iBish Oemociu January/February 1999-^" ""^Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland ISSN 0021-1125 60p THE IRISH Robert Hamill: Joseph Priestley: DEMOCRAT Sixty years END THE TRAV stepping up the honouring an WQ.L AMriHIfH. U OOKl , of the Irish IIO. appeal for justice English radical afnafWr Pnwt in OaU Democrat Page 3 Page 4 Bulon Pages 6-7 UNIONIST STALLING MUST END NOW The Irish Democrat's northern correspondent, Bobbie Heatley, argues that the British government must stand up to unionism's persistent attempts to rewrite key aspects of the Good Friday agreement GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT Assembly and north-south bodies, been told to whom the bill will be very protracted agonising, depart- Another reason was that the must be enacted by both parliaments. referred. If we ignore business trips to ments over which the executive would Trimbleites purported to have become Democrat reporters By February 1999 the Northern supplicate investment-seeking Amer- preside were also hammered out, but cost conscious. While unfazed at the t is eight months since the signing Ireland Executive is supposed to end ican tycoons, nothing more has been not the executive itsdf. Not even the construction of an inflated 108-mem- of the Good Friday deal and the its 'shadow' period and acquire formal forthcoming. It would not be too 'shadow' executive has been set up. ber assembly, they were appalled at the whole political process has powers. much of an exaggeration to say that There are two reasons for this particu- 'extravagance' of a ten-seat executive. become bogged down, to the exas- With regard to these commitments, the public here appears to be some- lar hold-up: The Trimble unionists, They wanted a more 'economical' peration of the public. Paragraph only the unionists' demand for a what traumatised by this spectacle, fearing the No Men at their back, and smaller one which, fortuitously, would 8 of Strand II in the document devolved six-county assembly has taking place, as it has, against a back- lacking either the guts or the will to have given unionists a majority. clearlI y specified 31 October 1998 for been met. It has been junketed (the ground of backward-looking unionists take them on, will not respect Sinn Clearly, they remain intent on re- the identification of subject areas for whole of its 108 members and their squabbling among themselves, and Fein's democratic electoral mandate writing the 'Agreement' all over the cross-border co-operation. According hangers-on) at EU headquarters to see with everybody else, up at Stormont which, under the de Hondt system, place. Ably supported by the Tories at to Charles E Mullaney, professor of how a multi-national bureaucracy on home ground. entitles that party to two seats in the Westminster, they attempted to justify legal studies, Western Connecticut operates while the public has not yet However, on 18 December, after Executive as per the 'Agreement'. this obstruction by arguing that the State University, "...any first-year law Good Friday deal requires immediate student knows that parties must be decommissioning by the IRA. As was held to that date." It was missed and explained in the November/December Trimble's unionists were to blame. issue of the Irish Democrat, Tony Blair, It was not until 18 December that a despite his other efforts to move minimalist list (from the nationalist/ things on, must share some of the republican point of view) of areas for blame - as it was his letter to the cross-border co-operation was ham- unionists during the final stages of the mered out after Tony Blair was said to talks which has given unionists the have expressed his fury at unionist opportunity to resurrect the old Tory intransigence and at being misled. stalling device of decommissioning. None of the areas identified had a He did this, of course, in order to direct bearing on the republican/ induce them to sign up to the Mitchell nationalist aspiration to have Irish Agreement in the first place. Even so, national rights given concrete realisa- in the event only a slender majority of tion in the North. EU objectives for an unionists gave it their approval. embryonic all-island economy were Professor Mullaney agrees with the enhanced, but only to a limited extent overwhelming majority of analysts and only after further pressure from who have been explaining what the Downing Street on the Trimbleites. Good Friday deal has to say about The six areas which eventually decommissioning. He says: "...the emerged were a slight improvement First Minister believes that decom- on the farcical ones originally sug- missioning must take place by 22 May gested by the unionists. They had 2000 and that it should start now" wanted such things as a cross-border (this is what Blair encouraged the body to determine where the border unionists to think). "He is incorrect. actually lay in Carlingford Lough! The Agreement provides: All partici- This approach was not only derisory, it pants accordingly reaffirm their com- was contemptuous. mitment to total disarmament of all A slippage from October to paramilitary organisations. They also December may not seem a very big confirm their intention to continue to issue given the length of the struggle It is 27 years since the above march from Cricklewood to September (see page 3) the Ministry of Defence continues work constructively and in good faith which has gone on before, but, as pro- Downing Street, London, in protest at the death of 13 civil to resist moves by the current government to issue an with the Independent Commission fessor Mullaney correctly points out, rights demonstrators, shot by British paratroopers in apology. and to use any influence they might have to achieve the decommissioning "other important timetables, though Derry City on 30 January 1972. Another of the Derry Join us on the this year's Bloody Sunday of all paramilitary arms within two not exact, are linked to the 31 October demonstrators was to die from ii\|uries sustained soon 'Demonstration for Justice' in London on Saturday 30 years following endorsement in refer- obligation." By late 1998 or early 1999, after the march. The British Army still maintains that it January 1999. Assemble 12 noon, Victoria Embankment endums north and south of the legislation providing for the formal attacked the Derry marchers In response to IRA gunfire. (Temple Tube). March proceeds past Westminister and Agreement and in the context pf the establishment and transfer of powers Those who attended the civil rights demonstration know Downing Street via Trafalgar Square and ends with a rally overall settlement", continued on page 4 to new institutions, including the this to be a lie, and although a new inquiry will open next at Friends' Meeting House, Euston Road at 3.30 ppi. Irish Democrat January/February 1999 Irish Democrat January/February 1999 Page 3 News the full implementation of the Good Ceallaigh reminded delegates that the IRISH Appeal for Friday agreement and the need to six counties remained an undemocrat- McNamee Founde Oemociud 1939 Volume 54, No. 1 c Looking beyond explain it to all sections of democratic ic, illegitimate and failed political enti- justice opinion in Britain, monitor imple- ty. The document itself was a testa- mentation and expose attempts to ment to that, he insisted. conviction HAMILL INQUIRY Good Friday derail or subvert it. Delegates also Despite the drawbacks and imper- Enda Finlay agreed that the organisation should CA ANNUAL CONFERENCE fections from a nationalist/republican quashed TIME TO MOVE ON seek the broadest possible unity standpoint, constitutional changes Speaking at a recent public meeting Democrat reporter MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE The recent plea by Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist among those in Britain in favour of brought about by the agreement organised by the Connolly Democrat reporter Party for unionists to change their attitude towards the issue of Delegates attending the annual con- the agreement and to win support for which diminished British sovereignty Association, the Britain and Ireland ference of the Connolly Association the national democratic perspective. had been put inio place - a major dif- Danny MacNamee's 16-year ordeal decommissioning or face the consequences of provoking a collapse Human Rights Centre and the Labour last November gave their unanimous Motions opposing the emergency ference to the previous Sunningdale finally ended on 17 December 1998 of the peace process is one which Trimble and other Ulster union- Committee on Ireland, solicitor, backing to a motion from the organi- legislation introduced in the wake of agreement. Politically, the fact that with the quashing of his conviction for Rosemary Nelson recalled the ists would do well to heed. sation's executive committee setting the Omagh bombing and calling for republicans will be part of the legisla- conspiracy to cause explosions in con- appalling murder of 25-year-old father out its assessment of the Good Friday the speedy release of all Irish political ture and administration of the six nection with the IRA's 1982 Hyde Continued unionist stalling over the setting up of the Northern of two, Robert Hamill on 8 May 1997 agreement and outlining campaigning prisoners also won unanimously back- counties was a another key difference, Park bomb attack. Ireland Assembly executive and cross-border bodies has resulted following injuries received during an priorities for the forthcoming year. ing, as did calls to establish a trade he said. attack on him by a gang of around 30 However, friends and supporters in an increasingly dangerous stalemate which must be broken. In moving the executive resolution, union network. Appeals for British "The task now is to advance loyalists in the centre of Portadown on expressed considerable anger at the Connolly Association general secre- government to welcome Irish unity, nationalist entitlements within the Despite progress over the areas to be covered by the north-south 27 April 1997.