A group of Protestant business people in Northern Ireland has organised a boycott of traders from the Republic. The Business Consortium said yesterday the boycott will begin next Tuesday if the Catholic boycott of some Protestant businesses in the North is not lifted.
The consortium is said to consist of some 50 businesses throughout Northern Ireland. A spokesman for the group said these were major firms. It is also encouraging public authorities and private contractors to boycott goods and products from the Republic.
"We are confident that the action we will take will substantially hit the southern economy" the spokesman told the Belfast Telegraph. Contingency plans were already in place to receive alternative goods and supplies from Scotland and England.
The boycott would be launched by "quiet and dignified procedure". "Orders will simply stop. It won't be a case of travellers for firms from the South being rudely turned away or accounts being closed," he said.
The spokesman added that the consortium was formed by business people outraged at the boycott of Protestant businesses which was a "Sinn Fein/IRA inspired attempt to drive Protestant traders out of Border areas and other areas where Protestants are in the minority.
"The reason we decided to act against the Irish Republic, and hit their economy, was that we didn't want to be accused of initiating a counter boycott against our fellow Catholic businessmen," he added.
A spokesman for the pressure group, Business and Professional People for the Union (BPPU), confirmed it was aware the consortium had been established. The BPPU chairman, Mr Alan Field said he could not say if there was any overlap between membership of the consortium and the BPPU.
Mr Field said he was not a member of the consortium and he understood, neither was the BPPU's secretary, Mr Cedric Wilson, a forum member and a member of Mr Robert McCartney's UK Unionist Party. Neither he nor Mr Wilson engaged in trade with the Republic, and therefore the boycott was not relevant to them, Mr Field added.
When asked if the BPPU supported the boycott, Mr Field replied: "We can understand the frustration of Protestant business people who want to show some solidarity with those who have suffered because of this Sinn Fein/IRA boycott campaign.
"Many of them feel the only way they can hit back is by boycotting goods from the South." Mr Field said it was understandable that the Republic would be targeted "as fodder for the Sinn Fein/IRA campaign comes from the South's constitutional claim to Northern Ireland".
Mr Field also condemned the SDLP, the Catholic Church and the Irish Government for their lack of "outright condemnation of the boycott of Protestant businesses.
