This past week, the DUP once again demonstrated that our job is to turn up, stand up, and speak up for Northern Ireland.
While others - Sinn Fein, the SDLP, and Alliance - chose to grandstand and boycott the events in Washington to mark St Patrick’s Day, our party colleagues Emma Little-Pengelly and Gordon Lyons took the opportunity to build relationships, strengthen economic ties, and advocate for our people. It was revealing that the self-imposed exile of Michelle O’Neill, Claire Hanna and Naomi Long wasn’t even on the President’s radar, yet he warmly welcomed his “new friends from Northern Ireland” to the White House. That tells you everything you need to know about just how ineffective and irrelevant their boycott has been.
This trip has a clear purpose for the DUP: to foster political relationships, develop economic opportunities, and enhance cultural links between Northern Ireland and the United States. Engaging with the most powerful leaders in the world is about making the case for Northern Ireland. You don’t have to agree with everything someone says or does to advocate for your people. If our own political arrangements have taught us anything, it’s that political relationships are often necessary, even when they’re not with whom we would choose.
