Loyalist Communites Council: Ceasefire talks cleric says Good Friday Agreement now weaponised against unionists

Rev Chris Hudson from All Souls non-subscribing Presbyterian Church in Belfast was heavily involved in securing the loyalist ceasefires in 1994.

Last week the Loyalist Community Council (LCC) warned Irish ministers against visiting NI and warned of "dire consequences" in relation to nationalist calls for joint authority.

In recent days the Belfast Telegraph reported that a loyalist operation to set off a bomb in the Republic was only narrowly averted when the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) explicitly ruled out joint authority due to the loss of the Stormont executive.

"Absolutely nobody has the right to issue threats and most certainly not to elected representatives," Rev Hudson told the News Letter.

He said that the LCC was set up in 2015 to give a voice to working-class loyalists who had no elected representatives. As a result both governments and almost all political parties across the island engaged with loyalists, with the exception of the Alliance Party, he said.

"What surprises me now is that nobody in officialdom seems to be talking to these people [loyalists] at all."

In their 1994 ceasefire declaration, loyalists said their main motivation was that the Union was safe, he said. "Now it appears they don't believe that anymore."

"In recent days nationalist people were talking about joint authority when they must know that the Good Friday Agreement [GFA] does not cover this – and when they must know joint authority is undermining the principle of consent.

"People from all parties now need to restate their commitment to the GFA principle of consent – that is what we all voted for.”

The GFA is now being used as a weapon to "have a go" at the generic unionist community, he said.

"When one community believes the other side is stepping outside the GFA – or not acting in your interests – and then you accuse them of damaging the GFA.”

He has heard calls to implement the NI Protocol "in the interests of the GFA" but said this would be the same as calling for "a hard border" between NI and the Republic of Ireland in the interests of the GFA. "What it really means is – 'let's stitch it into the other community'.”

He is keen to see Stormont operating again.

"How do you make it happen? You look at the reasons the DUP are excluding themselves from the assembly and you deal immediately with those.

"As someone who has dedicated a lot of time and energy towards helping to build peace it is all so depressing – are we going to throw it all away? Let's not create the conditions for people to start hurting each other again.”

Regarding possible loyalist attacks in the south, the PSNI said it was aware of "uncorroborated reports" and will continue to monitor the groups. The Garda said it does not comment on "speculation” but considers any such threats “a serious concern".

PUP leader Billy Hutchinson said today: “I am very clear – no violence, we need to make politics work.”