Democratic Unionist Party

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The Democratic Unionist Party is a right wing unionist party in Northern Ireland led by Ian Paisley. As of 2006 it is the largest unionist party and the largest political party in Northern Ireland.

Established in the 1970s by Paisley and Desmond Boal, it evolved from the Protestant Unionist Party. Its membership is overwhelmingly Protestant. It has won seats at local council, province, national and European level; Paisley was elected one of Northern Ireland's three European Parliament members (MEPs) at the first elections in 1979 and retained that seat in every European election until 2004, receiving the highest percentage popular vote of any MEP in Britain or Ireland, and one of the highest anywhere in Europe. In 2004 Paisley was replaced as the DUP MEP by Jim Allister.

The DUP also holds seats in the British House of Commons and has been elected to each of the Northern Ireland conventions and assemblies set up since the party's creation. It has long been the major rival to the other major unionist party, the Ulster Unionist Party (known for a time in the 1970s and 1980s as the Official Unionist Party (OUP) to distinguish it from the then multitude of other unionist partes, some set up by deposed former leaders). The party has a history of right-wing activism, and openly supported the Rhodesian regime in the 1970s.

The DUP were originally involved in the negotiations under former United States Senator George J. Mitchell that led to the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement on account of the day on which it was signed.) During the negotiations, they described the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition as "feckless women" with "limited intellect". The party withdrew in protest when Sinn Féin, a republican party with ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA), was allowed to participate after the IRA ceasefire. The DUP opposed the Agreement in the referendum that followed its signing, and which saw the Agreement approved reasonably comfortably nonetheless.

The DUP fought the resulting election to the Northern Ireland Assembly and took two seats in the multi-party power-sharing executive but while serving as ministers refused to sit in at meetings of the Executive Committee (cabinet) in protest at Sinn Féin's participation. The Executive was ultimately collapsed over an alleged IRA espionage ring at Stormont. Three men were charged with intelligence-gathering in a high-profile investigation. The charges against all three have since been dropped, and one, Denis Donaldson has admitted working for MI5 and said that the spy-ring was "a scam and a fiction" dreamed up by them (see Stormontgate).

In the delayed Northern Ireland Assembly election of 2003 the DUP became the largest political party in the region, with 30 seats. In 2004 it became the largest Northern Ireland party in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, with the defection of Jeffrey Donaldson. On December 12, 2004, English MP Andrew Hunter took the DUP whip, giving the party 7 seats, in comparison to the UUP's 5, Sinn Fein's 4, and the SDLP's 3.

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In the 2005 general election the party reinforced its position as the largest unionist party, winning nine seats, making it the fourth largest party in terms of seats in the British House of Commons behind Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. In terms of votes, the DUP is the fourth largest party in Ireland.

When this is compared to the Northern Ireland local government elections which were held on the same day as the Westminister General Election but under Proportional Representation then using the final figures for the local government elections would indicate that had the Westminster General Election been on a Proportional Representation basis instead of the First-past-the-post system then the DUP would only have had 6 seats with the UUP having 4 seats as would Sinn Féin. The Social Democratic and Labour Party would still have its 3 seats but there would have been another seat for an Independent, possibly the Alliance Party.

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Links with loyalist paramilitaries

The DUP has often stated that it does not support loyalist violence or punishment beatings of any kind, although it is far less vocal on the issue than on violence from republicans. In August 1997, David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (which is linked to the UVF), maintained in an interview that the DUP had tried to persuade loyalist paramilitaries not to call ceasefires in 1994. The DUP denied this. While the DUP refuse to engage with Sinn Féin on the basis that they are associated with the IRA, it has never had a problem in dealing with any of the small loyalist parties directly associated with paramilitary groups, often helping elect their representatives to public officeTemplate:Fact. Its North Antrim PRO is a former loyalist prisoner released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, having been convicted of the killing of a Sinn Féin councillor.

Senior members of the party have been linked to numerous paramilitary organisations down through the years. The 'Third Force' and 'Ulster Resistance' were both formed with the support of Paisley. In 1986, deputy leader Peter Robinson was arrested in Clontibret, in County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland after leading a gang of unionists in taking over the village in a protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Ulster Resistance went on to import hundreds of weapons into Ireland in the late 1980s, many of which were subsequently used by other unionist groups in murder campaigns against Catholics.

U.S. special envoy Mitchell Reiss accused the DUP and UUP of "abdicating responsibility" after serious loyalist rioting in September 2005, adding that no party deserved to be in government unless it fully supported the police. Before the rioting started, party leader Ian Paisley described the rerouting of the contentious Orange Order parade as "the spark which kindles a fire there would be no putting out" [1].

On 2 November a DUP party official, Gary Blair, called for the release under the Good Friday Agreement of Stephen McLean and Noel McCready, the two men serving murder convictions for killing Damien Trainor and Philip Allen in a Poyntzpass bar in 1998. The DUP subsequently issued a statement to point out that this was not party policy, however the DUP have not commented on whether or not any disciplinary proceedings will be taken against Mr Blair.

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