In the event of united Ireland could DUP attract a significant vote in the Republic / 26 Counties ?

mazdamiatamx5

I think they could. There's clearly a gap in the market for a political party which supports traditional values, families, are anti-abortion and are sceptical of the wokery rubbish.

I.R.Y.E.D

They provide ample corroboration of the accuracy of what people are calling Godwin's second law, but then again they aren't unique in that matter.

So in short no.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333987/in-the-event-of-united-ireland-could-dup-attract-a-significant-vote-in-the-republic-26-counties

Yeah, but they despise most of those people too and wouldn't want their votes.

con747

Yes, they will get 57 votes.

NIMAN

Would anyone vote for a bunch of creationists, who threw a wobbler and brought NI to its knees for 2yrs because they couldn't accept a nationalist being in charge?

Grassy Knoll

The premise of a United Ireland in whatever form is fantasy land stuff. 30 per cent support in an authoritative Irish Times survey, with a fifth of catholics or those from that background supporting the status quo. On those figures (against a backdrop of Brexit, Stormont stasis, Arlene Foster, poor economy etc etc) im afraid is going nowhere.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333987/in-the-event-of-united-ireland-could-dup-attract-a-significant-vote-in-the-republic-26-counties

Have you ever actually spent an hour with a member of the DUP? They’d loose their deposits because they lack the understanding necessary to communicate with a sophisticated electorate like the Irish voters. Simplistic nonsense such as the DUP, the Tories or the Republicans will not fly in Ireland or Switzerland because you are dealing with people who are conditioned to examine matters from a strategic and tactical point of view and that means they have a habit of asking nasty questions and wanting to hear from experts.

Rather that relying on social media go spend some time knocking on doors during the next election and face the voters then get back to us on the DUP running for the Dail.

josip

You can see here how the support for a United Ireland has varied over the past 25 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_a_United_Ireland

Not much change from the long term trend in recent years but I would expect that 30% support to increase to 35% in 10 years time as some of the older Unionist cohort die off. Although as people get older they are more reluctant to embrace change so some of the younger people currently in favour of a United Ireland might change sides when their 10 years older.

RoyalCelt

I predict they would get exactly 1,690 votes.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333987/in-the-event-of-united-ireland-could-dup-attract-a-significant-vote-in-the-republic-26-counties

Several parties with agendas of this kind have been launched in recent years, and none has attracted much support. I think the "gap in the market" is a lot smaller than you imagine.

The notion that the DUP, with all it's negative baggage, could succeed where these other parties have failed is hugely amusing.

Strumms

still way too much baggage…. The previous generations of them had and current generation too.

people in their mid 30’s and up will still have a reasonable recollection of Paisley Sr & Jr…Arlene Foster, Peter Robinson… pretty inflexible, hardline, racist, bigoted people…. Robinson even more recently uses his rhetoric to attack the NI Muslim community.……forced subsequently to apologise. Their enemies were for a lot of the time not nationalism, or nationalist politicians, but our country, culture and everything about it.

Nothing positive would come from them being here. Many of their very hardline religious contingent have terribly backwards hateful views on everything from homosexuality / gay marriage, to religion and democracy full stop. Wouldn’t get the votes imho.

Slightly Kwackers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333987/in-the-event-of-united-ireland-could-dup-attract-a-significant-vote-in-the-republic-26-counties

Well I have a hen house and duck shed that needs cheap heating.

Would we have the entire Island holidaying in July to escape their quaint little intimidations?

Gussoe

After a NI, unionism is essentially flogging a dead horse, so no. I'd be surprised if the party actually exists in a UI because it means unionism as a concept has failed.

Manach

Being conservative myself in politics, I'd know that they are allied to the Tory party. Unfortunately, that venerarable insitution has likewise fallen foul to the long march through the institutions of the progressive mindset.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698854#Comment_121698854

They're not allied to the Tory party.

pixelburp

More likely if there's still a strong enough demographic in the North for their ideologies, you could see the "DUP" rebranding as an all Ireland right leaning conservative party. Assuming the party can attract some fresh faces cos it's a rapidly ageing party ATM.

Clearly in a United Ireland the concept of Unionism is dead and gone, but there'll still be social and religious conservatives looking for a bullwark against what will be then be a predominantly secular, liberal 26 counties absorbing them. Fringes of the traditional Fianna Fàil vote trend right IIRC, so there could be a market for this new rebrand.

But DUP as they exist now? Naw, they'd be moribund in a United Ireland.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058333987/in-the-event-of-united-ireland-could-dup-attract-a-significant-vote-in-the-republic-26-counties

Not a hope.

They'd fall into the same kind of trap as Renua did in 2016. Renua tried to target centre-right voters with pledges on lower taxes and tough on crime whilst dancing on the head of a pin on the matter of abortion. It didn't work. The electorate only really saw them as a bunch of single issue candidates and all of their sitting TDs lost their seats.

If the DUP ran in the South nobody would give a damn about their conservative stance on social issues. They would just see them as that bunch of Ulster Unionists who railed against "Dublin" for generations whilst expressing a pathetic unrequited love for the English establishment. They would laugh at them as they put them at the bottom of their preference list.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698854#Comment_121698854

The UUP were aligned to the Tory party. They aren't anymore and neither are the DUP.

The DUP are about eighty steps to the right of the DUP. And completely mad.

L1011

The rump Unionist voters in the Free State moved to vote for CnaG pretty quickly with few exceptions*. Remaining former Unionist MPs/families became CnaG/FG - the Dockrells etc.

I would expect that if there is reunification, there would be Unionist reps for likely decades but none beyond the then-former border. I'd expect Alliance to melt away in to support for other all-island parties and SDLP to merge with Labour; the other non Unionist parties are all-island anyway (SF, GP, PBP, Aontu etc)

*There was a rump Unionist party in Cork with TDs - the Business and Professional Group - which took the CnaG whip (the Beamish family, as in the beer, was involved there); and also one in Donegal that lasted til the 00s - the Donegal Progressive Party - which only ever had councillors.

circadian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698218#Comment_121698218

Judging by some of the posts on Boards, I would argue that they could garner some support but completely negligable outside of the north east.

whisky_galore

Maybe, just maybe a tiny following of religious fundamentalist nutters a la the Burkes, but it would be so small as to be microscopic.

Even the most conservative of Catholics are going to baulk at the long history of anti Pope/anti Catholic baggage no matter how attractive the package. And for even the most hardline anti woke who are generally a tinge of green, at least superficially, they're going to be unpalatable.

FrancieBrady

No, they would probably become what the TUV are in a NI context. A small party representing very few in an all Ireland context.

UUP would be more attractive to some in the south.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121702045#Comment_121702045

UUP could be used as the base as a right-of-FG party that has some existing reps and hence funding. Could even be pro-Commonwealth, pro keeping funding/support for OO/12th/parades etc if they can figure out how to actually spin it as culture and still pick up votes in other areas.

Peregrinus

Honestly, in a United Ireland I'm not seeing a post-unionist party in Ulster breaking out and attracting signficant support in the rest of the country. There just isn't a British-identifying community of any size seeking representation. (It's worth noting that, in the 1920s, all the post-unionist parties in the south expired or folded themselves into CnaG/FG within a few years because, even back then, there weren't enought British-identifying voters in the south to make a post-unionist party viable.)

It might be that there's a signficant untapped market for a party to the right of FG (though I'm not seeing it myself) but, even if so, a party weighted down with the historical baggge of unionism would not be well-positioned to pick up that vote, where parties without that baggage have repeatedly failed.

What I could see in a UI is a post-unionist party that appeals to British-identifying voters in Ulster formally or informally co-operating in national politics with a right-of-centre party that appeals to the rest of the country — in much the way that, say, ideologically-aligned Flemish and Francophone parties work together (and often serve in government together) in the Belgian federal parliament. That right-of-centre party might be Fine Gael, or it might be a party to the right of Fine Gael, if one emerged.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698854#Comment_121698854

I don't think the Torys are progressive. Populist and incompetent more likely.

FrancieBrady

Who knows, 100 years after unity the DUP and SF could put history behind them and form a coalition to take power, stranger things have happened.

Hoop66

Is there no suggestion too ludicrous for OP as long as it advances their "anti-woke agenda? An absurd idea, this should have been obvious given even a moment's reflection.

Ther are plenty of people in the Republic who wouldn't vote for a UI, specifically because of the unionists that would become Irish citizens.

sydthebeat

A political party upon which British unionism is their raisin d'etre will never be a political force in Ireland.

I'd imagine it is much more likely they will just fade away eventually after a United Ireland comes into existence

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121703623#Comment_121703623

Yeah "The Tories are too woke now" is a bit of a head scratcher.

It's actually kind of interesting. Traditionally it was always the Left who had these purity tests that nobody ever seemed to match up to. Whether that be parties splintering for ideological reasons or certain socialist regimes being disasters only because they were not "implementing communism correctly".

Nowadays that seems to be a thing more and more on the Right. Like it's huge in MAGA world where died in the wool conservatives like Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell or James Lankford are suddenly decried as RINOs because they dared deviate from something that Trump said or did.

To be fair Unionism was ahead of the curve on this. The UUP were declared as sell outs by the DUP. Then the TUV were formed because the DUP had "sold out".

maccored

In a UI, why would the DUP exist? Democratic Unionist Party? what Union?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698854#Comment_121698854

The tories have been accused of being many things, but you'd struggle to find many who'd accuse them of being Progressive - be it socially or economically so a little be baffled by this assessment. Even a relatively centrist perspective wouldn't find much liberalism in the Tories' current manifestos or outlook.

bucketybuck

OP seems confused about what the letters D, U and P stand for.

Here is a clue, from their party mission statement:

Our vision is to maintain and enhance Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the United Kingdom

Larbre34

This could be the stupidest proposition for a thread in history.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707345#Comment_121707345

mod: I'm aware but figured as it had received a number of replies, I'd leave it.

My own personal opinion is that the DUP will fizzle out in a UI and eventually merge with some other party, possibly a rebranded UUP.

TinyMuffin

No hotties in the dup. Only auld lads.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121707519#Comment_121707519

I think you are probably correct.

While still the leader of the DUP Foster said she would abandon the party and it's voters and leave the country if there was a UI.

Doesn't augur well for the party's survival.

ancapailldorcha

No. If people really wanted hardcore anti-woke drivel, the various failed attempts at creating such parties would have yielded fruit. A party which embraces the Ussher chronology, creationism, and general hardcore bible-thumping for everyone but themselves isn't going to do well.

rossie1977

Well they are a hard right conservative Christian party that many on boards.ie and twitter have supposedly wanted for years so surely they get a big vote...

PCeeeee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121703564#Comment_121703564

I wonder would the pro-union raison d'etre have any appeal to the 100 odd thousand UK citizens living in Ireland?

ancapailldorcha

...

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121753275#Comment_121753275

I would think that the UK citizens (plus those that are now Irish citizens) are more Irish than the Irish themselves.

The last thing they would want is union with the current UK - that is why they left.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121753239#Comment_121753239

That worked out great for Renua and their many forebears who struggled to break 100 votes.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121753275#Comment_121753275

Maybe they came here to get away from that sort of nonsense?

BaywatchHQ

Yes I believe so as there are many people in todays republic that seem to hate Irish republicans as much as the Ulster unionists do. Just look at how much hate Sinn Fein gets on boards.ie. I feel that some southerners have much in common with Ulster unionists. I would actually go as far as saying that a small percentage of southerners secretly wish they were still part of the UK.

BaywatchHQ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121698193#Comment_121698193

They only dislike the south because they have the notion that they are all extreme republican Celtic fan types. Most DUP voters never travel to the south much so they don't even know what it is like.

Coillte_Bhoy

The ultra conservative religious demographic they might hope to attract are generally also old school catholic 'brits out' type nationalists so NO

DarkJager21

There won't be a DUP when there is a united Ireland, they'll be equivalent to wasting your vote on the greens.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898427#Comment_121898427

I don't understand that logic (if there is any logic in your thinkings).

I'm completely opposed to the Republicanism that we were offered by the likes of the paramilitary groups. I also would not vote for SF simply because of their politics and policies. How exactly does that make me wish that I was still part of the UK?

BaywatchHQ

I also forgot to mention another thing that the DUP and many Southerners have in common. Their dislike for the Catholic church.

Seth Brundle

Mod: OK, I'm going to step in now - your posts do appear to be trolling. So consider this to be a gentle warning. The next one won't be so gentle.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898427#Comment_121898427

I would actually go as far as saying that a small percentage of southerners secretly wish they were still part of the UK.

How does a dislike for Sinn Fein hop, skip and jump all the way to open unionism? A distaste for a political party hardly equates to a "secret" wish to be part of the UK. And even if there were I doubt many would retain that desire in light of the continuing self-sanctioning that is Brexit.