Ian Paisley: “Never! Never! Never!” (1985)

Loyalists and Unionists responded with fury to the The Anglo-Irish Agreement. On November 23rd 1985, eight days after the agreement was signed, more than 150,000 people gathered in central Belfast to protest against the agreement. They were addressed by Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley, who said Ulster would “Never! Never! Never” accept the terms of the agreement:

“Friday November 15th was not a day of shame for Ulster but a day of shame for Margaret Thatcher. With a stroke of a pen she signed away to Dublin our inalienable right to equality of citizenship with the United Kingdom.

I must quote to you Lord Carson’s words: ‘Our demand is a very simple one. We ask for no privileges, but we are determined that no one shall have privileges over us. We ask for no special rights, but we claim the same rights from the same government as every other part of the United Kingdom. We ask for nothing more; it is our inalienable right as citizens of the United Kingdom, and Heaven help the men who try and take it from us.’

What makes it worse, Mrs Thatcher affirms things that are not even mentioned in the document and denies those things that are blatantly stated in the act of betrayal.

Our parliamentary parties have agreed as a first step to withdraw all support and cooperation from the present Government. We will neither offer to advise, or enter into communication with those ministers who are in harness with Dublin, to rule over us. This will also apply at the Assembly and local council levels, members of which will withdraw from every post or position on boards and agencies set up to assist or advise Northern Ireland Ministers.

True Unionists will not collaborate in Ulster’s destruction. Anyone who collaborates with them can expect to be expelled from the Parties immediately.

To those Unionists outside the Parties we urge a similar withdrawal, recognising that society will ostracise them if they serve as agents of this treacherous administration. At every level in public life, Northern Ireland ministers will be shunned.

We will not have Dublin rule; we choose the Union. We will not have tyranny, we choose democracy. We will not have secrecy, we choose the light. We will not have this discord of war, we choose the accord of true peace.

[Alliance leader] John Cushnahan is the modern Chamberlain. The paper he received is as valueless as the Munich Agreement. We tear it up as a mark of our disgust and revulsion.

Our answer to Dublin Rule is: Never! Never! Never! Never!”