Jeffrey Donaldson’s family has lived in the same part of Northern Ireland for 400 years, in Kilkeel, Co Down, a small fishing town ringed by the Mourne mountains. He is, he says, “a Mourne man”.
His forerunner as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, said she would "probably have to move" if there was a united Ireland. When the question is put to Donaldson, he does not hesitate.
"It would break my heart to see Northern Ireland torn apart from the rest of the United Kingdom, but my family's going nowhere," says Donaldson, who talks at length while the hubbub of the Balmoral Show goes on outside.
“Our roots are here, this is our home, and I love this place. I love the beauty of this place, I love the people of this place. I’ve no intention of going anywhere,” he tells The Irish Times.
“But I will battle all the day long to preserve our place within the United Kingdom and I will battle all the day long to have a peaceful, respectful relationship with my neighbours.”
Now leading the DUP for almost three months, Donaldson has been an elected politician for more than 35 years, winning his first election – for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) – in 1985, at the age of 22; in 2016 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his political service.
He was a child when his cousin, Samuel Donaldson, was killed by an IRA booby-trap bomb in south Armagh in 1970; he and his colleague, Robert Miller, were the first members of the RUC to be killed by the IRA in the Troubles. Later another cousin – Constable Donaldson's brother, Alex – was one of nine police officers killed in an IRA mortar attack on Newry RUC station.
When he was old enough Donaldson followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the Orange Order and becoming a member of the part-time Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). He also became involved in the “Young Unionists”, the youth wing of the UUP.
“The bones of my ancestors are in this land, the blood of my family has been spilt on this land,” he says, the emotion in his voice clearly audible. “We’ve fought for the right to be in this land and to stay in this land.”
Since 1997 he has been an MP, representing the constituency of Lagan Valley, outside Belfast, at Westminster.
Earlier this week he was in the Houses of Parliament; he describes how he will stand in the central lobby and look up at St Patrick depicted above him, “my patron saint ... that makes me proud of where I’m from and our Christian heritage.”
Yet when he flies back from London, on a clear day he will look down on his native county. “That is my home. Every time I cross the Irish Sea, I’m coming home.”
He meets The Irish Times at Northern Ireland’s largest agricultural event, the Balmoral Show, where many of those who make the annual pilgrimage to the show were delighted to be back for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19.
“It’s kind of Ulster’s equivalent of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for a kid coming here, there’s so much to see and do,” says Donaldson. “I sometimes think Northern Ireland is seen through the prism of Belfast ... the transformation of Belfast since the Troubles is fantastic, but the rest of Northern Ireland has moved on too and it’s fantastic to see that farming community coming together.”
On Wednesday, the show's opening day, Donaldson's party is much in evidence. The Minister for Agriculture, Edwin Poots, First Minister Paul Givan and other ministers, MPs and Assembly members are all ready to meet and greet, while at the DUP marquee there are plenty of tables, chairs and cups of tea on offer.
'We would withdraw from the Executive', which would trigger an early election. 'I don't see it as a threat. I see it as focussing minds on what needs to happen'
This is fertile ground for the DUP, especially for a new leader who has pledged to reconnect with the unionist grassroots. A member of the public interrupts the interview with Donaldson to declare: “I agree with everything this man’s saying about the protocol”.
Donaldson has had much to say about the Northern Ireland protocol – the part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement which avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland by placing a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea.
“The protocol harms east-west relationships, it creates barriers between Northern Ireland, that in our opinion represents a change to our constitutional status” and upsets “the very delicate constitutional balance that is at the heart of the agreements that formed the basis of the peace process here”.
“We cannot sustain a situation as unionists where we’re now being asked to implement a protocol that harms the most fundamental relationship for us, which is our relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom ... that’s why every single elected unionist representative does not support the protocol,” says Donaldson.
The clock is ticking; in a speech earlier this month Donaldson upped the ante dramatically when he threatened to withdraw his ministers from the Executive within weeks unless there were “significant and substantial changes” to the protocol. The party also withdrew from North-South political institutions established under the Agreement.
He rejects suggestions that his party is threatening to pull down the power-sharing institutions at Stormont. "We're not withdrawing from the Assembly, we would withdraw from the Executive", which would trigger an early election. "I don't see it as a threat. I see it as focussing minds on what needs to happen."
There is space for flexibility in Donaldson’s language; he speaks not of scrapping the protocol but of “removing the Irish Sea border” and of changes which would remove the need for checks on goods from Great Britain with a final destination in Northern Ireland.
“I think we can find practical solutions that people can live with,” he says.
“I’ve talked to experts and they tell me solutions are there ... there are practical systems we can put in place to differentiate between those goods that are staying within the UK internal market and those goods that are moving into the EU single market.”
This would “restore that constitutional balance ... it restores Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market and then we can agree new arrangements that enable the movement of goods into the EU.”
This is dependent on “political will” from the UK and EU, says Donaldson; he acknowledges he has received no assurances from the UK government, his tone is hopeful and he is “encouraged that we are seeing a greater willingness to find those solutions from everyone involved.”
He includes in this "what I've been hearing in recent weeks" from the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and Maros Sefcovic, who met recently with the five party leaders at Stormont for "one of the best meetings I've been at for a long time ... there is a recognition that we need to find a solution here."
Ultimately, he says, “I can’t believe that the EU will want to push this in a way that sees the collapse of the political institutions. They’ve made clear all along that they want to protect the Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement, well this is going to test that commitment.”
Yet the propensity for crisis in Northern politics would lead even an optimist to foresee bumps in the road ahead, not least next month when the UK government is due to introduce Irish language legislation – “balance”, says Donaldson, will also require progress on the protocol.
“If we’re getting other elements of that [New Decade, New Approach] agreement being implemented but not the thing that is most important to unionists then that further damages the delicate balance that enables both unionists and nationalists to be part of a power-sharing arrangement where we’re all there on the basis of equality.
“If we come to October and the government’s delivering ... at the behest of Sinn Féin and nothing is happening on the protocol and restoring Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market, which is another key UK government commitment, then our position is not tenable.”
'Sinn Féin might think they're in a good position and they may feel they're going to win the next election and that puts them in a strong position, but does it, really?'
Whatever happens in the short term, an Assembly election is due in May at the latest; for the DUP, it has been a “bumpy period internally”, with the acrimonious ousting of Foster, a leadership contest and the brief premiership of Edwin Poots over three tumultuous months in spring and early summer.
The most recent LucidTalk poll, in August, put Sinn Féin out in front on 25 per cent, followed by the UUP on 16 per cent and the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) on 14. The DUP, at 13 per cent, is level with the SDLP and Alliance.
He rejects the suggestion that his stance on the protocol is more about the election, or indeed the perceived threat from the hard-line TUV. “This is not some knee-jerk reaction to some one-off opinion poll ... my approach is not driven by a fear or concern about any other political party, I am focused on getting the DUP into shape to fight the election.”
His own intention is to return to Stormont to take up the position of First Minister; he agrees the “likely” path to this role is that he will stand in the Assembly election in Lagan Valley.
Asked if he would work alongside a Sinn Féin First Minister, he replies that his focus is on finding solutions to current problems. “We are committed to power-sharing, we are committed to making Northern Ireland work, I don’t want to be in a position where unionism loses this election, and I am determined to win it.”
In the short term, he says, “Sinn Féin might think they’re in a good position and they may feel they’re going to win the next election and that puts them in a strong position, but does it, really?” asks Donaldson.
Stability in Northern Ireland, he argues, is dependent on political balance; “if Northern Ireland is to work unionism has to be strong, nationalism clearly through the SDLP and Sinn Féin has a strong position, and I don’t want to see a fragmented unionism because a fragmented unionism undermines our ability to promote the case for the union but also I think undermines our ability to make political progress.”
Violence on the streets earlier this year makes it all the more important to “show that politics can work”; the way to reassure people is to “give voice to their concerns” and “to offer the leadership that demonstrates politics can deliver.”
'O'm not sure that even 22, 23 years on from 1998 that we [unionists and nationalists] do understand each other and I would say to Sinn Féin in particular they have a long way to go before they understand what makes unionism tick'
He challenges the US president, Joe Biden, and the EU: "They talk about protecting the peace process, do they ever think that unionists are absolutely an essential part of the peace process, just as much as nationalists?
“And that without one side or the other you don’t have a peace process and that unionism at the moment feels that its concerns are not being addressed, they’re not being listened to?”
For Donaldson, the recent controversy over President Michael D Higgins’s decision to decline an invitation to a cross-community church service marking 100 years since partition and the formation of Northern Ireland has indicated “that we’ve still a long way to go on this journey.”
He praises the role of President Higgins and the Irish Government in "sensitively, collaboratively" marking the centenary of the first World War and suspects that had the President accepted it would have been strongly supported. "It is about leadership and it is about the need for leaders to step out of their comfort zone and set an example and I think it's disappointing the President didn't think he could do that on this occasion."
Had he done so “that could have taken the narrative around the centenary in a different direction”; instead, he says, “into that space stepped Sinn Féin, entered the concept that reconciliation may not occur without reunification and I just think that tells us a lot about the lack of understanding of unionism.
“It brought into stark relief the reality that I’m not sure that even 22, 23 years on from 1998 that we [unionists and nationalists] do understand each other and I would say to Sinn Féin in particular they have a long way to go before they understand what makes unionism tick … and equally from a unionist perspective I think at times we don’t quite understand and grasp where nationalism is coming from.
“If we can’t in the 21st century have a situation where the president of one part of this island can join with the head of state of the other part of this island in an ecumenical, interdenominational, cross community service we have a long way to go.
“If we can’t get to a place where we make more of an effort to understand our shared history and to respect each others’ perspective of that history then how can we hope to take forward a journey that is about a shared future, whether that shared future is between these communities within Northern Ireland or in terms of improving north-south relations?”
Yet he argues that if the protocol can be resolved, “I think we can find ways in which we can enhance the practical co-operation that exists on a North-South basis.”
This involves getting over the blame game on Brexit, “on the nationalist side lamenting Brexit and on the unionist side [being] annoyed that Brexit is being used in a way that is being harmful to the relationships … I think we need to be mature enough and we are mature enough to find a way of working together in the new context that is there.”
These practical suggestions include around hydrogen technology, or infrastructure and the Belfast-Dublin corridor. “I think there are ways in which we can be more joined up in our co-operation without compromising our territorial integrity, our political integrity, without unionists feeling that their position is threatened or nationalists feeling that their position is threatened.”
'I will cheer Ulster when they play rugby, I'll cheer Ireland when they play rugby, I'll cheer fiercely for Northern Ireland when they play football'
He does not believe “there is any inevitability whatsoever” in a united Ireland and sees “a lot of sense in the view articulated by the late Seamus Mallon” and others about that 50 per cent plus one in a border poll would not work.
It is premature, he argues, to talk about a united Ireland when “we haven’t got a united Northern Ireland”; a “divisive” border poll “would set us back, I think it would polarise opinion in Northern Ireland.”
Unionism “needs to be more joined up and more cohesive in how it presents a case for the union,” says Donaldson. He does not fear a debate about the future, and says while he is “prepared to engage in a conversation” it must be one that “also examines Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the benefits that accrue from that.
“A conversation that takes place that is respectful for both unionists and nationalists has to have a frame of reference that is inclusive and I don’t regard a discussion around solely the future relationship on this island as being inclusive because it excludes for unionists key aspects of our identity, key aspects of the relationships that are important to us.”
On visits south of the Border people have told him “they don’t have as much in common with people from the north, from both traditions, as they have with each other, and I think that reflects the fact that for 100 years Northern Ireland has been a separate place and has developed in a separate way, and that’s the reality of things.”
Such is the “complex” nature of identity on this island, says Donaldson. “I’m from Northern Ireland ... I think you can be Irish and British, and therefore I’m happy to say that I’m Irish and British, Northern Irish and British, and British.”
He points out that he is an "Irish Presbyterian" – a member of the Presbyterian church in Ireland; "I will cheer Ulster when they play rugby, I'll cheer Ireland when they play rugby, I'll cheer fiercely for Northern Ireland when they play football, I'll cheer for those wonderful people from my constituency, from Lisnagarvey hockey club, who play hockey for Ireland, I went to watch the first ever test match between Ireland and England, I support Irish cricket."
“My roots are here. They’re strong. This island is my home and therefore when someone asks me are you Irish, I live on this island so geographically I’m Irish but I’m part of a wider group of nations that is British, and therefore I don’t see it as mutually exclusive to be Irish and British, or Northern Irish and British.
“And, by the way, if you want to bring it down to its most fundamental level, I’m a Mourne man.”
At home, he has “neighbours who carry an Irish passport and I carry a British passport but we live on the same road, we share the same place, the same townland.
“We’re part of the United Kingdom but we live with our neighbours and we want to live at peace and we want to have relationships that are based on respect.”
