Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister MP:-
“As we mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, which was a most momentous day in our nation’s history, the range of national events remind us that WW II touched every corner of the United Kingdom, with headstones in every county.
“One of the last Ulstermen to die before VE Day was James Noel Deane who is remembered on a family headstone in Second Broughshane Presbyterian Church in North Antrim. Signalman Deane, who served with Royal Corps of Signals, was killed in action on 6th May 80 years ago.
“I am grateful to Nigel Henderson of History Hub Ulster, who does so much to keep alive the memories of our war dead, for the information on James Deane.
“Northern Ireland’s strategic importance in the war led to Churchill’s famous tribute in his VE Day broadcast, praising NI’s ‘loyalty and friendship’ and stating without it the British people ‘should have been confronted with slavery or death’. He especially spoke of NI’s strategic importance to the Atlantic supply lines.
“4.3m military personnel passed through Larne , including US troops preparing for the Normandy landings
“Allied warships in Foyle and Belfast loughs provided protection for Northern Atlantic convoys and, of course, Northern Ireland was a major base for thousands of American troops.
“Above all WW2 was about defending the territorial integrity of nation states. In light of this, how sad that Larne is now a frontier port for goods entering NI from our own nation under the Union-dismantling Protocol/Windsor Framework. It is the EU’s brazen disrespect for the territorial integrity of the U.K. which permits this outrageous partitioning of the United Kingdom.
“But it is remembering the importance of territorial integrity, especially at this time, which redoubles my determination not to rest until the travesty of the Protocol is reversed.”