 			Irish News
              Trimble Is Branded 'Traitor' At Rally
                                   By Peter McVerry
30 September 1997 
       THE Protestant population of Northern Ireland was urged by 
       unionist leaders last night to demand an immediate referendum 
       on the union. 

       DUP leader Ian Paisley and UK Unionist Robert McCartney told 
       more than 1,000 people at a Ulster's Crisis - Where Now 
       debate in Belfast's Ulster Hall that the peace talks were a 
       sellout. 

       It was a stirring show of defiance ahead of this morning's 
       historic multi-party peace talks at Stormont. 

       Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble turned down an invitation 
       to take part. 

       The two leaders took the stage to a standing ovation and a 
       roof-lifting rendition of The Sash My Father Wore. 

       Mr Paisley issued an appeal "beyond the hierarchy of Glengall 
       Street to the ordinary voters - the time has come when me must 
       stand together and defend the union". 

       Mr McCartney told the thronged audience that the talks were 
       "directed to one purpose only and that is to obtain consent for 
       that which they do not dare to impose". 

       He warned the capacity audience that the Framework Document 
       represented "the minimum demand of pan-nationalism" and said 
       the only thing that may deter the British government from its 
       "relentless pursuit of its present policy" was "an overwhelming 
       public demonstration of pro-union opposition". 

       Evoking memories of a previous rallying call from Randolph 
       Churchill on the same stage that "Ulster will fight and Ulster 
       will be right," Mr Paisley poured scorn on what he called the 
       "yellow-bellied antics" of the Ulster Unionist Party. 

       Tickets for last night's debate proclaimed a debate featuring the 
       three Unionist leaders. But, as expected, Ulster Unionist leader 
       David Trimble failed to attend, his absence incurring regular 
       shouts of 'traitor' and 'Lundy' from the frenzied audience. 

       There were however a number of prominent Ulster Unionist 
       members present in the hall including talks team member Steven 
       King. 

       Rev Paisley used all his years of experience of oratory to please 
       the crowd, using references to newspaper articles to highlight 
       the changing position of the Ulster Unionist party from a 
       promise by David Trimble on June 7 1996 to stop talks unless 
       decommissioning started right away to last week's position that 
       "an indication of earnest intent was required". 

       In a rousing speech regularly peppered with standing ovations, 
       Robert McCartney told the audience that real life is life outside 
       the talks and listed five things that true unionists should do. 

       He said that first of all they needed a "positive and resolute 
       leadership which thinks and plans ahead a strategy rather than 
       morosely contemplating the best available term of surrender. 

       "Secondly, that leadership should restore the self confidence, 
       faith and resolution of the pro-union people in themselves. 

       "Thirdly, we must have a clear and settled strategy and course of 
       action directed, as has Sinn Fein, to a single and determined 
       objective of maintaining the status of Northern Ireland as an 
       integral part of the UK. 

       "Fourth, we must strive to persuade unionist representation to 
       withdraw from the present talks since there is absolutely no way 
       in which our position within the UK or the quality of our 
       citizenship can conceivably be strengthened by any agreement to 
       which pannationalism would, within that structure, give its 
       approval." 

       Mr McCartney told the audience that the fifth thing they should 
       do was embark immediately on the administrative organisation 
       for a united unionist campaign "to bring home to every 
       pro-union person the true nature of the present crisis and to 
       combat the rising tide of government propaganda". 

       "To do these things we require organisation, central 
       administration, financial resource and men and women of energy 
       and intellect to spread the message to every city, town, village 
       and hamlet in Northern Ireland," he said. 

       The UK Unionist leader warned those present that their motives 
       would be both misunderstood and misrepresented and said they 
       would be "accused of sectarianism and bigotry when our case 
       and arguments cannot otherwise be answered". 

       Mr McCartney warned that "at every point" during the course of 
       negotiations between now and May 1998, the "saturation 
       propaganda and the bogeyman of world opinion" would be used 
       to say that Unionist intransigence would be held responsible for 
       ending talks and returning the IRA to violence. 

       "Will world opinion resurrect our dead ? Will world opinion heal 
       the bodies of our maimed ? Will world opinion comfort the grief 
       of our victims ? 

       "Will world opinion restore the destruction of home and 
       business ? The answer to these questions is no because world 
       opinion is based on what is fed by the propaganda of our own 
       government, the Irish government and the Irish American lobby 
       for whom each IRA outrage is but a temporary embarrassment to 
       the achievement of their aims." 

       Mr Paisley told the audience that he had been taught by his 
       father - "one of Carson's UVF, the real UVF" - that the only way 
       to maintain the union was at the price of constant and continual 
       vigilance. 

       He told the audience that the Downing Street Declaration 
       inclusion of an all-island consent was something that the Irish 
       government "had got their teeth into and wouldn't let go". 

       Mr Paisley said true unionists would not be in the talks and said 
       that "as long as the IRA have their guns no-one is safe". 

       Citing an Irish News article in June 1986 when Martin 
       McGuinness said that freedom could only be gained at the point 
       of an IRA gun, Mr Paisley asked "who could believe that this 
       man wants a ceasefire"? 

       "The ceasefire is another dodge of the IRA to get better prepared 
       for their final onslaught." 

       Mr Paisley also ridiculed leading members of the Ulster Unionist 
       party, describing talks team member Reg Empey as Reg Empty 
       and Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson as "little Jeffrey" and 
       said the pat on the head David Trimble would receive from US 
       president Bill Clinton on a forthcoming visit to America was the 
       equivalent to "a kiss of death". 

       David Trimble and Ken Maginnis were tagged as Generalissimo 
       Maginnis and Lt Col Trimble to the amusement of the audience 
       while Robert McCartney quoted Russian revolutionary Lenin to 
       term business leaders and captains of industry as "useful fools 
       who could be used to bring about the destruction of a political 
       society and social order of which they themselves form part". 