A former senior Ulster Unionist has said Donegal has been forgotten by the Irish government and would be better off in Northern Ireland.
Lord John Kilclooney
Lord Kilclooney has claimed Donegal’s decrease in population is due to people moving across the border to the United Kingdom.
He claimed that Donegal’s population has been halved ‘as a result of misrule since 1921’ and a move to Northern Ireland would increase prosperity in the county.
Speaking on Newstalk FM this morning, Lord Kilclooney said that he believed Donegal people would not want to be part of Northern Ireland
“They are very strong nationalists and nationalism is something of the heart rather than the mind.
“But if they look at the bare facts they will have to accept that their population has almost halved, whereas their neighbouring counties in Londonderry and Tyrone have increased and that if they had been in Northern Ireland they wouldn’t be sitting out like a sore thumb with a dwindling population today. They would be increasing in population and in prosperity,” he said.
Lord Kilclooney said the potential rise in nationalists and Catholics coming into Northern Ireland, should Donegal join, would not concern him as a Unionist. He cited a poll of the North which said only 16 per cent of people wanted a United Ireland. He has also said that he has never met anybody who wanted to be in the UK, because half have already emigrated.
