A Union for All - Trinity Activists

Belfast Newsletter, February 20th, 1998

by Gordon Adair in Galway

Unionists must take advantage of the best opportunity since partition to have their case heard south of the border.

That is the belief of young Galway man Dave Christopher, who combines his studies at Dublin's Trinity College with his role as chairman of the university's Independent Unionist Association.

He believes that in the present context of the peace process, we are seeing a coming together of all the peoples of the British Isles. "Perhaps for the past few years there hasn't been much point in Unionists getting organised in the South, but I think now as we are getting into the new Millennium and people are looking for new direction in which Ireland can go it is very important that unionists get in there and get their voice heard", he said.

"I am talking not only about within Trinity but further a field as well. There are still Unionist communities in places likes Donegal, Cork, Cavan and Monaghan. Down around Bandon in West Cork there is still a strong working class loyalist community. It is time unionism reorganises. We feel that there is very much a place for it within the Irish political system."

The 20 year old History and Politics student is a founder member of the association, and already devotes a considerable amount of his time to spreading the Unionist message among people south of the border.

He is also one of the team behind the Unionist Cyber Community, an internet initiative that, through the information superhighway, has harnessed support for unionist ideals from every continent on the planet.

Dave is in his third year of his course at Trinity, a university that can boast many famous unionists among its alumni, including Sir Edward Carson, arguably the most important figure in the movement's history.

Although not born into a traditional unionist family, he found himself attracted to its politics from an early age. "I have been a Unionist most of my life", he said. "I can remember an article I wrote for my school magazine about the unionist view on Northern Ireland. It was a bit of a running joke with my school friends at the Presentation College in Athenry, but there was no hassle at all. It was all very good natured."

After leaving school, Trinity, with its many unionist traditions, seemed an obvious choice for the young Galway man to continue his education.

"I went to Trinity hoping there would be a Unionist Association." he said. "There wasn't, so after I had settled in for about a year I started putting posters up around the place. Initially they were for the Unionist Cyber Community, but I got a good response and a few of us came together and decided to go the whole hog and form a Young Unionist group."

The group spent that year making preparations and last May they gained recognition from the Trinity authorities.

David says he encountered a very positive response from his fellow students. "We had to get a petition with 100 signatures to gain official recognition and we got that in an afternoon, which I believe is an indication of just how positively we were received."

Dave is at pains to stress that his Unionism is nothing new within Trinity's hallowed walls. "We are merely continuing a very old tradition of Trinity College. The Junior Dean was speaking at a debate recently and he referred to Trinity as the cradle of both Irish nationalism and Irish unionism. Trinity has historically maintained an equidistant stance from both traditions and has made both traditions very welcome."

The association can boast around 40 members and its make up in north/south terms is about half and half. Of its five-strong committee, however, there is only one student from north of the border, Judith McGimpsey, a niece of Belfast city councillors Chris and Michael.

The Ulster Cyber Community meanwhile has taken off and its membership now runs into hundreds. "We have members from every continent on the planet

", says David. "We are getting visitors to our website from all over the world. Many of them are Scotch-Irish from the United States."

"Initially we found that many of the Scotch-Irish who had been using the internet were involved in Irish American republican activates due to the Irish nature of their identity, but since we started up, we have attracted many of them onto our own mailing list and a lot of them would now be supportive of the unionist point of view."

He is convinced that the internet will play a big part in the future as different groupings bid to get their message across to a worldwide audience. "Sinn Fein in America use the internet as their primary way of networking so the internet is incredibly important in political terms in America", he said.

He is convinced that Unionism has an argument that will bear up to any examination, and feels a duty to do his bit to get that argument across. "When I started, as a teenager, thinking about Northern Ireland and looking back over history, I really couldn't fathom out why the South would ever want to leave the Union." "In sheer economic terms the Union seemed to make common sense and in cultural terms it seemed to make common sense. The Union can accommodate sub-cultural diversities on the British Isles as well as accommodating cultural similarities."

David's hope is that he can put in place at Trinity a unionist association, which will remain long after he has moved on from the famous university, which he sees as a vitally important place for unionist politics in Dublin.

Trinity Unionists are still going strong under the chairmanship of Kyle Leyden and can be contacted via Box 10, the Atrium, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.

See Also :- The Irish Unionist Alliance