Party conference season in the North
Three of the North’s five largest parties held their conferences in September 2026, with the DUP and UUP outlining their pitches to lead unionism, while the SDLP made the case for a ‘new Ireland’.
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SDLP: ‘Build something new’
Date: 12 September 2026 Following a calamitous 2022 Assembly election, the SDLP has spent the last four years rebuilding while in opposition. Recent opinion polls show it has recovered significantly with Claire Hanna the North’s most popular leader. With the Alliance Party currently in a period of stagnation, 2027 may mark the SDLP’s best opportunity since John Hume’s retirement to re-emerge as a major party. In Hanna’s passionate leaders’ address, she consistently took aim at the four-party Executive, saying its “early promise has evaporated” with “big decisions kicked back into the long grass”. Hanna reiterated her party’s support for a “new Ireland”, but said: “The biggest question isn’t what date? It’s why, it’s how.” She set out her party’s pitch to lead this transition, saying: “Who do you trust to do the work and not just wave the flag?” Looking ahead to the Assembly election in May 2027, Hanna said: “The next five years really matters. They can be another half decade lost to dysfunction and dither, or they can be the foundation for the rest of our lives.” Hanna’s speech received a standing ovation and cheers, but it is unclear if the party can turn this energy and passion into votes and seats.
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UUP: ’Stronger together’
Date: 26 September 2026 The Ulster Unionist Party has overtaken the DUP in recent opinion polls which also show that its latest leader, former police officer Jon Burrows, is the most popular unionist leader by a distance. In his speech, a confident Burrows, who entered the hall to Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, said that unionism needs “smarter leadership”, telling the audience that the party is “ready to lead”. While the DUP grapples with the fallout from the Jeffrey Donaldson scandal, there is cautious confidence among UUP members that the party can finally turn back its years of decline and loss of support to the DUP, with party grandee and vice-chairman Jim Nicholson saying: “I believe we are on the cusp of something big; we have a great ability to mess things up so let’s not do it this time.” The conference took place the day after the Orange Order march down Garvaghy Road in Portadown, County Armagh, was approved, and Burrows encouraged politicians to have “calm heads, calm words, and respect for the law”. A source revealed to eolas Magazine that Burrows ordered party members to stay clear of the area and to not get publicly involved in the dispute. The UUP leader also challenged First Minister Michelle O’Neill to a debate on Irish unity and criticised Sinn Féin, saying: “You claim you want to build an entirely new state. Your ministers cannot even fix the potholes in the roads of this one.”
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DUP: ‘Ready for the fight’
Date: 19 September 2026 The DUP’s support has plummeted since 2024 largely due to the trial and subsequent conviction of former leader Jeffrey Donaldson for historical rape and sexual abuse offences committed against two women when they were children. The fallout of its disgraced former leader’s arrest and sentencing, along with increased momentum for the UUP and the far-right TUV, means the DUP faces a battle to remain the largest unionist party. Gavin Robinson’s lengthy leader’s speech contained one of the few mentions of Donaldson’s “appalling crimes” during the conference. Robinson, who became DUP leader immediately following Donaldson’s arrest in February 2024, said “we will face the past honestly” in reference to on going independent review into Donaldson’s time as a DUP member. There was a strong focus on the 2027 Assembly elections and Robinson said the party “will not be found wanting” when it comes to electoral cooperation with other unionist parties, adding it “must not gift-wrap seats to Sinn Féin, the SDLP, or Alliance that we could otherwise win”. Robinson’s reference to Donald Trump’s support for Irish unity elicited boos from the party faithful, with the DUP leader saying that the North’s future will be “decided by the people who live here”. He added that the party has “one objective, Mr President, to make Northern Ireland great again”, which received enthusiastic cheers from delegates. |
