Posted by Jim on November 5, 2018
British government ministers are treating the north of Ireland as a
colonial outpost which must be visited, however briefly, in order to
maintain the validity of their jurisdiction.
That was the only conclusion after a week which saw Brexit Secretary
Dominic Raab described as “a thief in the night” after his run to a
border rendezvous, while Direct Ruler Karen Bradley bolted from a
meeting in Belfast to catch a flight back to London after spending just
45 minutes talking to the North’s political parties.
Mr Raab visited Warrenpoint harbour in County Down on Friday, but dodged
local elected representatives and the media who were excluded from the
event.
With Brexit negotiations on the future configuration of Britain’s
imposed border through Ireland at a crucial juncture, South Down MP
Chris Hazzard expressed frustration at Raab’s behaviour.
“I think this is the perfect illustration of the cynicism and the
disrespect that the Tory government is showing towards the electorate
here in South Down and Ireland in general when it comes to Brexit,” he
said.
“The fact the Tories run away from this every time is telling in
itself.”
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald, who later had a meeting with Mr
Raab, warned him not to “act recklessly” on the previously agreed Brexit
‘backstop’, which is intended to ensure there is no remilitarisation of
the border area.
“We have told him that he and his government are acting in bad faith,
that they have stepped back from the commitments that they made to
protect the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts, to ensure no
hardening of the border on our island and to ensure no loss of rights
for our citizens,” Ms McDonald said.
There was also scathing criticism of Direct Ruler Karen Bradley after
she cut short a meeting with the North’s political parties to catch a
flight, leaving senior politicians to describe the situation as
“embarrassing”, a “waste of time” — and worse.
Sinn Fein’s Mairtin O Muilleoir and John O’Dowd said Bradley was
treating “large sections of this society with utter and complete
contempt”.
Other sources described her briefing as a “shitshow’ and a “car crash”.
“The tone of it just stank,” one party official told the BBC. “I can’t
emphasise enough how bad the atmosphere was.”
Posted by Jim on
“Brian Feeney explains why he is one of the 1,000 signers of a letter to the Taoiseach from ‘civic nationalism’( which does not have the same negative connotations as ‘American nationalism’).The pull-out quote from his article is very troubling:
‘The Taoiseach pronounced himself satisfied with the Joint Report and promised Irish citizens’ rights in The North, as EU citizens, would be protected and they would ‘never again be left behind’. Sadly none of that has happened. To the contrary. Within forty-eight hours the British ratted on what they had signed up to in the Joint Report.’”—Fr. Sean McManus
Xenophobic stance of the British government must be opposed
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Monday, November 5, 2018
A year ago I was one of over 200 people who signed a letter from civic nationalism to the Taoiseach appealing to him as head of the Irish government to defend the rights of northern nationalists who, as Irish citizens, will remain EU citizens after Brexit.
There was growing concern at the starkly xenophobic stance the British government was adopting in Phase I of negotiations with the EU. Phase I was to deal with three elements: protecting the rights of EU citizens in the UK, the unique position of The North, and the financial settlement – the ‘UK divorce bill’.
On December 8 a joint UK-EU report was agreed, including the crucial paragraph 52 which states: ‘The people of Northern Ireland who are Irish citizens will continue to enjoy rights as EU citizens, including where they reside in Northern Ireland. Both Parties therefore agree that the Withdrawal Agreement should respect and be without prejudice to the rights, opportunities and identity that come with European Union citizenship for such people and, in the next phase of negotiations, will examine arrangements required to give effect to the ongoing exercise of, and access to, their EU rights, opportunities and benefits.’
The Taoiseach pronounced himself satisfied with the Joint Report and promised Irish citizens’ rights in The North, as EU citizens, would be protected and they would ‘never again be left behind’. Sadly none of that has happened. To the contrary. Within forty-eight hours the British ratted on what they had signed up to in the Joint Report. In the draft Withdrawal Treaty of March 2018, the phrase in paragraph 52, ‘where they reside in Northern Ireland’ had vanished. Furthermore, the undertaking to, ‘examine arrangements required to give effect to the ongoing exercise of, and access to, their EU rights etc.’ never happened.
Worse, in response to a question from Martina Anderson MEP, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, wrote that people in The North will not have access to EU policies and programmes when Brexit happens.
It became increasingly clear that Irish, as EU citizens, in The North will cease to have access to rights EU citizens are entitled to in health, education, professional qualifications, representation in the European parliament, and perhaps most critical, human rights. The British government will no longer recognise the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and have already set aside the EU Fundamental Charter of Human Rights. Therefore there are no means for anyone in the north accessing or enforcing their rights as EU citizens.
The growing alarm this plight has caused led me to join with 1,000 others from all over Ireland to sign another letter to the Taoiseach pointing out that our rights continue to be denied in many fundamental aspects. This is not only because of Brexit but by the despicable alignment of the British government with DUP policy to deny rights and equality to Northern nationalists. The British prime minister in her speeches does not even acknowledge our existence.
The fact that five times as many people as this time last year readily signed the letter illustrates the deep dismay at this shocking state of affairs.
Posted by Jim on
Brexit is undermining 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar claims
The Irish PM’s comments came after another Dublin politician said a hard border threatened the peace process
Harvey Solomon-Brady. The Sun. London. Sunday, November 4, 2018
BREXIT is undermining 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland and is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
The Irish prime minister gave a stark warning about the state of cross-border relations on Saturday, with just months to go before the UK is due to quit the European Union.
His comments came after another Dublin politician said a return to a hard border threatened the peace process, in a row following reports that a backstop plan was close to being agreed with Brussels.
Senator Neale Richmond, who chairs the Seanad’s Brexit Committee, told Brexiteer Tory MP Owen Paterson on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that plans for solving The Border dispute using “existing practical systems” was “completely unfeasible”.
Speaking on RTE Radio One’s Marian Finucane programme on Saturday morning, the Taoiseach said: “Brexit has undermined the Good Friday Agreement and it is fraying relationships between Britain and Ireland.
“Anything that pulls the two communities apart in Northern Ireland undermines the Good Friday Agreement and anything that pulls Britain and Ireland apart undermines that relationship.”
The Irish [in fact, the British] border issue has been a major stumbling block in the Brexit negotiations
His comments came two days after Nobel peace prize winner and Conservative Lord Trimble accused Mr. Varadkar’s government of “riding roughshod” over the 1998 agreement.
Lord Trimble, who helped draw up the landmark agreement which ended decades of deadly fighting in the province, claimed that the Brexit process could result in Northern Ireland ending up as part of an “effective EU protectorate”.
Brexit talks have reached an impasse over the EU’s “backstop” plan, which would see Northern Ireland effectively remaining in the customs union and single market unless alternative arrangements were found to prevent a hard border.
But reports from Dublin had suggested that a deal involving an all-UK customs union in the Withdrawal Agreement, plus a separate backstop for Northern Ireland, is close to being agreed.
On Friday, Ireland’s deputy premier, Simon Coveney, said he believed a Brexit deal could be reached by the end of November, with his Westminster counterpart, Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington, saying negotiators were “very close”, after the pair held talks in Dublin.
Posted by Jim on November 1, 2018
ALLISON MORRIS
01 November, 2018 01:00
A LAWYER representing veteran republican Marian Price has said she “vehemently denies” allegations contained in a recently published book that link her to the murder of Jean McConville.
Say Nothing, A true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland, by New York Times journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, is based largely on the PSNI investigation into the 1972 murder of the mother of 10, kick started by the controversial Boston College project.
IRA woman Dolours Price, who died in 2013 and republican Brendan Hughes who died in 2008, both gave lengthy interviews to the so called Belfast Project, copies of which were later passed to the PSNI.
Based in large parts on the testimony of Dolours Price, which was given to the author by the project’s director Ed Moloney, the book follows the story of Mrs McConville’s murder and the secretive IRA unit responsible.
Billy McConville will be remembered as a ‘courageous’ campaigner for abuse victims
Dolours Price previously admitted to the Irish News that she drove Mrs McConville across the border to her death, but in a second interview with Moloney admits that along with two other people she had been present when the murder took place.
Piecing together information provided by Moloney and Boston College researcher and former IRA prison Anthony McIntyre, as well as a third unnamed source, the author makes a previously unheard allegation about Price.
The book claims Marian Price fired the fatal shot that killed Mrs McConville, before she was secretly buried in an unmarked grave in Co Louth. Her remains were discovered in 2003.
The author says after joining together information contained in transcripts provided by Moloney, he asked a third, unnamed’ person about the theory.
“This person confirmed she (Marian) had, that Dolours had said the execution of Jean McConville was ‘something the sisters had done together’, Mr Radden Keefe states.
Convicted along with her sister, for the bombing of the Old Bailey in London in 1973, Ms Price was released from prison in 1980 on a Royal Prerogative of Mercy, due to her deteriorating health.
She returned to public eye in the late 1990s as an opponent of Sinn Féin’s political strategy.
In 2014 she was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for three years, for offences connected to a 2009 RIRA attack, in which two British soldiers were killed at Massereene barracks in Antrim.
Price admitted purchasing a mobile phone used to make a number of calls to the media in which the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack.
Judge Gordon Kerr QC said at the time he was suspending her sentence on account of medical reports warning that further imprisonment would damage her mental health.
Since then the west Belfast woman has rarely been seen in public.
Jean McConville’s son Michael said this week he is asking for an urgent meeting with the PSNI to discuss the latest allegations.
Marian Price’s solicitor Peter Corrigan of Phoenix Law said yesterday: “My client, Marian Price vehemently denies any involvement in the murder of Jean McConville.
“She outright refutes any assertion to the contrary. We have now been instructed to review the publication in question, and the appropriate action will follow if necessary.”
Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe, published by Harper Collins goes on sale this week.
Posted by Jim on
“Enda Kenny, who did nothing for Northern nationalists during his time as Taoiseach, but allowed the British government a free hand to sideline the Good Friday Agreement….Here before them[ the current Irish government] is a concrete opportunity to maintain the rights of EU citizens in The North which is legally entirely in the gift of the Irish government, yet they have ignored the case that has been presented to them.”
Irish government ignoring concrete opportunity to maintain rights of EU citizens in The North
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, October 31, 2018
THE Taoiseach confirmed on Friday in Derry that he intends to hold a referendum to extend voting rights for electing the president.
The plan is that the referendum will coincide with the vote for the European Parliament next May. That’s five years after the original proposal of the Constitutional Convention in 2013.
That proposal was scuppered by the Labour party, junior partners in Enda Kenny’s coalition. Labour feared that expanding the franchise to include the 1.73 million living abroad – most in the US – would mean a Sinn Féin president.
Enda Kenny, who did nothing for Northern nationalists during his time as Taoiseach, but allowed the British government a free hand to sideline the Good Friday Agreement. He put the project on the long finger which guaranteed no vote for Northerners, never mind Irish-Americans, until 2025. That’s where we are now.
The project got little traction during Liadh Ní Riada’s dreadful presidential election campaign where she made it one of her campaign issues, one of the many stupid decisions in her campaign. The Irish president has no legislative power and can therefore do nothing about who votes for a president. A president couldn’t even make a speech about the matter. It was pointless raising it. The electorate ignored the issue.
Far more urgent is the right of Irish citizens in The North, who are also automatically EU citizens, to vote in next year’s European election. That’s one of the many rights Irish citizens here will lose after 29 March. Yet Ní Riada missed a huge opportunity to make human rights, and the damage Brexit will do to them, the central item in her campaign.
Michael D Higgins has majored on human rights concepts in numerous speeches in the last seven years. In many ways it’s not a political matter. Who in Europe is going to object to the concept of human rights, apart from the DUP?
What is political matter, however, is how they’re [ human rights are] implemented and enforced. One central right of EU citizens is to vote in Euro elections and here the Irish government is in the process of letting down Northern nationalists. The UK is losing its 73 MEPs next May and 27 have been allocated among 14 member states considered to be under-represented: Ireland got two.
There was an obvious chance to award the two to The North. The Irish government set the Constituency Commission to work. Sinn Féin submitted a proposal to give The North the two, and subsequently sent a legal opinion supporting their case. The Constituency Commission ignored them and awarded the extra seats to Dublin and Ireland South.
There’s no reason why the seats can’t be allocated to The North. The Republic has one of the most restrictive voting systems in the world when it comes to citizens living outside the jurisdiction – as exemplified by the presidential election. Over 100 states around the world provide for voting rights of non-resident citizens; 74 per cent of EU states have such a provision, including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. France has created eleven constituencies around the world for its citizens, Italy has four. Ireland none.
There’s obviously no EU rule to prevent the Republic following suit and it’s still not too late for the government to do so, for the recommendations of the Constituency Commission have to be ratified by the Oireachtas.
The UK has facilitated voting for other non-residents. For example, they used the Chinese Welfare Association offices in Belfast for Polish elections in 2010 and the Latvian consulate in Newry for Latvian elections in 2011. So there’s nothing in principle against facilitating EU elections here.
The only block is the Irish government which is loud in its protestations about defending the rights of Irish citizens in The North but so far has done nothing practical about it. Their position seems to be that they will take the matter up bi-laterally with the British after Brexit. Good luck with that. The ship will have sailed.
Here before them is a concrete opportunity to maintain the rights of EU citizens in The North which is legally entirely in the gift of the Irish government, yet they have ignored the case that has been presented to them.