Republican News · Thursday 3 April 2003

Building the All-Ireland agenda

Lucilita Bhreatnach, outgoing ard-Runaí of Sinn Féin, opened the 2003 Ard Fheis, on Friday night with an address to delegates that set the democratic all-Ireland tone of the weekend's debates and embodied the certain steps to bring forward equality within the party itself.

She paid tribute to the immense progress of the party with the emergence of Sinn Féin as the largest nationalist party, and the work of the party in the Executive, proof of Sinn Féin's ability to work constructively in government.

Bhreatnach noted the confusions that led people to believe that political strength and electoral strength were one and the same. She talked of the 150,000 people who marched in Belfast and Dublin against the war in Iraq as a demonstration of the political strength of those people who support military neutrality, and referred to the Sinn Féin TDs who had tabled a motion to enshrine neutrality in the 1937 Constitution, which the right wing parties had defeated.

Bhreatnach ended with an inspiration to "give the electorate in the forthcoming May elections that radical alternative which will bring what Bobby Sands referred to as 'the rising of the moon' yet closer.

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Finishing line in sight

BY FERN LANE

The debate on the Peace Process raised a number of important themes; frustration at the lack of a pro-active approach on the part of the Irish government in relation to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement; dismay at the suspension for the fourth time of the institutions by the British government and the demand for sanctions against Sinn Féin being made by unionists; and anger, particularly on the part of the delegates from the most directly affected areas, about the slow pace - or even absence - of demilitarisation.

Pat Doherty MP told the conference: "Our negotiation team helped create the Agreement. And you have created the dynamic that has driven this entire process. But all of this is work in progress. We have not yet completed our journey. We still have some way to travel."

In contrast to Sinn Féin's vision of a peace process first outlined to the Ard Fheis some 15 years ago, he continued, "our political opponents and sections of a hostile media scorned our efforts and predicted failure. Their vision could not see beyond the daily reality of conflict and war on our streets. They could not move beyond demonising Sinn Féin.

"Many in the establishment were happier jumping on board the so called 'Peace Train' instead of working to build a real peace process and actually addressing the causes of conflict. They were blind to the impact of partition and they could not see how society on this island could be transformed and indeed needed to be transformed".

Unionism, meanwhile, had shown itself to be unable to cope with the demands of conflict resolution, retreating into a state of denial; "denying that discrimination ever existed, denying that they were part of this conflict, denying that they were responsible for inequality, supremacy and second class citizenship."

"But unionism needs to realise that human rights, equality, democracy or decent policing are not concessions. Sinn Féin won't be bartering on these issues. They are basic rights and basic entitlements and are the direct result of the outworking of the Good Friday Agreement.

"They know what the full implementation of the Agreement means. They know the result of an equality agenda. They know the result of an end to exclusion and discrimination. They know that a level playing field removes much of the rationale for the existence Unionism itself, the Union and continuing British jurisdiction on this island.

"Those are the stakes we are playing for. That is why the spooks within the British system, those who invented shoot-to-kill and those who created the unionist paramilitaries and who are still trying to defeat Irish republicanism, are trying to undermine the Agreement and the process which created it".

Also addressing the conference was Cliona O'Kane, electoral candidate for East Derry. She told delegates that the British government had reneged too often on the Good Friday Agreement, and indeed had acknowledged its failure to fulfil its own obligations. "It is time he got on with the job," she said.

But, she continued, the Dublin government also bears a great responsibility for the current problems.

Ard Chomhairle member Pat Treanor, in common with many other delegates who spoke in the debate, called on the Dublin government to be more pro-active and assertive in both its dealings with the British government and in the implementation of its own obligations. He told the conference they were "dragging their feet every single time they can." For example, he said, the Castlereagh Five qualify for release under the Good Friday Agreement, but "they had to drag the Dublin government to the High Court to prove that that was the case".

Both the British and Irish government came under severe criticism for the continuing lack of demilitarisation. Those living in the affected areas, still subjected to continuing harassment and intrusion by the crown forces, had been led by both governments to believe that demilitarisation would take place soon after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. The failure of the British to live up to this particular obligation, coupled with the unwillingness of the Irish government to apply meaningful pressure on the issue, is causing intense frustration and anger.

"Over two million people voted for this agreement" one delegate pointed out, "and when they did so, I am sure they expected everyone to shoulder their fair share of the responsibility and to everything within their power to make sure it was fully implemented.

"It is not only shameful, it is undemocratic of the Irish government not to adhere to the wishes of the electorate and to force the pace of real change on this island. They should and can do much more to pressurise the British government to remove its military presence in our country and to dismantle its forces of occupation".

Mitchel McLaughlin told the conference that it was sometimes hard to remain optimistic about the peace process when one considered "the daily diet of negativity coming from some politicians and certain sections of the media". However, he said, it is important that republicans "do not allow the No camp to sap our confidence by dwelling too much on their agenda. We have our own agenda".

He said that although progress had been made during on a number of issues during the recent negotiations "we have been here before - with promises that the British government would move on certain issues only to have them renege on those commitments. Until we actually can see delivery it is no time for self-congratulation. We must not relax or relent".

The issue of weapons, he continued, was once again being used as a means to stall progress. It was notable, he said, that "those politicians most vocal on the issue of IRA weapons are virtually silent on the issue of British weapons, on demilitarisation and particularly on the weapons used regularly by unionist paramilitaries. They will continue to use every device available to undermine the Agreement because they are against change. The British government must confront that mindset and be seen to confront it.

Despite all of the blocking tactics employed by others, he said, the time was drawing nearer when the inevitable debate on an agreed united Ireland would have to take place.

"It is clear that with the advances that has made and continues to be made in the negotiations that we are edging ever closer to the point when the final debate will overtake events and create a momentum of its own.

"That will be a debate on the shape of the agreed united Ireland that we all live in. We are now in the final lap, so long as we move on with determination and keep our nerve then the finishing line is within sight".