrible mistake.
Can’t disagree with her on anything she has said; especially bringing down the government. Supporting the awful Theresa May was a terrible mistake.
On the final 4 bullet points:
No.1 – something in that as the full UK would never have stood for the way the Loyalist majority treated and disenfranchised the catholic minority. We might have ended up with a completely different position. Not clear if she has insight into how much the Loyalist ascendancy and how it behaved helped fuel a powder keg. One suspects limited recognition.
No.2 – it is understandable how she will feel having had her family subject to attacks. PIRA was certainly the most murderous of the paramilitaries but they were far from alone and atrocities committed on both communities. The GFA included the Loyalist paramilitaries.
No.3 – generating sectarian fear a tactic used by all sides during the Troubles. British Security forces will never fully admit they acquiesced in sectarian terror committed by Loyalists as it had become believed essential to drive Republicans to negotiate. It was murderous and dirty all round.
No.4 – she’s probably part-right on this, but also the Brexit strategy of the DUP had been an utter failure. The mendacity to use Brexit to re-open the GFA settlement unravelled and it has rebounded on them. She is unlikely to admit that.
It was certainly not the DUP which used Brexit to reopen the GFA. It was EU, prompted by the Fine Gael government in Ireland, attempting to steal a march on Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein domestically. And that has certainly rebounded on them.
Separately, no one disputes that the IRA were far from alone in committing atrocities during the Troubles. Uniquely however, their political wing has been in government, and their victims have had to put up with terrorists, and apologists for terrorists, holding ministerial office, and rewriting history.
We can agree to disagree on your first point I’m sure. I think the DUP knew exactly what it was up to but miscalculated.
As regards second point – Michelle O’Neill? No they are still using history to avoid confronting the future for the people of NI.
We can agree to disagree on your first point I’m sure. I think the DUP knew exactly what it was up to but miscalculated.
As regards second point – Michelle O’Neill? No they are still using history to avoid confronting the future for the people of NI.
It was certainly not the DUP which used Brexit to reopen the GFA. It was EU, prompted by the Fine Gael government in Ireland, attempting to steal a march on Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein domestically. And that has certainly rebounded on them.
Separately, no one disputes that the IRA were far from alone in committing atrocities during the Troubles. Uniquely however, their political wing has been in government, and their victims have had to put up with terrorists, and apologists for terrorists, holding ministerial office, and rewriting history.
On the final 4 bullet points:
No.1 – something in that as the full UK would never have stood for the way the Loyalist majority treated and disenfranchised the catholic minority. We might have ended up with a completely different position. Not clear if she has insight into how much the Loyalist ascendancy and how it behaved helped fuel a powder keg. One suspects limited recognition.
No.2 – it is understandable how she will feel having had her family subject to attacks. PIRA was certainly the most murderous of the paramilitaries but they were far from alone and atrocities committed on both communities. The GFA included the Loyalist paramilitaries.
No.3 – generating sectarian fear a tactic used by all sides during the Troubles. British Security forces will never fully admit they acquiesced in sectarian terror committed by Loyalists as it had become believed essential to drive Republicans to negotiate. It was murderous and dirty all round.
No.4 – she’s probably part-right on this, but also the Brexit strategy of the DUP had been an utter failure. The mendacity to use Brexit to re-open the GFA settlement unravelled and it has rebounded on them. She is unlikely to admit that.
It is the height of hypocrisy for any Unionist to whinge about Ethnic Cleansing when their entire raison d’être is based on Ethnic Cleansing. Ethnic Cleansing of the Catholic population of the 6 counties was the official policy of the state of Northern Ireland . When it comes to ethnic cleansing the unionists have no equal . In fact they wouldn’t exist if it was not for their enthusiastic embrace of the practice of ethnic cleansing
It is the height of hypocrisy for any Unionist to whinge about Ethnic Cleansing when their entire raison d’être is based on Ethnic Cleansing. Ethnic Cleansing of the Catholic population of the 6 counties was the official policy of the state of Northern Ireland . When it comes to ethnic cleansing the unionists have no equal . In fact they wouldn’t exist if it was not for their enthusiastic embrace of the practice of ethnic cleansing
Fermanagh was the most obvious example of Unionist discrimination against the Catholic population of the sectarian northern Irish statelet .
Catholic nationalists were the majority in Fermanagh yet when Foster was growing up there , out of 370 jobs in Fermanagh county council only 32 went to Catholics and these jobs were at the pick and shovel end of the spectrum .
Of 1589 council houses in Fermanagh 1021 were let to Protestants and 568 to Catholics . This in a majority Catholic county.
Because of unionist gerrymandering of the constituency unionist were able to return two representatives to the nationalists one even though unionist got less votes than the nationalist .
Fosters daddy took up arms against his Irish Catholic neighbors maintain this sectarian discrimination
Fermanagh was the most obvious example of Unionist discrimination against the Catholic population of the sectarian northern Irish statelet .
Catholic nationalists were the majority in Fermanagh yet when Foster was growing up there , out of 370 jobs in Fermanagh county council only 32 went to Catholics and these jobs were at the pick and shovel end of the spectrum .
Of 1589 council houses in Fermanagh 1021 were let to Protestants and 568 to Catholics . This in a majority Catholic county.
Because of unionist gerrymandering of the constituency unionist were able to return two representatives to the nationalists one even though unionist got less votes than the nationalist .
Fosters daddy took up arms against his Irish Catholic neighbors maintain this sectarian discrimination