Talk with M.L.A. Danny Kennedy

Young Fine Gael finished its successful year with a talk by Ulster unionist councillor and M.L.A. Danny Kennedy. He began by giving a brief biography of himself from when he joined the UUP at the age of 15. He also gave a brief outline of the situation speaking of the illegal petrol trade and showing how the unionist population are concentrated mainly in the east, and highlighting the fact that for centuries northern Ireland people have always been different and looked more to Scotland and England.. His main analysis of the current situation is that the political process cannot proceed if paramilitary activity be it simply through control of the drug. He supported the Good Friday agreement but acknowledged that the results were less than what they had expected due to this ongoing paramilitary activity. Answering a question later, he said how the decommissioning by the IRA was not satisfactory due the process by which it was done, compared to a visible dismantling of a British army base. He firmly believes in the idea of a devolved parliament, a Northern Ireland assembly for the Northern Ireland people.

Despite the D.U.P.being the largest unionist party at present, he still sees a future for the U.U.P. having already the framework of the Good Friday agreement to work with, even with a change in political climate.

Most of the talk was spent answering the questions form the audience. The first was in reference to David Trimble's remarks about the south being a monolithic and Roman nation. He responded to this by saying that firstly the remarks must be taken in their context, and went onto say that the Brookborough view of a protestant parliament for a protestant people was no longer the view of the Ulster Unionist politicians. He pointed out that Ireland has never been united except under the British crown. The people of Northern Ireland have the democratic right to be a part of the U.K. he said. Remarking on recent census it was his opinion that despite the increase in the nationalist population, which Sinn Fein had hoped would eventually pressure the unionists into conceding, that this would not happen in the near future. The population is more or less remaining static.

Another question from a member of Sinn Fein was regarding the British Army presence and whether the Unionist community felt in anyway resentful of it. He responded by saying that he himself grew up in a virtual army town, and the heliport there was at one stage the busiest in Europe. But he reminded us that there would have been no need for the presence if there was no terrorist threat.

Next there was a question on punishment beatings and if we should be complaining about such actions as they are at least not killing people. Mr Kennedy said that it was dangerous to start saying this because it can be interpreted as assuming that there is somehow an acceptable level of violence. He went on to talk about why there was so much pressure put on the IRA to decommission and end its activities. This was because the IRA is the only terrorist organisation that has significant political representation.

Mr Kennedy's position on the Irish Language is that it should be promoted but that we should not spend large amounts of tax payers money as it is a minority language. Finally he addressed his membership of the orange order. He said that he was proud to be a member, because it was an organisation that promoted a sense of community, and working together. Its role in the UUP was rather like that of the trade union in the labour party, but that this is now changing. Accepting the historical errors that its members have made, he said that he would be in favour of promoting a clearer picture of history among its' members.

- Matthew Bruton, 3rds arts, Young Fine Gael.