Ulster Unionist Party member to bid for Seanad

dlofnep

Jeffrey Dudgeon, Ulster Unionist Party member is submitting his papers for TCD to run for the Seanad. Dudgeon is the guy who took the British Government to court, leading to decriminalizing homosexuality in the north.

I for one welcome his representation in the Seanad. I think it's important that the unionist population have someone of his calibre to represent them across Ireland.

“I am asking the voters to make history by electing an Ulster Protestant who is a liberal unionist thus allowing that voice to be heard for the first time for decades."

Nodin

Indeed. It'll be used against him by a certain element, unfortunately.

(liberal unionist...theres a rare bird...)

Jack Sheehan

Hah! Best of luck, mate. Fair play to him for the court case though, as you say, a liberal unionist is a strange beast.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Is he still in the UUP?

Wonder what Tom Elliot thinks of this.

Anonymous1987

Is he really a unionist if he wants to take a seat in the republic?

Fratton Fred

I thought it was the DUP that was renowned for its intolerance, not the uup.

It looks like gay rights in Ireland will have a new spokesman when David Norris becomes president.

PatsytheNazi

Sure we've had plenty of unionists in the Dail and the Senate - Garret Fitzgerald, Conor Cruise O'Brien, John 'unionist' Bruton, Micheal McDowell etc

delta720

So would he want to get rid of the Irish state and return to the UK? Maybe he could be 'turned' once he's down here!

PatsytheNazi

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I thought it was the DUP that was renowned for its intolerance, not the uup.

It looks like gay rights in Ireland will have a new spokesman when David Norris becomes president.

David Norris is said to be a closet hetrosexual

walrusgumble

So, looks like Norris won't be the only gay in the village, seanad

Ah its good to see the Unionists seeing sense. Must be trying to get on the last Seanad gravy train before the proposed abolishment.

Will there be any oath of allegiance/fidelity etc to the Irish State to be taken?

Ah, its a great development if this is true.

Wonder what will the rural local councillors think (assuming he seeks elections via this path), Protestant and Gay? hmmmmm.

Best of luck to him shure

Bottle_of_Smoke

delta720 wrote: »

So would he want to get rid of the Irish state and return to the UK? Maybe he could be 'turned' once he's down here!

I think it would be even more amusing if at the last minute he gave us the finger and said "Abstentionism, now you know how it feels. . LOL"

Fratton Fred

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

I think it would be even more amusing if at the last minute he gave us the finger and said "Abstentionism, now you know how it feels. . LOL"

That is exactly what I was thinking.

irishh_bob

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

Sure we've had plenty of unionists in the Dail and the Senate - Garret Fitzgerald, Conor Cruise O'Brien, John 'unionist' Bruton, Micheal McDowell etc

you forgot to include eoghan harris

Wolfe Tone

Will be a laugh when the Seanad is abolished

Iwasfrozen

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Will be a laugh when the Seanad is abolished

It can't be abolished untill next term at least. That is if people vote to abolish it. Which I hope they don't. We need a stronger upper house to keep the government in check.

PatsytheNazi

irishh_bob wrote: »

you forgot to include eoghan harris

True enough, though Harris as well as been a unionist could also be included as a Stalinist ( from his Workers Party days) and a Fianna Failure.

doopa

Good luck to him.

pragmatic1

Nodin wrote: »

Indeed. It'll be used against him by a certain element, unfortunately.

(liberal unionist...theres a rare bird...)

Although gay loyalist not as rare as one would think.

lugha

PatsytheNazi wrote: »

True enough, though Harris as well as been a unionist could also be included as a Stalinist ( from his Workers Party days) and a Fianna Failure.

Eoghan is rather a promiscuous chap, politically. He's got jiggy with pretty much all comers at one stage or another. He dabbled with Labour for Mary Robinson's campaign and was quite the fan of John Bruton and FG for a while. And of course his first crush was for republicanism.

KeithAFC

Ha great tactics. Push down south while they try to push up north.. great.

belacqua_

KeithAFC wrote: »

Push down south while they try to push up north.. great.

That sounds like the charge the RUC made against Dudgeon when he was dragged in for questioning in the 70s.

He'll get my vote, provided he's a card carrying TCD Association member.

KeithAFC

belacqua_ wrote: »

That sounds like the charge the RUC made against Dudgeon when he was dragged in for questioning in the 70s.

He'll get my vote, provided he's a card carrying TCD Association member.

You going to vote for a unionist?:cool:

Judgement Day

Haven't we just elected one foreigner nordy to the Dail why do we need another? Not to mention our President.

belacqua_

KeithAFC wrote: »

You going to vote for a unionist?:cool:

I've voted UUP in the past (to keep the DUP out of a marginal seat), so I would have no hesitation voting for a forward thinking, liberally minded individual like Mr. Dudgeon in the Irish Senate elections.

KeithAFC

belacqua_ wrote: »

I've voted UUP in the past (to keep the DUP out of a marginal seat), so I would have no hesitation voting for a forward thinking, liberally minded individual like Mr. Dudgeon in the Irish Senate elections.

Do you live in the republic?

Brian?

I think it's great. He's admitting the inevitable.

The UUP will be more than welcome in the Dáil as well when they stand for election, it's called democracy.

alan85

Sounds like an interesting character!

belacqua_

KeithAFC wrote: »

Do you live in the republic?

What difference does it make? I didn't live in the Republic when I voted UUP

sollar

It would be good if a UUP man was in the seanad..... entertaining at least.

imme

I can't see the guy getting more than a couple of hundred votes.

He's quoted in the Belfast Newsletter as follows:
“The absence of Shane Ross, who served some 30 years in the Seanad before his recent Dail victory in South Dublin, leaves a gap which I hope to fill."


Despite his accent Ross is Irish, he lives in the Republic and has worked in the Republic all his life.

There have Northern-based members of the Seanad in the past, usually if not always Taoiseach's nominees, Seamus Mallon, Gordon Wilson, Edward Haughey.

blorg

walrusgumble wrote: »

Wonder what will the rural local councillors think (assuming he seeks elections via this path), Protestant and Gay? hmmmmm.

He is standing for the TCD constituency so it is Trinity graduates that get to vote for him.

feicim

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

It can't be abolished untill next term at least. That is if people vote to abolish it. Which I hope they don't. We need a stronger upper house to keep the government in check.

Yeah, because that worked out well didn't it? :eek:

Are the unionists trying a bit of oneupmanship on sinn fein, gerry adams came down here and got a seat, now the unionists trying to do the same.

Anything you can do I can do better...

Iwasfrozen

feicim wrote: »

Yeah, because that worked out well didn't it? :eek:

Are the unionists trying a bit of oneupmanship on sinn fein, gerry adams came down here and got a seat, now the unionists trying to do the same.

Anything you can do I can do better...

I said a stronger upper house. The one we have now is pointless.

Seanchai

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Is he really a unionist if he wants to take a seat in the republic?

Is John Hume really an Irish nationalist if he wants to take a seat in the Westminster parliament?

imme

Seanchai wrote: »

Is John Hume really an Irish nationalist if he wants to take a seat in the Westminster parliament?

he represented his electorate, he wasn't into killing people to the best of my knowledge

Seanchai

imme wrote: »

he represented his electorate, he wasn't into killing people to the best of my knowledge

That's not analogous to what that poster was saying. Try harder.

Anonymous1987

Seanchai wrote: »

Is John Hume really an Irish nationalist if he wants to take a seat in the Westminster parliament?

Hume clearly took a seat in Westminster as a means of achieving his nationalist goals. I'm not so sure that is comparable to Jeffrey Dudgeon as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party unless of course Dudgeon's political ambitions involve the republic rejoining the UK.

Seanchai

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Hume clearly took a seat in Westminster as a means of achieving his nationalist goals. I'm not so sure that is comparable to Jeffrey Dudgeon as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party unless of course Dudgeon's political ambitions involve the republic rejoining the UK.

Well, I do recall a certain elected unionist advocating, in the 1990s, that the unionists join a united Ireland as a means to thwart/defeat the Irish Republican Army.

Judgement Day

Seanchai wrote: »

Well, I do recall a certain elected unionist advocating, in the 1990s, that the unionists join a united Ireland as a means to thwart/defeat the Irish Republican Army.

Who might that be and a link please?

Seanchai

Judgement Day wrote: »

Who might that be and a link please?

Why, he who should not be named, of course: Conor Cruise O'Brien in 1998 (just what is the average age of posters on this forum?)

Cruiser loses it (again) 1

Cruiser loses it (again) 2

Cruiser loses it (again) 3

* Although even all of that wasn't as hilarious as those maps he had drawn for his articles in British tabloids back in 1994, following the IRA ceasefire in August, of the impending Irish Civil War - replete with army tanks, troops and the lot moving in.

Judgement Day

Ah I thought that you meant a real Unionist not another nutter like Eoghan Harris. :rolleyes:

imme

Seanchai wrote: »

That's not analogous to what that poster was saying. Try harder.

true

Oh_Noes

walrusgumble wrote: »

So, looks like Norris won't be the only gay in the village, seanad

By then, Norris most likely will be "The Only Gay in the Áras".




That just sounds wrong.

dlofnep

This thread is seriously going off the beaten-track..

Bottle_of_Smoke

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

Hume clearly took a seat in Westminster as a means of achieving his nationalist goals. I'm not so sure that is comparable to Jeffrey Dudgeon as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party unless of course Dudgeon's political ambitions involve the republic rejoining the UK.

Its different for unionists and nationalists because nationalists want change in political status but unionists want things to stay the same.

Maybe he believes being elected to the senate might make Irish people see him as a friendly Ulsterman who wants to remain in the union but still be on good terms with people from the republic.

I don't know anything about him really that's just off the top of my head as a possibility of why a unionist would run in the republic.

Bottle_of_Smoke

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/historic_uup_bid_for_seanad_1_2457693

A MEMBER of the Ulster Unionist Party has announced his intention to run for the Irish senate, the News Letter can reveal.


Jeffrey Dudgeon – who once worked for UK Unionist MP Robert McCartney – will this week submit his nomination papers to Trinity College Dublin to compete for one of the university’s three seats in the Republic’s upper house.

Mr Dudgeon, who took the European court case which led to homosexuality being decriminalised in Northern Ireland in 1982, said that he felt the voice of a Northern Ireland unionist is conspicuously missing from the Seanad.

“The senate has provided, over the decades, a unique platform and protection zone for the state’s minorities, its non-conformists, dissenters if not its dissidents, as well as differing voices from Northern Ireland,” he said.

“But all the previous senators from Northern Ireland have been nominated and were not fully representative of the people of Northern Ireland and in particular of those who define themselves as Ulster Unionists.”

Mr Dudgeon said he felt the Queen’s first official visit to the Republic this year is a sign of growing political maturity between Ireland and the UK.

“In a real sense, we are heading back to a time before partition when the differences between the two parts and the two peoples of Ireland, particularly southern Catholics and northern Protestants, are not as extreme as they became.

“I am asking the voters to make history by electing an Ulster Protestant who is a liberal unionist thus allowing that voice to be heard for the first time for decades.

“I want to represent Northern Ireland to the Senate and in the Senate.”

Mr Dudgeon continued: “The next decade is also a time of danger with a decade of commemorations of events a century ago.

“They are a potential occasion for renewed bitterness and conflict. I would challenge historical inaccuracy and exaggeration to face down that danger.

“The absence of Shane Ross, who served some 30 years in the Seanad before his recent Dail victory in South Dublin, leaves a gap which I hope to fill.

“I believe I am well-qualified in experience and original and innovative ideas, not to mention independence, to replace a man who has given so much to the Oireachtas and Ireland, north and south.”

He added: “I believe it is the rage induced by Sinn Fein’s historical interpretations that presents the greatest threat to peace on these islands.

“They are an open encouragement to dissidents. It is my primary purpose to address that question, if elected to Seanad Eireann, hoping in the process to draw our peoples together. Meeting one another and working together is the key to a better future.”

Among his election pledges, seen by the News Letter, Mr Dudgeon is promising to act as a counterweight to newly-elected Louth TD Gerry Adams.

Elections to the Republic’s upper house the Senate will take place in May.

The Senate is made up of 11 Irish taoiseach appointees, three elected by the graduates of Trinity, three elected by the graduates of the National University of Ireland and a further 43 elected by a complicated system of five panels of nominees which are made up of a combination of TDs, senators and local councillors.

imme

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/historic_uup_bid_for_seanad_1_2457693

why is it bizarre that it hasn't been mentioned in the southern papers BOS?

the guy will get 100-200 votes and that will be that, what's there to report.

dsmythy

He'll use his position to influence the Seanad into advocating the Republic rejoins the United Kingdom

Soon others will join him

Kev_ps3

Im sure the Patriotic Gaels of Trinity College will take to him like a duck to water!!

Richard

Judgement Day wrote: »

Ah I thought that you meant a real Unionist not another nutter like Eoghan Harris. :rolleyes:

He was a member of Bob McCartney's UK Unionist Party at the time.

COUCH WARRIOR

all nationalists should welcome this. I don't know Dudgeon's motives, but developments like this would help the process of normalising the idea of an all ireland government in unionists minds, whether they know it or not.