A large-scale British military operation is underway in the town of Armagh ahead of a provocative commemoration of the partition of Ireland involving Prime Minister Boris Johnson. England’s Queen Elizabeth has announced she has withdrawn from tomorrow’s event, citing ill health.Scores of top-ranking officials from the British administration are due to attend one of the largest public salutes to British rule in the north of Ireland in recent decades.
Amid last minute orchestrations by the organisers, Armagh residents have said they are already under siege. Since Monday, armoured PSNI vehicles have been establishing ‘exclusion zones’ in the town, while unmarked British military vehicles have also been deployed. Larger movements of British Army vehicles in the Belfast area have also been seen as evidence that a major military operation is underway.
Earlier this month, President of Ireland Michael D Higgins drew attention to the one-sided and territorial nature of the commemoration when he announced he would not be attending, generating a wave of public support.
The subsequent decision to attend by two Dublin government ministers, Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney and Jack Chambers of Fianna Fáil, sparked significant anger within both parties.
Irish church leaders have also faced condemnation for providing cover for a unionist propaganda event. Styled as a multi-denominational service, it takes place tomorrow at the Protestant (Church of Ireland) Cathedral in the predominately nationalist town of Armagh.
A series of events are currently being held by unionists and British officials to mark the partition of Ireland by the Anglo-Irish Treaty 100 years ago. The treaty brought about the disastrous division of Ireland into two statelets when Irish negotiators were forced to agree to sever the island under threat of “immediate and terrible war”. It plunged the South into a devastating civil war.
One of the more provocative ‘NI100’ (Northern Ireland 100) celebrations so far was a reconstruction of the actions of the murderous paramilitary B-Specials police, who brutally enforced unionist domination in the North for almost five decades. Participants in the town of Coleraine in County Derry dressed in full B-Special attire on Saturday and staged a mock road checkpoint using a vintage car. The event recalled one of the more shocking actions of the force, the infamous attack on civil rights marchers at the nearby village of Burntollet in 1969.
The triumphalist nature of the current celebrations was confirmed today with reports that Boris Johnson is to personally attend tomorrow’s event in Armagh. In the context of his government’s recent anti-Irish prejudice and bad faith, news of his attendance added insult to the local nationalist population and the Irish people as a whole.
A protest vigil is being organised for all republicans, nationalists and others to meet up in the town tomorrow morning. The 32 County Sovereignty committee said the meeting point for the vigil would be at the Irish and Local Studies Library, 39c Abbey Street, Armagh, at 9.30am on Thursday 21st October. They said the gathering would recall “all those who have suffered as a direct result of the British occupation and partition of our country”, and welcomed “all relevant banners and posters”.
A spokesperson for Anti-Imperialist Action, which is also protesting the commemoration, said “Britain has no right to be in Ireland and should get out now. The only comments the Irish people want to hear from British imperialists is a declaration of their intent to withdraw from our country.
“The illegal occupation and partition of Ireland will never be accepted,” they added. “History has shown so long as British imperialist interference in Ireland continues, so will resistance.”
An Gorta Mór – The Great Hunger continues to shape US and Irish society. It has taken 160 years for the population of Ireland to reach the pre-famine levels. Those escaping a British Government policy that turned a potato blight into a famine made their way to the US. Generations of those who took the coffin ships from Ireland, have built America. It is fitting to remember and it is essential to learn from our past. It is part of who we are. Yet Quinnipiac University has announced the permanent closure of Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum ( Músaem An Ghorta Mhóir). A committee to save the museum that includes many leading Irish Americans has written to the university seeking them to reverse their decision to close.A Facebook group has been set up to save the museum. Supporters also include the Plymouth Massachusetts division of the AOH We hope that this decision will reconsider and the collection remains intact for future generations
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson says he has “no knowledge” of claims that Boris Johnson signed up to a Brexit deal he knew he was going to break.
Dominic Cummings and DUP MP Ian Paisley both said this week that the British prime minister intended ‘tearing up’ the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“I have no knowledge of that,” Jeffrey Donaldson told Times Radio today.
“That has certainly never been said to me and I was very much involved at that time. We were in a confidence and supply arrangement with the government.
“At no stage did any government minister including the prime minister say to me what you have described.”
Mr Donaldson also indicated the party’s threat to collapse powersharing at Stormont if changes to the protocol are not secured still stands.
“Our position is clear,” he said.
“I hope we can get a solution, but we are not going to continue implementing something that harms Northern Ireland.”
Meanwhile, responding to claims that the UK is trying to tear up an international treaty, including allegations from former chief Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings that it was always the intention to ditch the protocol, Brexit ministe Lord Frost said the government knew some elements of the arrangements would “possibly be difficult to make work in practice” and they were always viewed as “a little bit provisional and open to review”.
He insisted movement on the ECJ is needed.
“They will need to if we are to find a solution, there needs to be significant change if we are to get an agreed solution,” he said.
Rejecting a claim that the UK is acting in bad faith, the Brexit minister added: “Obviously the protocol was agreed at a particular moment. We knew that some elements of the protocol would possibly be difficult to make work in practice, and some aspects of it were left open for the discussions in 2020 and afterwards.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that we found that that was the case… the very fact that the protocol has a consent mechanism (in the Stormont Assembly) in it for four years’ time showed we recognised that it might be necessary to renew or otherwise consent for these arrangements.
“In that sense they have always been a little bit provisional and open to review.”
Mr Sefcovic has said the EU has stretched itself to offer far-reaching compromises but insisted he has no mandate to renegotiate the protocol.
“Now we should really do the last mile, work constructively with all the proposals we put on the table, put it finally to bed,” he told BBC Northern Ireland’s The View programme last night.
“I believe that we could be in the home stretch with our proposals on the table, and, as I said, let’s try to solve all these issues before Christmas because I think that would be the best Christmas gift we can give to the people of Northern Ireland.”
He added: “I have no mandate to renegotiate the protocol… the Withdrawal Agreement, protocol and trade and co-operation agreement, we signed it, we ratified it, it’s international law, and I think we should respect it.”
Lord Frost has warned the UK could move to suspend parts of the protocol, by triggering the Article 16 mechanism, if an acceptable compromise cannot be reached.
However, such a move could prompt retaliatory action on trade from the EU.
Amid reports that certain EU leaders are considering the form of potential retaliatory action, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he hopes member states are not considering a trade war.
“I don’t know the extent to which this is posturing on the part of some of the EU member states in advance of the negotiations but bear in mind that the EU has a massive trading surplus with the UK,” he told Times Radio.
“They sell far more goods into our country than we sell to them. We are a market of 60 million, the second largest market in Europe. Are those countries, especially the smaller member states, seriously saying they don’t want to sell us goods anymore, that they want a trade war? I would hope that isn’t the case.
“I can’t see how it’s in their interest to do that and what we need now is to focus on the negotiations. We’re not contemplating failure, we want to see success. But we are clear that if the EU does not step up and be reasonable in reaching an accommodation, then we do expect that the UK Government will take steps to protect the integrity of its own market.”
Ahead of a lunchtime meeting with his EU counterpart there is still “a long way to go” to reach resolution on the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Cabinet minister will hold talks with European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic in Brussels today as the two sides prepare to embark on a fresh round of negotiations on the post-Brexit Irish Sea trading mechanisms.
On Wednesday, the EU tabled a range of proposals aimed at cutting the red tape the arrangements have imposed on moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
However, the plan did not address a key UK demand – the removal of the European Court of Justice’s oversight function in the operation of the protocol.
Ahead of the lunch meeting in Brussels, Lord Frost told Politico that the UK is studying the EU proposals “constructively”.
“Clearly they have proposed some changes; we do need to understand that detail, and we’ve begun that conversation, but there’s quite a long way to go,” he said.
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POPE Francis has joined 40 other faith leaders in urging governments around the world to take action in the fight against climate change.
The appeal, which comes ahead of a United Nations climate conference in Glasgow later this month, was signed by the Pope at a formal ceremony in the Vatican on Monday.
Leaders from faith groups representing an estimated 84% of the world’s people, including from Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Sikhism and more have joined the appeal.
Conspicuously absent however is the Dalai Lama.
“We have inherited a garden; we must not leave a desert to our children,” the appeal reads.
Addressed to all governments participating in the conference, the appeal calls for decisive international political action to combat climate change and “to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship.”
It adds: “Future generations will never forgive us if we miss the opportunity to protect our common home.”
Religious leaders are also being encouraged to do their part in promoting more sustainable behaviour.
Francis is expected to appear in Glasgow during the summit, which will run from October 31 until November 12, though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed this yet.
“[the conference in] Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations,” Pope Francis wrote.
“We want to accompany it with our commitment and our spiritual closeness.”
