Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“While at one level Arlene Foster’s attendance on a Sunday afternoon at a GAA match is gesture politics, at another level it is much more. It is patently, along with her planned embracing of LGBT interests later this week, part of a choreographed and Sinn Fein-placating agenda to pave the way for renewed talks aimed at getting back into power in the failed institutions at Stormont.
“Today and Thursday’s moves, though they will cause unease at grassroots level in the DUP, are also designed to signal to any in her party still holding to traditional values that they will be steamrolled in the rush back to government with IRA/Sinn Fein.
“Arlene’s genuflecting is also a warning that if and when she returns to government with Sinn Fein it will be on their terms and on the basis now of ‘sop a day’, as opposed to the once promised ‘battle a day’.
“Whatever the spin applied, the reality is that the DUP leader has chosen to spend her Sunday afternoon endorsing the only sporting organisation on this island with an overtly political and republican agenda. GAA Rules still say that its “basic aim is the strengthening of national identity in a 32-county Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic games and past times”. The affinity down through the years with violent republicanism is illustrated by the fact that several of its grounds and trophies are named after dead terrorists. Little wonder republicanism can not conceal its glee at Arlene’s endorsement.”