Trimble attacked for 'ramblings' on Irish Republic

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble was today at the centre of a fresh row over comments about the Irish Republic.

The former Northern Ireland First Minister was criticised by nationalists after a newspaper in the United States reported him as saying: “If you took away Catholicism and anti-Britishness, the state (the Irish Republic) doesn’t have a reason to exist.”

The comments reported by the editorial board of the Chicago Sun Times were denounced as “sectarian ramblings” by the nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan and by Sinn Fein.

However a spokesman for Mr Trimble insisted the comments were taken out of context.

“The interview was accurate but selective in how it was reported – it was completely wrenched out of context,” the spokesman said.

“The comments he made were in relation to the question: ’Why does the Irish Republic exist and what are the reasons for partition?”’

In March, Mr Trimble twice landed himself in controversy over comments he made about the Irish Republic.

In his speech released to journalists at the Ulster Unionists Council meeting that month, the Upper Bann MP was reported as describing the Irish Republic as a “pathetic, mono-ethnic and mono-cultural state”.

However he told the Chicago Sun Times that he had not actually uttered the word pathetic.

On reading over the script, Mr Trimble said he felt the use of the word pathetic was “a wee bit over the top”.

“So I said to them (the press officers) to take that out but they said: ’It’s too late. We’ve already sent that out to the press’.

“I knew if I tried to send out a revised version, the first thing they’d (the press) do is look and see what I’d changed.

“But the words I wanted in there were mono-ethnic and mono-cultural. Those are true.”

The Ulster Unionist leader was further plunged into controversy in Washington just days after his Ulster Unionist Council speech when he attempted to defend his criticism of the Irish Republic.

The UUP leader told a breakfast for Irish Americans and supporters of the Northern Ireland peace process that the reasons for him labelling the Irish Republic as mono-cultural and mono-ethnic were self evident.

He argued that a referendum campaign in the Irish Republic in March on abortion was “sectarian” and the result only served to prove his point.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan, the former Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister, described Mr Trimble’s latest comments as self demeaning.

The Foyle MLA said: “David Trimble will try to present this as pointed analysis but most people will see these comments as sectarian ramblings.

“Trying to denigrate political ideals and the religion of others is only demeaning himself by demonstrating his own prejudice.”

Mr Trimble’s latest comments were supported, however, by a hard line Democratic Unionist MLA, Sammy Wilson.

However in a swipe at Mr Trimble, the DUP Assembly member said his comments did not tally with his “willingness to embrace the Irish Republic and, indeed, advance its role in the running of Northern Ireland”.

Mr Wilson continued: “If this state is so anti-British and anti-Protestant, how can David Trimble possibly justify the Belfast Agreement, which has given the Irish Republic an unprecedented role in deciding what happens in Northern Ireland?

“Not only has Trimble entered into this Agreement but has vigorously defended it."