London hears Sinn Féin analysis
A PACKED public meeting in London last Sunday heard a
strong, committed message from Sinn Féin's negotiators.
d the question and answer session heard Gerry Adams
and Martin McGuinness explain Sinn Fein's strategy in
the current negotiations.
Highlighting the conviction of Sinn Féin that we will
bring about an end to British rule in Ireland, Adams
reminded the audience that 1998 is the bicentenary of
the 1798 uprising and spoke of his regret that the
proud and honourable tradition of Irish Protestantism
has been hijacked by bigots.
``We have to fight the notion that something in the air
makes Protestants and Catholics fight each other. Of
course there is a sectarian edge to it. Some of those
who go out killing Catholics do so under fundamentalist
religious beliefs. But it is more to do with the prop
of the British presence in Ireland. They are just part
of the broader effort to prevent change.
``Let us tell them, however, that no matter how many
nationalists they kill they are going to fail because
nationalists in the Six Counties are never, never going
to accept second class citizenship again.''
He continued, ``What we are looking at is the maximum
possible change we can get out of this process and then
we will work out our strategy from there.''
Martin McGuinness said, ``Thirty years ago the people we
represent were nobodies. The present generation of
republicans changed that. We have struggled for thirty
years and if we have to struggle for another thirty
years, we will.''
But, he said, ``If we can bring about a process which
means no more volunteers are killed or imprisoned, that
no more soldiers or RUC men lose their lives, then we
have a responsibility to do that. We have not fooled
anybody; we have not told anybody that when they wake
up in May there will be a united Ireland. We see this
as a step on the road to a united Ireland.
``Unionists are afraid of change and loyalists are
responding in the way they always have - by murdering
Catholics. But we should not rule out the possibility
that the hand behind this is the British government's,
that the LVF came into existence at the behest of the
securocrats within the British establishment.
``If the British government can get away with
copper-fastening partition, they will do it. We went in
knowing that it and others were trying to destroy us.
Two weeks ago it hoped to ambush us with the
Proposition for Heads of Agreement in the belief that
they could isolate and marginalise us.
``But we told them it was not acceptable, that it is not
going to solve the problem and that it is not
acceptable to the people we represent. They were not
able to sell it because the analysis we have put to the
people, that there can be no partitionist settlement,
has taken root.''
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