Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Arlene to join Scots Order walk
Anger over DUP leader’s key speech Protestant decline on centenary agenda
DUP leader Arlene Foster is to attend an Orange Order parade in Scotland later this month.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland confirmed she had accepted an invite to the march in Cowdenbeath, Fife.
The organisation’s executive officer Robert Mclean said he believed it is the first time she has attended one of the Boyne celebration parades in Scotland.
He added: “She’s been invited to be the guest speaker. The main speech would be by Arlene Foster.”
He added attendance by Northern Irish politicians at Scottish parades was not unusual and former First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson had done so in the past.
The parade on June 30 is one of the biggest in Scotland and involves lodges from Fife, Edinburgh, the Lothians and AN acknowledgement of the decline in the Protestant population of the Republic after the formation of the State could feature in centenary celebrations, it was announced yesterday.
News of the plans emerged after talks between loyalists and TDS and Senators in Dublin on Thursday facilitated by a Co-operation Ireland funded programme.
The visit to the Leinster House to meet elsewhere in the central belt. But a senior SNP source told the Scottish Sun: “We have no knowledge of this visit and are really struggling to believe Arlene Foster believes this is a sensible idea.”
Yesterday, the DUP said the SNP “should have weightier worries about Scotland than Arlene Foster’s diary commitments”.
However, the news also generated a negative response from other political parties in Scotland.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats said Mrs Foster’s time would be better spent in Northern Ireland, trying to get devolved government going.
Labour MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath Lesley Laird said: “My advice to her would be to channel her energy into getting Stormont back up and running.” the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement was organised through the Learning, Engagement, Growth and Succession Intervention project – “aimed at facilitating people within Protestant Unionist Loyalist (PUL) areas to strengthen their communities”.
Spokesman Brian Kerr said: “We look forward to being updated on how this subject can be acknowledged.”