Republican News · Thursday 3 April 2003

Making the border irrelevant

Appropriately, the first debate of the weekend was on Building the All-Ireland Agenda. Chaired by Maria Doherty, the session brought forward several important resolutions, including the Ard Comhairle resolution introduced by Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD.

This included the economy, health, employment, agriculture and tourism, to ensure a constructive transition to the reunification of Ireland, "not as a fusion of two existing jurisdictions but as a new state and new society that all Irish people, in their diversity, can share".

Ó Caoláin called for immediate action by the Dublin government on the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution report, published in 2002, "which should have been implemented long ago". The report recommended that representation for people living in the Six Counties in Seanad and Presidential elections and the right of TDs and MPs to attend and speak as consultative member of the Dáil. "The days of Ian Paisley TD and David Trimble TD are soon upon us," he said.

Pat Doherty MP pinpointed the changes over a decade. "In the late '80s, the big picture was the Peace Process and there were many doubters. Now it is another phase - the big picture is the reunification of Ireland. We need now to put it up to the Dublin government to produce a Green Paper.

"Sinn Féin calls for a significant enlargement in the number of Implementation Bodies and areas of co-operation, which already, in their modest remits, provide a precedent and practical logic for the preparation of Irish unity. We want immediate and full implementation of the All-Ireland aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, with regard to the All-Ireland Parliamentary Forum and the All-Ireland Civic Forum."

Many delegates spoke in this the first debate of the Ard Fheis. Former Minister of Health, Bairbre de Brún congratulated the Dublin government on making passports available throughout the island. Francie Molloy called on Health Minister Mícheál Martin to develop an all-Ireland health policy to meet the needs of the people North and South. Mark Daly from Tallaght, Oliver Molloy from East Tyrone, and Martina Anderson, who heads up the All-Ireland Political Coordinating Committee, spoke about the need to press forward and widen the remit of the All-Ireland Implementation Bodies, to provide the organisational paths to advance All-Ireland development.

Martin McGuinness ended the session with a powerful address where he spoke of what the Good Friday Agreement has brought, both to the party and to the people of this island. "Through the experience of the Peace Process, the negotiation of the Agreement and the working of the political structures, there has emerged a more professional, confident, assured, robust and imaginative nationalist political project," he said.

"The entire peace process has brought the issue of the Six Counties to the heart of politics in this state. This is an immensely important development in political and historical terms, reversing 80 years of partition where the political establishments, North and South, had perpetuated political differences between both parts of the island."

McGuinness talked of the immense benefits the Agreement had brought to people, of how, despite the breakdowns and crises over the past five years, we had witnessed clear evidence that republicans and unionists can work together to the benefit of all the people.

"Stable political structures," he said, "could create the atmosphere that would complete the transformation of our society and an end to all armed groups, that would lead to social and economic benefits for the entire community. Such an outcome is in all our interests."