The Five Demands

A cercare di metter Tom Elliot con le spalle al muro è il suo ‘collega’ Trevor Ringland, ex nazionale di rugby Irlandese

Durante la campagna politica per la leadership dell’Ulster Unionist Party, Tomm Elliot aveva cercato di conquistare voti dicendo ai tifosi che non avrebbe mai partecipare ad un evento sportivo del GAA o ad alcuna manifestazione del gay pride.
Affermazioni che furono causa di forti critiche allora ed anche oggi nel primo giorno di Tom Elliot alla guida del partito unionista.
A fungere da eco alle accuse è in questa occasione Trevor Ringland, prominente membro dell’UUP nonche ex nazionale di rugby irlandese.
Ringland baluardo della lotta al settarismo, ha minacciato di dimettersi dal suo partito se Elliot non accetterà di partecipare ad una manifestazione del GAA.
“Vorrei assicurargli che se una squadra dell’Ulster giungerà alla finale dell’intera Irlanda il prossimo anno, gli farò avere  due biglietti per quella finale”.
“Nei prossimi giorni voglio sentirgli dire  che, se io otterrò quei biglietti lui andrà a quella partita”.
“Perché vedo la gente che si stanno avvicinando alla comunità unionista, che sta cercando di costruire una società condivisa ed ha bisogno di un incoraggiamento. Hanno bisogno di vedere e sentire un unionista che vuole effettivamente avere un rapporto con loro”.
Tom Elliot ha nell’immediato risposto alle critiche di Ringland affermando di aver lavorato dietro alle quinte per andare in aiuto dei GAA clubs della sua circoscrizione, ma di non averlo mai ammesso pubblicamente per evitare accuse di “tokenismo”.

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UUP leader urged to quit already (Belfast Telegraph)
The new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has faced his first resignation call after he was accused of snubbing gaelic games.
Fermanagh Orangeman Tom Elliott has only just been voted in as the party’s new figurehead following a campaign in which he pledged never to attend a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) game.
But prominent UUP member and former Ireland rugby international Trevor Ringland, who has also been a noted campaigner against sectarianism, threatened to resign from the party unless his new boss agreed to attend a gaelic football match.
Mr Elliott later said he had worked behind the scenes to help GAA clubs in his local area, but was against public gestures he branded as “tokenism”.
Mr Ringland said: “I would guarantee him that if there is an Ulster team in the all-Ireland final next year I will get him two tickets for that final.
“I want to hear him say in the next few days that if I get him those tickets he will go to that match.
“Because I see people who are reaching out to the unionist community, reaching out to try to build a shared society here and they need encouragement as well. They need to see and hear a unionism that actually wants to have a relationship with them.”
Mr Elliott won two-thirds support from the 1,000 UUP delegates who met in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. He defeated Basil McCrea, who had promised to modernise the party.
Mr Elliott’s traditional unionist message, and his background as a senior member of the Orange Order and a former Ulster Defence Regiment soldier, saw the 46-year-old secure an easy victory.
During the leadership campaign he sought to win grassroots backing by telling supporters he would never attend a GAA event or a gay pride event. He was heavily criticised for both claims but said his critics were making too much of the issue.