TUV questions amount of media attention on 'unrepresentative' unionists at Ireland's Future event

The party spokesperson was commenting after the appearance of DUP founding member Wallace Thompson, and former UDA member and politician David Adams at an event in Belfast on Saturday.

Addressing the gathering, as part of the ‘Protestants perspective’ panel discussion, Mr Thompson said he had received “terrible abuse” from unionists for suggesting that a united Ireland was inevitable, while Mr Adams cautioned nationalists against lobbying for a border poll before the two communities are reconciled.

Mr Thompson received applause for saying he was “outside his comfort zone” in taking part in the Irish unity event, but added: “My conscience is clear. I have no difficulties setting out what I have been saying in the last two or three years, especially since the Brexit vote and the [NI] Protocol.

“I am a unionist but I am on a journey. In that journey, it is vitally important that we all talk to each other as we think things through”.

At the same event, former taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the next Irish government should push harder for a united Ireland, as there was a need to step up preparations for a possible end to the border – including setting aside funding to pay for the change.

In a statement to the News Letter, a TUV spokesperson said: “The contributions of Mr Adams and Mr Thompson to Saturday’s poorly attended event do not merit the level of attention they receive on the BBC given that they are so unrepresentative of the feelings of wider unionism.

"If one does want a lesson from what they said perhaps it is best noting that some have too great a foundness for the sound of their own voice.”

Speaking from the stage on Saturday David Adams described his cautionary address as “a wet blanket”.

He said many Ireland Future supporters believe “reconciliation will happen as if by magic, only after Ireland becomes a unitary state,” and added: "Does anyone seriously believe that two million unreconciled northerners can be injected into the political and social bloodstream of the progressive liberal democracy to the south of us and everything will be fine?"

Following Saturday’s event, DUP East Londonderry general election candidate Gregory Campbell described Ireland’s Future conferences as focussing “on division rather than on the issues that really matter”.

Mr Campbell said: “Northern Ireland has many pressing challenges but the need for a divisive border poll is most definitely not one of them.

“Schools, childcare, hospitals, GPs and infrastructure all matter.

"Rather than peddle division through a border poll, Sinn Fein should work together in the Executive to renew and reform our public services.

Support for a border poll in 2024 is no more significant than it was in 1998. Whilst some get carried away, the combined Sinn Fein and SDLP vote was around 40% in 1998 and its still around 40%.”

Mr Campbell added: “The DUP is focused on making Northern Ireland work for everyone who lives here.

"The beauty of this place we all call home, is that we can be British, Irish, Northern Irish and somewhere in-between. Something that is impossible in the Republic”.