The National Irish Freedom
Committee (NIFC) views the Agreement signed on April 10th 1998
between the Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and
the Government of Ireland as a restatement of the British
enacted Government of Ireland Act 1920, which established the
Northern Ireland state. Notwithstanding the inclusion of
philosophical platitudes, this latest agreement commonly known
as the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) allows the British to retain
sovereignty over six Irish counties comprising the Northern
Ireland state and requires the Irish Government to relinquish
all constitutional claims to these six Irish counties.
The GFA does not revoke the partition of Ireland, which was the
basis tenet of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and the
subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The centerpiece of the
GFA, the power-sharing executive is merely a compilation of
earlier failed agreements repackaged in frilly English lace to
impress the gullible and provide cover for the latest batch of
traitors and power hungry political predators. Consequently,
the NIFC contends that all provisions of the agreement are
irrelevant as long as the annexation of the six Irish counties
stands.
The ongoing annexation of the six Irish counties along strict
sectarian lines continues to be the most insidious of all the
tragedies perpetrated on the Irish people, as it not only
divided Ireland; it also divided its people. It denied the
people of both traditions in Ireland an opportunity to work
together to build a nation in which all could prosper and live
in peace. The sectarian division of Ireland will continue to
foster a climate of opportunity for self-serving politicians on
both sided of the border to enrich themselves at the people's
expense. The Good Friday Agreement ensures the continuity of
this nefarious climate by retaining the same old players and
strengthens it by inducting new players into the fold.
This British-initiated Good Friday Agreement ensures their
continued occupation of the six Irish counties, thus, allying
their fears that the loss of any territory comprising the United
Kingdom, in this case the six Irish counties, would precipitate
the eventual breakup of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, they
realize that the loss of the six counties would deprive their
troops of valuable training grounds, deny their intelligence
services a made-to-order laboratory for testing and refining
intelligence gathering techniques, and rob their security forces
of a recalcitrant populace on which to practice repressive
methods of quelling civil unrest. Another compelling reason for
the British to remain in Ireland is that it provides them with
an opportunity to apply, test and legitimize repressive laws
that can be used on the mainland if the need arises.
The 26-county Government contribution to the 'Agreement' was to
remove Articles II and III from the 1939 Irish constitution,
thus relinquishing Ireland's right to sovereignty over all the
lands and waters of Ireland including the six occupied counties.
This 'Agreement' ensures that self-serving governing elite of
the 26 counties will not have to share power in a united
Ireland.
By accepting the 'Agreement' including the continuation of
British established institutions in the occupied six-counties,
the leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein (PSF), betrayed Irish
Republican principles and the people who carried the thirty-year
struggle for Irish freedom. For their part the British rewarded
PSF with legislative and ministerial positions in the
reconstituted Stormont government, personal protection by
British security forces, and a free hand to control opposition
to the continued British presence in the six counties. In
pursuit of this British mandate, PSF thugs resort to beatings,
knee cappings, and murder.
Despite glowing official praise for the GFA an increasing number
of published reports indicate that the level of violence, ethnic
cleansing, sectarian division and community mistrust has risen
to the highest level since 1975. In the last century the Irish
people have suffered the dire consequences of numerous failed
British political initiatives including Sunningdale,
Hillsborough and now the GFA. The Irish people have not been
given the opportunity to vote as a 32-county unit since the
general election of 1918 when they voted for a slate of
candidates advocating an independent united Ireland. The British
reacted to the voice of the people by unleashing a reign of
terror and ever since have not allowed the Irish people as a
unit to consider or vote on any issue, particularly an Irish
sovereignty initiative. The attitude is applied to the Eire Nua
initiative, which is visionary in concept, and designed to
incorporate the four historic provinces of Ireland into an
all-Ireland Federal Republic.
