A concerted attack by British ‘Brexiteers’ to end Ireland’s famous 1998
peace deal may have motivated a US decision to appoint a new envoy to
the north of Ireland.
Activity in London in the wake of the collapse of talks to restore
powersharing in Belfast took an unusual turn this week when a number of
right-wing political figures directly called for the Good Friday
Agreement to be scrapped. Their criticism appeared motivated by fears
the deal could pose an impediment to British withdrawal from the EU.
In a weekend newspaper column, leading pro-Brexit MEP Daniel Hannan said
his objections to the peace accord “were not on orange or green grounds
but on democratic grounds”. Without irony, he declared: “It’s unhealthy
to have the same people in office all the time.”
Former Tory Direct Ruler Owen Paterson and senior Labour Party figure
Kate Hoey then claimed the Good Friday Agreement was “unsustainable” and
had “outlived its use”.
Signs of an anti-GFA bandwagon have been emerging at Westminster ever
since it became clear that the peace deal was incompatible with Brexit.
A year ago, the London parliament voted to allow the British government
renege on the Agreement as part of its negotiations to leave the
European Union. The issue has come back into focus in recent weeks as
it became central to Britain’s negotiations with the EU.
The US government has always been considered to be a force for the
protection of the agreement since it was brokered by former US Senator
George Mitchell. On Friday, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson
confirmed that the United States is again preparing to appoint a special
envoy to the north of Ireland.
Responding to questions from reporters ahead of a meeting with the
deputy prime minister in the 26 Counties, Tanaiste Simon Coveney, at the
US state department in Washington, Mr Tillerson said: “We’re giving some
names to the White House as we currently speak.”
The first US special envoy, Senator Mitchell, was appointed in 1995.
Successive appointees, including Richard Haass and Gary Hart, have
played a role in the talks process, but the position has remained
unfilled since the election of Donald Trump.
This week a group of 22 members of the US Congress called on the Trump
administration to appoint a special envoy to the region, as did the
Ancient Order of Hibernians. It is thought one will be appointed ahead
of the annual gathering of Irish politicians in the US for St Patrick’s
Day.
“Obviously the St Patrick’s Day celebrations and events would be a great
opportunity to bring some clarity there,” Mr Coveney said. He said the
importance of US engagement was “less about Brexit and more about trying
to ensure that political structures and the implementation of the Good
Friday agreement continued to be bedded down”.
He warned that talking down the peace accord could undermine peace in
the Six Counties. “It is not only irresponsible, but reckless and
potentially undermines the foundations of a fragile peace process in
Northern Ireland that should never be taken for granted,” he said.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar claimed he was reassured by statements from
British prime minister Theresa May and the British Direct Ruler in
Ireland, Karen Bradley, reiterating their commitment to the agreement in
recent days.
“They’ve said that they stand by the Good Friday Agreement and their
support for it is steadfast,” he said. “You know, when I want to know
what the United Kingdom government thinks, when there are a lot of mixed
messages, I listen to the prime minister.”
No Stone Unturned” Monday, March 5, 2018. 7 P.M. Free admission. Open to the public. Capitol Visitor Center, First St., NE (Beneath the East Front plaza of the U.S. Capitol at First Street and East Capitol Street), Washington D.C. 20515.
“No Stone Unturned” is the documentary film on the 1994 Loughinisland Massacre. Loughinisland is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland.
Six Catholic men were shot dead by Loyalist/Unionist/Protestant paramilitaries as they watched in a pub the World Cup football match between Ireland and Italy. The Massacre is another blatant case of British Government/police collusion in assassinations in Northern Ireland.
“No Stone Unturned” is a must-see documentary film. It is authentic, powerful and deeply moving.
No Stone Unturned is the latest work of Alex Gibney —the American documentary film director and producer—and Oscar-winner (“Taxi to the Dark Side”; “Sinatra: All or Nothing at All,” etc., etc.). Esquire Magazine has said he “is becoming the most important documentarian of our time.”
Re: Trevor Ringland -Sympathies lie with victims and families of Loughinisland atrocity
February 2,
With Sympathies Like These Who Needs Enmities
A chara
Trevor Ringland writes his ‘Sympathies lie with victims and families of Loughinisland atrocity.'(February 2nd) He advises these families to shun republican minded supporters and stop blaming Britain, if British troopers, constabulary, or agents murdered loved ones. With sympathies like these who needs enmities?
Mr. Ringland wants families to accept that British troopers or constabulary who murdered, acted “outside the law” are “innocent until proven guilty’, and no excuse for holding Britain accountable. His alternative facts show the deep divide keeping legacy justice a fundamental issue.
Did British troopers, constabulary or agents act “outside the law” at Loughinisland, Ballymurphy etc.? Certainly they acted outside the letter of British law. Certainly anyone charged by the crown should be presumed innocent and get a fair trial (unlike Internment.)Why do families believe that the killing of their loved ones, while outside the letter of the law was part of actual British policy?
Look at Loughinisland. “NO STONE UNTURNED” names and shows recent film of suspects, then reveals, besides DNA evidence available from the recovered car, weapons, and clothing, the wife of one of the gunmen hadtelephoned and written confessing her involvement and naming the gunmen.
No one was ever charged. Are families promised “no stone unturned” then stonewalled, wrong to believe killers were not “innocent until proven guilty”, but innocent by British state immunity?
Look at Ballymurphy. These families say that British troopers murdered innocent people, including a Catholic priest, and mother of eight. After taking 11 innocent lives, and parents from 57 children the British massacred the truth. Victims became posthumous gunmen. The crown made their troopers innocent and the dead guilty.
Families fought for their right to establish truth at a British inquest. Now Britain moves towards pardons dressed up as statutes of limitations, for British troopers and constabulary. Have families no right to believe that the British are putting their undeclared immunity into law?
Former RUC officer and Glenanne Gang member Peter Weir, said the British government at “the very highest level”, was aware of the murder gang’s activities.(IRISH NEWS, August 28,2017)Despite promises and Court orders, these families have not gotten their right to an overarching investigation. Can these families not ask whether a full investigation might show Weir was right?
The divide over legacy justice is deep. Clearly the mechanisms agreed in the past failed to work. Any new agreement on legacy mechanisms must give real truth to victims. Families must get more than hopes of justice, followed by disillusionment.
The death of Billy Graham recalls an extraordinary moment in American life when Graham and other leading Protestant church leaders tried to stop JFK becoming president because he was a Catholic.
On August 18, 1960, with Kennedy showing unexpected strength, Graham convened a meeting in Montreux Switzerland, far from the media and prying eyes. Among the invited guests was Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, whose 1952 book The Power of Positive Thinking is still a bestseller today. Peale was also a notorious Catholic hate
In all, about 25 Protestant leaders took part, with Graham leading the discussion.
Peale’s wife Ruth, revealed the subject of the secret meeting to block JFK, who would be the first Catholic president in quite specific terms in her letter to a friend found among Peale’s papers.
Norman Vincent Peale
Ruth Stafford Peale wrote to a friend in Connecticut on August 19, 1960: “Norman had a conference yesterday at Montreux, Switzerland, with Billy Graham and about 25 church leaders from the United States. They were unanimous in feeling that the Protestants in America must be aroused in some way, or the solid block Catholic voting, plus money, will take this election.”
That secret meeting was never divulged until 1992 when Peale’s biographer Professor Carol George discovered it among his papers.
As George discovered, “it was clear that the Montreux gathering set in motion plans for a one-day conference in Washington to rally concern about the possibility of a Roman Catholic in the White House. Before August was over, Dr. Peale agreed to preside.”
There is no doubt that Graham was the prime mover but he stayed in the background. At a news conference after the meeting, Dr. Peale said the participants had held a “philosophical” discussion of “the nature and character of the Roman Catholic Church” and he found it wanting.
That religious bias was too much even for the media at the time. They attacked Peale, forcing him to recant, and the entire affair rebounded on them with Kennedy’s religion quickly fading as an issue because of the extremism of his opponents.
A week after the Washington meeting, Kennedy delivered a brilliant address to a group of Texas ministers in Houston.
“I believe in an America,” he said, “where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the President, should he be Catholic, how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners how to vote during the 1960 campaign.”
JFK as a senator
He also pointed out separately that no one had held his religion against him when he fought for the US in the Second World War and was a decorated hero. It was game, set, and match and Kennedy marched on to the White House.
Graham seemed to genuinely regret his bias and in later life made common cause with several popes on matters of morality, though his mask slipped again during Watergate when he was recorded swearing about Jews in a discussion with his friend Richard Nixon.
According to an article in The New York Times on January 17, 1961, Graham said “Mr. Kennedy’s victory had proved there was not as much religious prejudice as many had feared, and probably had reduced forever the importance of the religious issue in American elections.”
It was no thanks to Graham, however, that Americans truly adopted freedom of religion.
“Varadkar’s government is now paying the price for Enda Kenny’s complete detachment from The North, and years of letting the British and DUP do what they like. As far as Kenny and his government were concerned, the more difficult things were for Sinn Féin the better. The more he could embarrass Gerry Adams with reference to failure in The North the more points he scored in the Dáil. All the while the Good Friday Agreement atrophied as Kenny’s government never asserted its right to be involved or consulted even in economic matters.”
Inept governments at heart of latest failure
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, February 21, 2018
When you think about it, people in The North have been on this merry-go-round for six years now.
It began to revolve in 2012. Perhaps it was the census results that spooked unionism or the loss of control in Belfast or both. Whatever it was, since then there have been years of talks and talks: the Haass talks, the Stormont House Agreement, the Fresh Start Agreement and then the past year of five sessions of what were really Sinn Féin-DUP talks.
On each occasion the DUP either walked out, walked away or after reaching an agreement reneged on it. The DUP always denied they were the problem but this time they’ve been caught out and have provoked universal exasperation.
Micheál Martin had a point in the Dáil when he laid the blame for the present impasse at the door of the two governments, but then ruined it because he couldn’t resist the obligatory dig at Sinn Féin and the DUP as ‘dysfunctional’.
Nevertheless, there’s validity in Martin’s criticism. True, he can’t have it both ways blaming London and Dublin but also taking a side swipe at the two main parties here. The fact is that since 1985 until 2010 it’s been an axiom that together London and Dublin supervise and jointly manage what happens here. Since then, Martin said, the Irish government has taken their foot off the accelerator. That’s putting it mildly.
Here are the facts. David Cameron, now shown up as one of Britain’s worst prime ministers, an arrogant, careless dilettante, a fitting precursor for the useless, spineless excuse for a Premier we suffer under now, openly sided with the DUP. He destroyed any pretence the British government claimed to be even-handed about this place[Northern Ireland]. Secondly, both he and May sent political nonentities here as proconsuls. [Prime Minister]May selects ciphers, abject in their loyalty to her who had worked for her in the home office including the present incumbent, ciphers who wouldn’t say boo to a goose in case they annoy their benefactor.
May completed Cameron’s work by unforgivably tying the Conservative party – note not the British government – formally to the DUP thereby removing any ability of herself or any hologram she sends as proconsul to act as mediator, honest broker, arbitrator or guardian of the Good Friday Agreement.
For their part the Irish government simply disengaged from The North. Eamon Gilmore, a former Stickie who had, shall we say, issues with Sinn Féin, hardly took the place under his notice. Charlie Flanagan could only see northern Nationalists through the magnifying glass of Sinn Féin in the Dáil. Sometimes you could hardly distinguish his contributions at talks in Stormont from the British line. Can you remember a single word he said about The North?
In those circumstances leaving it up to Sinn Féin and the DUP to make a settlement on their own, which is what has been going on for a year now, is completely irresponsible. The major fault lies with the British, of course, as the sovereign power because no proconsul can act as mediator being already compromised by the infamous Tory-DUP deal. Worse, any independent mediator daft enough to accept an invitation to try to reach a deal will find the DUP can pick and choose what they like since the British government will exert no pressure on them.
Varadkar’s government is now paying the price for Enda Kenny’s complete detachment from The North, and years of letting the British and DUP do what they like. As far as Kenny and his government were concerned the more difficult things were for Sinn Féin the better. The more he could embarrass Gerry Adams with reference to failure in The North the more points he scored in the Dáil. All the while the Good Friday Agreement atrophied as Kenny’s government never asserted its right to be involved or consulted even in economic matters.
So perhaps the next time Micheál Martin gets up to blame the failure of the two governments since Kenny became taoiseach in 2011, he might consider what he would have done in Sinn Féin’s position faced with an overtly biased British government and a disengaged Irish government.
