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.
