With lurid headlines, the “Belfast Telegraph’ joyfully exposed the chicanery of the DUP when it entered talks with Sinn Fein/IRA, all the while strenuously denying that such were taking place. Amongst those who made the deceitful and wicked denials were those within the ranks of the DUP who professed faith in Christ!
This but made their betrayal immeasurably worse and undoubtedly offended the Lord and made certain their downfall as a result of this deviousness.
If they are capable of it, the DUP ought to be ashamed of their past. This revelation offers an explanation of the DUP’s increasing decline and helplessness in the face of Sinn Féin’s rise!
It also maps out their future continued demise, if there is no acknowledgment of the evil course they embarked upon in order to obtain the trivial and fragile trappings of power!
It should be noted that the man who now makes public the DUP’s double-dealing and treacherous betrayal of their supporters and voters, was a renowned ‘traitor’, who was already guilty of his abandoning historic Methodism for the evil modernistic and Bible-denials of ‘Ecumenism’ with its openly acknowledged programme of the reunion of Protestantism with Roman Catholicism. He is laughably described in the article as a man with ‘unimpeachable integrity’!
What a term to use of a man who broke his ministerial oath and turned his back on the stance of John Wesley!
The ‘Belfast Telegraph’ is an expert in ‘white-washing’!!
Dear Christian this is the explanation for our present perilous spiritual and political circumstances. It is as Daniel said in his prayer of confession of the sins of his nation, which I have just finished reading!
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . . Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth,” Daniel 9:8, 11-13.
I do not expect any repentance or confession of wrong-doing by the DUP leadership. Pride and political ambition hinder politicians doing that!
But let every member of the DUP know, be they professing Christian or otherwise, that they will become guilty of this wickedness should they continue to support the party. They will thus make the evil now exposed theirs and thereby suffer the inevitable consequences ofd such blatant defiance of God and refusal to act as He requires them!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
DUP lies over top secret contacts with Sinn Fein exposed by cleric who was present when they happened – and kept the evidence
Party’s denials about meeting republicans before 2007 laid bare in memoir from peace process veteran Rev Harold Good, the man who facilitated covert talks
Sam McBride
October 24 2024 6:05 AM
A cleric who facilitated top secret discussions between the DUP and Sinn Fein has revealed the truth of what went on, exposing years of DUP lies.
The DUP has always denied it ever sat down with republicans for direct talks prior to the day before Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness met in March 2007 as they agreed to enter power-sharing.
Now, the person who knows the real story has spoken out.
Rev Harold Good, a former president of the Methodist Church, is best known as the man who, along with Fr Alec Reid, oversaw IRA decommissioning. But that was only one of his roles in the peace process. For years he had been meeting with senior republicans and loyalists for discreet, off-the-record conversations.
That changed in the early 2000s when Jeffrey Donaldson agreed to covertly meet McGuinness in the churchman’s home.
In a memoir published today, the veteran cleric, who has a reputation of unimpeachable integrity, sets out how those talks expanded to include Timothy Johnston, the DUP’s chief spin doctor and now the party’s most powerful backroom figure, and Sammy Wilson, with Paisley being kept informed by phone.
The book blows apart what the DUP told its voters and is backed up by text messages and contemporaneous notes from Rev Good.
In Good Time, written with Martin O’Brien, a former journalist with the Belfast Telegraph, Irish News and BBC, sets out extensive contacts between senior figures in both parties.
Refusing to talk to Sinn Fein was one of the DUP’s central policies, and had the discussions been revealed it could have crippled it. In January 2004 Donaldson took part in a debate at the Oxford Union, arguing in favour of the motion ‘This House would not talk to Sinn Fein’.
McGuinness and Donaldson met again on the morning of PUP leader David Ervine’s funeral on January 12, 2007.
That evening Robinson came to meet Rev Good “and went as far as explaining disciplinary proceedings against any of the party who would go against the leadership”.
Rev Good said he asked for Robinson’s permission to forward a letter to McGuinness “to use as he chose in his presentation to the Ard Chomhairle” to which the DUP deputy leader “agreed without hesitation”.
Rev Good said the letter had been crucial to persuading Sinn Fein’s ruling body to press ahead with backing the police — itself the key DUP demand before agreeing to share power with republicans.
The letter said the DUP leadership “is committed to the restoration of a devolved power-sharing Assembly” and “is determined to make it happen”.
Donaldson then met McGuinness again on March 13, 2007 — almost a fortnight before Paisley and Gerry Adams met publicly for the first time to announce they were moving towards power-sharing.
All of this was furiously denied by the DUP, and when journalists sought to report it, they received aggressive responses, including at least one legal threat.
In 2008 Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell revealed in his own memoirs he was told by Adams that an unnamed journalist had been a back channel to the DUP.
The Irish Independent asked RTE’s Tommy Gorman at that time about rumours he had been the back channel. Mr Gorman, who died earlier this year, refused to comment.
Belfast Telegraph political correspondent Chris Thornton wrote in 2008: “The DUP’s done a lot of denying in the last few weeks, specifically about whether they had a ‘back channel’ or some form of secret contact with Sinn Fein in the years building up to their shared coalition.”
He quoted a DUP statement which said: “The party at no stage sanctioned or had knowledge of any meetings between anyone from Sinn Fein and anyone from the DUP or anyone alleging to act on behalf of either party concerned.”
At the time Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly also referred to contacts between the two parties.
Writing in 2008, journalist Brian Rowan reported on the BBC that he’d asked an unnamed senior journalist about claims he’d facilitated DUP-Sinn Fein discussions as early as 2004. The journalist denied having done so.
Powell reveals Adams told him about his party’s contacts with the DUP — something Powell said the British already knew about, including that it “passed through a journalist”.
Mr Rowan said that on November 21, 2005 the DUP emailed him about its “clear and unambiguous” stance on not talking to Sinn Fein. “The party leadership have not at any time sanctioned or had knowledge of any meetings at any level between anyone from Sinn Fein and anyone from the DUP or anyone acting on behalf of either or both,” the party said.
It warned him: “The party, or any members named, would not hesitate to take action through the courts and/or press/media regulatory bodies as appropriate in order to correct any inaccuracies which may appear and will use this and other previously sent correspondence as an indication of prior warning having been given.”
Sinn Fein, by contrast, did not issue a denial, but dodged the question.
In 2011 US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks referred to “substantive, direct contact” between the parties nearly three years prior to when the DUP says that first happened. The cables referred to contact between the two parties in late 2004, with Ahern referring to “over 30 instances of quiet contact”, which then was broken off after the Northern Bank robbery.
At the time the DUP vehemently denied it, saying: “The party was not involved in any negotiations or direct meetings with Sinn Fein before the weekend of March 24, 2007. Furthermore, no individuals representing the party were engaged in meetings or discussions of this nature.”
When the Rev Good’s claims were put to the DUP, unlike past ferocious denials, this time it did not deny meeting Sinn Fein prior to March 2007.
Instead, it referred to “a number of inaccuracies in the rumoured remarks”, but declined to specify a single fact which is inaccurate.
It admitted that “as part of that wider process some individual members of the party did accept invites to meetings, facilitated by third parties, to see whether there was sufficient common ground to reach an agreement” – but did not openly admit that those meetings were authorised and involved dialogue with Sinn Fein.