Ivan Foster says a united Ireland is now ‘inevitable’ and violence would be pointless

The Rev Ivan Foster, a lifelong loyalist who helped establish Ulster Resistance, says he believes Irish unity is inevitable and that violent opposition would achieve nothing. In comments reported by Crime World, Foster said loyalists could not stop the island moving towards a united Ireland. “When the crunch comes, Dublin will ask Britain for £100 billion to float this. And I’ve no doubt it’s going to happen,” he said, according to the outlet. Foster also ruled out a violent loyalist response, describing it as “pointless” because, in his view, unity will happen anyway. Foster was on stage at Belfast’s Ulster Hall with DUP leader Ian Paisley when Ulster Resistance was launched in 1986. The group was a pro-union organisation with a paramilitary character. The article says that, within months, it was involved in bringing weapons and ammunition into Northern Ireland. The report describes a cache that included 200 Czech-made VZ58 assault rifles and tens of thousands of rounds. Loyalist arms contacts reportedly brought the weapons into the country after the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. The article says rifles linked to Ulster Resistance were used in murders and attempted murders over the following years, including the Sean Graham’s bookies shop, Greysteel and Loughinisland attacks. Most of the group’s weapons were reportedly kept in hidden dumps, which have never been discovered. The report says Ulster Resistance did not take part in the decommissioning process led by Canadian general John de Chastelain. Loyalists in Mid-Ulster are said to maintain that weapons remain stored for a possible future crisis, should governments try to impose an all-Ireland state. Foster also claimed this week that Irish unification is foretold in the Bible, the article says. His remarks mark a striking change in tone from a man who helped launch a group associated with armed loyalism, although he now says resistance by violence would be futile.