Originally published in
May 1991

F R E E D O M
A Sinn Fein Education Publication

Background

The Unionists · Civil Rights · Government Repression

The Hunger Strikes · Social Issues · Electoral Rights

Pathway to Peace · Conditions for Peace

A Scenario for Peace

IRELAND



LOCATION: Ireland is situated on the most western
periphery of
the continent of Europe.




AREA: 84,421 sq. kilometers. 
 



CLOSEST LAND MASS: Britain




DOMESTIC DEBT: £20,000 million.









 


 
  






BACKGROUND





THROUGHOUT history, the island of Ireland has been
regarded as a
single national unit. Prior to the Norman invasions from
England
In 1169, the Irish people were distinct from other nations,
cultivating their own system of law, culture, language, and
political and social structures.




Until 1921, the island of Ireland was governed as a single
political unit as a colony of Britain.


A combined political/military campaign by Irish nationalists
between the years 1916 to 1921 forced the British government
to
consider its position.


 
 



``The historical and contemporary existence of the Irish
nation
has never been in dispute.  For centuries, Britain has
sought to
conquer, dominate and rule Ireland. For centuries, the Irish
people have sought to free Ireland from British rule.
Britain, a
large, powerful and ruthless colonial power, was able to
defeat
the numerous and sustained efforts of the Irish people to
liberate themselves. In the course of the 19th century, as a
result of British oppression and famine, the population of
Ireland was halved.''




Séan MacBride S. C, recipient of the 1983
Nobel and Lenin peace
prizes.




 
 




With the objective of `protecting English interests with
an
economy of English lives' (Lord Birkenhead), the
partition of
Ireland was conceived.




Partition was imposed on the Irish people by an Act of
Parliament, the Government of Ireland Act (1920), passed in
the British legislature.  The consent
of the Irish people was never sought and was never freely
given.




Proffered as a solution under the threat of ``immediate and
terrible war'' (Lloyd George, the then British Prime
Minister). 
The Act made provision for the creation of two states in
Ireland: the ``Irish Free State'' (later to become known as
the
Republic of Ireland), containing 26 of Ireland's 32
counties;
and ``Northern Ireland'' containing the remalnlng six
counties.




Northern Ireland (the Six Counties) represented the greatest
land
area in which Irish unionists could maintain a majority.




The partition line first proposed had encompassed the whole
province of Ulster (nine counties).  Unionists rejected this
because they could not maintain a majority in such an
enlarged
area.


 
  



TODAY'S POPULATION





All Ireland: 4,953,297




Six Counties: 1,509,892 (900,000 Protestant, 600,000
Catholic)




Twenty-six Counties: 3,443,405




Combined Nationalist population of Ireland: 3,983,063




1,200,000 people are living in poverty;




In the 26 Counties, 59% of households are estimated to be
existing below the poverty line or are headed by an
unemployed
person.




 







The partition of Ireland was merely an innovation of the
British
governments tried and trusted colonial strategy of divide
and
rule, used throughout its former colonial empire.




However, while the British government had the single
objective
of `protecting English interests', its strategy for
achieving
this created deeper, more acute and more bitter multiple
divisions in Irish society than those previously fostered,
and
which, until then, had helped sustain British rule in
Ireland.


 
  


``British interference led to the Civil War (1922-23) which
has
disrupted the life of the country for several decades. The
imposition of partition had led to a permanent
insurrectionary
situation in the six North Eastern counties of
Ireland.''




Séan MacBride S. C.






 
 


Partition did not only physically divide the national
territory
of Ireland. It spawned the Civil War in 1922, which has
moulded
politics in the 26-County state ever since. It made more
acute
the divisions between nationalists and unionists in the
Six-County state, and between the population of the two
states.
Not least, it created real and lasting divisions among
nationalists themselves.




Increasingly, partition has generated the foolish and
self-interested ostrich mentality in the power structures of
the
two statelets, which seeks piecemeal treatment of the
symptoms,
through coercion and censorship, instead of root-and-branch
treatment of the problem.




Throughout the 19th century and until partition in this
century,
the British government provided its colonial rule in Ireland
with a cover of `democracy'. Like other colonial powers in
continental Europe, which `integrated' their colonies into
the
imperialist state, Britain `integrated' Ireland into the
`United
Kingdom' through the Act of Union (1801), which made
provision
for Irish representation at the British parliament.




In the changed conditions of a full-blown struggle for
independence in 1920, new means for `protecting British
interests'
had to be found together with a new `justification' for the
continuing British presence which that necessitated.




The `wishes' of Irish unionists in North East Ireland have
provided that `justification' since partition.




Today, this finds expression in Article 1 (a) of the
`Anglo-lrish Treaty' signed in November 1985.




Article 1 (a) states:




``The Two Governments




(a) Affirm that any change in the status of Northern Ireland
would only come about with the consent of a majority of the
people of Northern Ireland.''



  
  





THE UNIONISTS






The unionist veto over Irish independence, grafted by the
British government onto its deliberate fracture of Irish
nationalist unity, has become the cornerstone of the British
government's public rationale for its continuing exercise of
sovereignty over the Six Counties.




British government-fostered political division between Irish
Catholics and Irish Protestants through a system of
political,
social and economic privilege has produced today's unionists
in
the Six Counties. Unionists seek the maintenance of British
rule
on their terms for a variety of reasons, including the
perception that it protects their interests as conferred by
privilege. Unionists are held up by the British government
as
the major reason for its continuing presence in Ireland.




Today's unionists represent some 20% of the Irish nation.
They
are a national minority, a significant minority, but a
minority nevertheless. To bestow the power of veto over
national
independence and sovereignty on a national minority is in
direct
contravention of the principle of self-determination. To
prescribe self-determination for a nationalist minority as a
distinct entity from the rest of the nation is a mutation of
the
principle of self-determination.




British government policy has created and maintained a
division
of political allegiances in Ireland,the national allegiance
of a
clear nationalist majority and the pro-British allegiance of
a
national minority.




That policy upholds the political allegiance of the
unionists as
a national minority against the national and democratic
rights of the nationalist majority.




When a people are divided in political allegiance, the
democratic principle is that majority rights should
prevail,the
more so when such fundamentals as national rights are in
question.




 

 
 





``On what rightful principle may a
state, being not more than one-fifth part of the Nation in
soil and population, break up
the Nation and then cause a proportionately large
sub-division
of itself in a most arbitrary way?''


United States President Abraham Lincoln, February
18th, 1861





 
 





Both as individuals and as a significant national minority,
unionists have democratic rights which not only can be
upheld
but which must be upheld in an independent Ireland.  That is
the
democratic norm. That is an essential ingredient of peace
and
stability.




Those democratic rights, however, must not extend to a veto
over
the national rights of the Irish people as a whole.




However, the unionists hold only tenancy of the veto.




The title deeds rest in the political vaults of Westminster
and
Downing Street.




The unionist veto is, in fact, the British manufactured
gerrymander which dictated the size and make-up of the
respective populations of the Six and 26-County states.




The historical and contemporary purpose of that gerrymander
was,
and is, to protect British interests through the erection of
a
barrier against Irish reunification in perpetuity. lt flouts
all
the accepted concepts of democracy. As such, it is basically
flawed. The inequities which the Six-County state has
spawned
are an inevitable consequence of its very existence.




Inequality is the price which has had to be paid for a state
founded on a system of political, social and economic
privilege.
That price will be demanded and paid for as long as that
state
exists.




In the wake of partition, unionist society rapidly adopted a
monolithic structure with an almost seamless fusion of
political, social, religious and industrial organizations.
Unionist political and economic influence and control
permeated
all aspects of society. Sir Basil Brooke, who was Prime
Minister
of `Northern Ireland' for 20 years, synopsised the situation
thus:
``I have always said that I am an Orangeman first and a
politician and a member of parliament afterwards... All l
boast
is that we have a Protestant parliament and a Protestant
state.''






Founded on the denial of democracy and generally informed by
such rationale as Brooke's, the Six-County state could only
be
maintained by undemocratic methods.




The inbuilt, manufactured unionist majority meant continuous
government by the Unionist Party and its control of the
autonomous legislature at Stormont. For the Unionist Party,
its
single most important piece of legislation was the Special
Powers Act (SPA). The SPA was a comprehensive piece of
repressive legislation with wide-ranging powers of search,
arrest, detention and imprisonment and included the power to
prohibit inquests.




So appealing was the SPA to despots that it prompted the
then
South African Minister for Justice Mr. Vorster, to say that
he
``would be willing to exchange all the [South African]
legislation of that sort for one clause of the Northern
Ireland
Special Powers Act.''




The SPA was actively and enthusiastically enforced by the
Royal
Ulster Constabulary (RUC) - nominally the police force but
in
effect the paramilitary adjunct of the Unionist Party - and
its
reserve force the `B'-Specials. Both forces were
overwhelmingly
Protestant in composition, the latter exclusively so.




For nationalists, Brooke's ``Protestant state'' was a system
of
political and economic apartheid with which the envious Mr.
Vorster could easily find an affinity:






The Westminster Parliament had given the unionists political
power through a system of devolved government, while at the
same
time ensuring that it distanced itself from the repressive
and
undemocratic methods used by the Stormont regime. lt turned
a
blind eye to the institutionalized discrimination, electoral
gerrymandering and human rights abuses and the inevitable
sectarian programs instanced by a sectarian state.




Unionist rule was conditional only on its ability to
maintain
British interests through political stability.



  
  






CIVIL RIGHTS





Organized discontent with the apartheid system began to
emerge
in the late `60s and led to the formation of the Northern
Ireland
Civil Rights Association. Its moderate demands were aimed at
trying to reform and democratize the state. The issue of
partition was not part of its agenda. Unionists, however,
interpreted any form of political dissent, however moderate,
as
a threat to their privileged position and the union with
Britain.




Peaceful civil rights supporters were consequently viciously
attacked by the RUC and B-Specials. The violent reaction of
the
state shocked the world as television cameras relayed scenes
of
unprovoked attacks on civil rights marches and
demonstrations.
The British government was not prepared to allow its
interests
to be compromised by widespread political unrest. At 5 p.m.
on
August 14th, 1969, substantial numbers of British soldiers
moved
into Belfast and Derry. The British army was injected into
the
situation under the propaganda cover of being a
peace-keeping
force deployed ``to keep the warring factions apart''. The
`religious war' myth was regenerated as justification for
the
occupation. In reality, it had been introduced as a
life-support
unit to sustain a state which was under threat of collapse.




The bad dream of partition was about to be come the
`nationalist
nightmare'. Within a relatively short period, the British
army's
real job became apparent. With the unionist government
nominally
still in control, the actual power behind the throne was the
British government's proxy, the British army.




The Falls Curfew, Interment and Bloody Sunday in Derry,
clearly
identified it as an indispensable and major instrument of
government for Westminster in the same way as the RUC had
previously served the Stormont regime.




Within weeks of the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972,
Westminster
had prorogued Stormont and resumed direct responsibility for
the
governance of its colony.




Some two decades ago, people in the Six Counties were
marching
for civil rights, Justice, equality and self-respect.




The moderate and just demands of the Civil Rights movement
were:





  •    One man, one vote (sic);

  •    An end to the gerrymandered local government
boundaries;

  •    An end to discrimination in the allocation of
housing;

  •    An end to discrimination in employment; and

  •   The repeal of the Special Powers Act (SPA).


    

Pursuit of those demands and the Stormont regime's reaction
to it
brought the state to a point of collapse. Only the
life-support
system provided by the British army staved off the collapse,
and
in the process of attempting to sustain the state has
exacerbated the situation.


    

A brief, and by no means comprehensive, survey of the
situation
over the past 20 years and as it exists now demonstrates the
denial of civil rights throughout that period and the
current
state of civil rights today.


    

The SPA was indeed repealed. However, it was replaced by
even
more comprehensive repressive legislation, chiefly embodied
in
the Emergency Provision Act (EPA) and the Prevention of
Terrorism Act (PTA). This has had the effect that since its
inception, the Six-county state has been continuously
governed by repressive legislation.



      
      

    

    GOVERNMENT BY REPRESSION
    

The provisions and effect of these and other pieces of
repressive legislation has meant that: 


    

Anyone can be stopped by
British forces anywhere, at any time. They must give their
name,
address, where they are coming from, where they are going
to.


    

Anyone can be arrested anywhere, at any time. A detainee can
be
held for up to seven days for interrogation. More than
60,000
arrests have thus taken place. No further legal action
was taken
against the overwhelming majority of those arrested. Powers
of
arrest, therefore, are used largely for purposes of
gathering
information. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled
that seven-day
detentions are in contravention of the European Convention.
Britain accordingly derogated from the Convention. This
represents the eighth occasion that such a derogation from
the
Convention by the British government has occurred.  In
almost
all cases, the offenses related to human rights violation in
Ireland.

    
Some 7,000 people have been charged with politically
motivated
offences.  A substantial percentage were charged solely
on the
basis of statements of admission extracted through torture
and
maltreatment.  The British government has been found guilty
of 
``inhuman and
degrading'' treatment by the European Court of Human Rights.
It is
regularly criticized over treatment of detainees in
interrogation centres by Amnesty International. The
Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six and the Maguire Seven
cases are only the tip of the iceberg.  


    

More than 2,000 people
were interned without charge or trial between 1971 and 1975. 
The power to intern remains on the statute books and can be
reactivated at any time.  


    

Torture and maltreatment of detainees
during interrogation replaced internment as the chief means
of removing opponents from the streets.
In one three-year period in the late `70s, 94% of all
charges were brought on the basis 
of statements of admission thus extracted, while 80% of
all convictions were similarly based. 


    
Widespread torture was
replaced as a policy, as the result of a national and
international outcry, by the use of paid-perjurers and mass
show-trials involving up to 40 defendants. This in turn had
to
be abandoned because of public outrage and discredited
prosecution witnesses, but can be reactivated at any time. 


    

With
the ending of internment, the securing of convictions was
facilitated by the use of juryless, single judge Diplock
courts.
Many of the judges have direct links with the Unionist
Party.


    



Diplock judges can now draw a negative legal inference
from the
detainees' exercise of their right to silence during
Interrogation. In effect, the right to silence now ceases to
exist.


    

Changes in the Judges' Rules of Evidence have meant that in
firearms and explosives cases the onus of proof lies with
the
defendants. Defendants are deemed guilty until they can
prove
their innocence.


    

Extensive powers to search have led to the searching of
almost
300,000 premises.


    

Any property can be seized for the use of the military.
Residences, schools, industrial premises, sports grounds and
farmland have been seized for use as military installations.


    

The British government has now vested itself with the powers
to
seize the homes of political opponents.


    

Spontaneous anti-government demonstrations are prohibited by
the
Public Order (Nl) Order 1987, which demands seven days'
notice
of any demonstration and contains intimidatory clauses which
require that the organizers provide their names and
addresses to
the authorities.


    

Legislation introduced in 1988 means that the broadcast
media are banned
from interviewing republican spokespersons. 
 Effectively, the
British government can carry out its undemocratic policies
in
Ireland with impunity.


    

The Payment of Debt Act effectively removed from the
nationalist
population the only limited economic muscle it possessed in
its
ability to withhold monies due to public bodies.


    

Other gross violations of human rights have been carried out
by
both the British army and RUC, with the perpetrators being
given
the full support of the legal and judicial system to act
with
impunity.


    

Rubber and plastic bullets have been used as a means of
intimidating and deterring demonstrations. Since 1973, more
than
54,000 of these lethal projectiles have been fired at the
civilian population. Seventeen people, eight of them young
children, have been killed, most in circumstances which
amount
to murder. Hundreds have been seriously injured. Injuries
include serious mental and physical disablement.


    

Over 300, mainly unarmed, nationalists have been killed
by
members of the various security agencies, the British army
and
the RUC. Over 160 people have been killed in disputed
circumstances.


    

British forces have been given virtual immunity from
conviction
by the Diplock courts for offenses committed while on duty.
In
20 years, only one British soldier has been convicted in the
Diplock courts for murder while on duty. Despite receiving a
life sentence, the soldier was released after serving only
two
years and three months, and was immediately reinstated in
the
army.


    

Since the early 1970s, the British government has
periodically
engaged in a policy of eliminating political opponents.
Initially, this policy was restricted to the attempt to kill
opponents in `credible circumstances' - in possession of or
in proximity to
weapons or explosives. Since the early `80s, however, it has
been the general rule that the killing takes place first and
``credible circumstances'' are manufactured afterwards. This
was
the case in the series of killings carried out in Armagh in
1982
and again in Gibraltar in 1988. Amnesty International has
called
these ``extra-judicial killings'' and has demanded a
judicial
inquiry into all disputed killings. The British government
has
refused.


    

In addition to the oppression meted out by nationalist
government forces, the nationalist population has suffered
the
onslaught of attacks from the extremes of unionism.


    

Almost 700 people, 90.5% nationalists, have been victims
of
sectarian assassinations perpetrated by loyalist
paramilitaries.
Many of these killings have been carried out with the
collusion
of members of the British army and RUC.


    

In August 1969, Interment week 1972 and in the wake of the
signing of the Hillsborough Treaty in 1985, thousands of
nationalists were fire-bombed out of their homes by loyalist
extremists.


    

Sporadic attacks on nationalist homes and individuals have
been
a constant feature of the past 20 years.


      
      

    

    

    THE HUNGER STRIKES
    


    

As well as the trauma and suffering on the streets,
nationalist
opponents of British rule in Ireland were selected for very
special treatment inside British prisons. The struggle for
decent conditions, dignity and recognition as political
prisoners has been constant throughout the past 20 years and
continues today. Of all the prison campaigns the most
publicized, because of the numbers involved and because of
the
toll of lives extracted, was the `blanket protest' which
culminated in the hunger-strikes
of 1980 and 1981.


    

Deprived of political status in 1975, republican prisoners
refused to don prison uniforms and clad themselves in
blankets.
Within a short period, the punitive actions of the regime
forced
them to live in their cells surrounded by their own
excrement.
Beatings and degradation were used, in an attempt to break
the
prisoners' will. For four years, the prisoners persevered in
the
most awful conditions. On October 27th 1980, a hunger-strike
began which was to last 53 Days.  It extracted sufficient
concessions from the British government to make a settlement
possible. Having secured the end of the hunger-strike, the
British reneged. A second hunger-strike was initiated on
March
1st 1981.  It lasted 217 days, ending on October 3rd.
International censure of the British, and with it the
irrefutable recognition of political status, which the
British
had so vainly and bloody-mindedly attempted to deny, was the
formal outcome.


    

    

    

    
  

  

  

  

  



    

    

  Sands

  Hughes

  Hurson

 O'Hara

  McCreesh




    


    

 
  

  

  

  

  


  


    

    

 
 McDonnell

 Doherty

  Lynch

  McElwee

  Devine




    


    


    

    

In the interim, ten young Irishmen, Bobby Sands, Francis
Hughes,
Ray McCreesh, Patsy O'Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin Hurson,
Kevin
Lynch, Kieran Doherty, Tom McElwee and Mickey Devine, had
given
their lives.  Mairéad Farrell, who participated In
the first
hunger-strike, was later to be killed In Gilbralter by the
British Army's Special Air Services.


    

On the streets, Paul Whitters (15), Julie Livingstone (14),
Carol Ann Kelly (12), Harry Duffy (45), Nora McCabe (29),
Peter
Doherty (40) and Peter Magennis (40) were killed by plastic
bullets.

    
The
Hunger Strike Commemorative Web Site


      
      

    

    


    SOCIAL ISSUES
    


    

Structural discrimination in employment has remained a
feature
of British government rule in the Six Counties. Direct
responsibility for that lies with the British government.


    

Discrimination has, in fact, been synonymous with British
rule.
Unionist loyalty - the rockbed of the British presence - is
in part,
conditional on the maintenance of the economic privilege,
often
marginal, which employment discrimination has conferred on
unionists.


    

Patterns of discrimination which existed throughout the
period
of the Stormont regime have remained intact since
Westminster
assumed direct responsibility for the governance of the Six
Counties. In one aspect, unemployment, the situation of
nationalists has actually deteriorated.


    

Unemployment in the Six Counties in April 1989 officially
stood
at 107,623, representing 15.6% of the workforce. Trade union
estimates place the figures at least 40,000 higher. Areas
which
suffer most unemployment are the nationalist areas west of
the
River Bann - Dungannon, Strabane and Derry - and West
Tyrone.


    

In 1970, nationalists (40% of the population) were twice
as likely to be unemployed
as unionists. 


    

By the 1980s, nationalists were 2.5 to 3 times as likely to be
unemployed. This despite an annual turnover in the jobs
market
of 100,000 and the introduction 13 years ago of legislation
which had the alleged aim of eradicating discrimination.
Newly
enacted anti-discrimination legislation has failed to get
the
full support of either the British Labour Party or the Irish
Congress of Trade Unions. lt has ignored the recommendations
most likely to produce positive effect, which were presented
to
the British government by its own Standing Advisory
Commission
on Human Rights (SACHR). It appears that the British
government's objectivein introducing the new legislation is
to
attempt to relieve itself of the political pressure.  It has
been subjected to on the issue as a result of the MacBride
Principles campaign in the United States.


      
      

    

    

    EXERCISE OF FRANCHISE?
    


    

With the obvious and undeniable abuses in the exercise of
franchise under the Stormont regime, which bd to the demand
for
`one man, one vote', had to be removed and could be removed
without posing any threat to the state, the British
government
has, in the `80s, introduced legislation specifically to
hamper
the exercise of franchise by Sinn Fein supporters.


    

Identification requirements at the polling booth are
directed at
disenfranchising the overwhelmingly working class Sinn
Fein
voter.


    

Prisoners can no longer stand as candidates.


    

Ex-prison candidates for local government seats must have
completed 
their sentence five years in advance of their candidacy.

    
An anti-violence declaration for local government candidates
was
introduced in an attempt to deter Sinn Fein
candidates from standing in the
hope of disqualifying succesful Sinn Fein candidates
at a future date.

    Censorship in the broadcast media denies SInn Fein
the ability
to address the electorate on relevant issues.


    


     
      
    

``Britain cannot solve the Irish problem because we caused
it
with partition in 1920 and we are still part of it. A
settlement
can not be reached until Britain has withdrawn, totally,
from
Ireland... That is the only way out of continuing bigotry,
hatred, anarchy and murder... It wouldn't be weakness for
Britain to leave. It would be strength. It is the only path
to
permanent peace''

Robert Maxwell, (proprietor) in an editorial in the
Iargest circulation British daily newspaper, the Daily
Mirror,
August 10th 1989.


          
     


      
      

    

    

    PEACE WITH JUSTICE?
    


    


The following is an extract from Pathway to Peace
by Gerry Adams
MP, president of Sinn Fein.



    

    

    

Peace is not simply the absence of war or conflict. 

    lt is the
existence of conditions of  justice and equality which
eradicate
the causes of war or conflict. It is the existence of
conditions
in which the absence of war or conflict is self-sustaining.


    

The Irish people have never known peace. Despite protracted
periods of an absence of war, the conditions fostered and
imposed on them have ensured perennial conflict. The Irish
people have a right to peace. They have a right to political
structures which are capable of sustaining peace, of making
peace permanent. They have a right to decide for themselves
what
those structures should be. They have an obligation to
ensure
that the ethos and practice of those structures guarantee
equality for all Irish people and serve the best interests
of
all the Irish people.


    

Those who claim to seek permanent peace, justice, democracy,
equality of opportunity, and stability cannot refute that
the
abiding and universally accepted principle of Nationalist
self-determination, in which is enshrined the principle
of democracy, is the surest means within which to further 
those political and social aims
and, once having achieved them, of maintaining them.
  The refusal by successive
British governments to allow the Irish nation to exercise
its
right to self-determination has been, and is, British
government
policy. That policy is the root cause of the conflict. That
policy, in conjunction with the measures taken to maintain
it,
is the cause of the ruptures in the relationships between
the
Irish people themselves and between Ireland and Britain.



    

Division and coercion have always been, and are, the basic
tenets of that policy. Division obtains not only in the
physical
division of the country through partition but in the British
government-sponsored division which spawned the Civil War in
1922 and which has molded politics in the 26-County state
ever
since; in the divisions between nationalists and unionists
which
were cultivated by an inequitable system of Privilege and
sustained by the British government-bestowed unionist veto
which, as designed, guarantees partition; and finally, but
not
least, in the very real divisions among nationalists
themselves.


    

Self-determination is universally accepted to mean a
nation's
right to exercise the political freedom to determine its own
social, economic and cultural development without extreme
influence and without partial or total disruption of the
national unity or territorial integrity.


    

Those criteria are not observed in Ireland.


    

British government involvement in Ireland has been in
contravention of all the long-established international
norms
which give reign to conditions conducive to the
establishment of
Internal peace, democracy, justice, stability and national
freedom, and, by extension, to the development of good
relations
between Ireland and Britain.


    

The right of the Irish people, as a whole, to
self-determination
is supported by universally recognized principles of
International law established in the two United Nations'
Covenants of 1966. Articles 1 of each Covenant states:


    

``1. All peoples have the right to self-determination.
By virtue of that right
they determine their economic, social and cultural
development''. Also:

    
``...all people have the right freely to determine,
without
external intervention, their political status and to pursue
their economic, social and cultural development and every
state
has the duty to respect thls right in accordance with the
provisions of the charter.''


    

Partition is also in contravention of the United Nations'
declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial
Countries and Peoples. Article 6 of which states:


    

``Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of
the
national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is
incompatible with the purposes and principals of the charter
of
the United Nations.''


    

The national territory of Ireland has been physically
divided by
partition with the British government assuming sovereignty
over
the Six Counties.


    

The Irish people are divided within the Six Counties and
between
the Six and 26 Counties.


    

National unity, far from being allowed to develop, has been
consciously and deliberately fractured in the interests of
the
British government. The social, economic and cultural
development of Ireland has been variously disrupted,
stultified
or eroded.


    

The responsibly for partition - for conceiving, enforcing
and
maintaining it - lies with the British government. The
pretext
for partition - the wishes of a national minority to
maintain
British rule - holds no validity against the express wishes
of a
clear national majority.


    

Nevertheless, British government interests have dictated
that
the opposite should be the case.


    

    

      
      

    

    

    THE CONDITIONS FOR PEACE IN IRELAND
    


    




    

The root cause of the conflict in Ireland is the denial
of
democracy, the refusal by the British government to allow
the
Irish people to exercise their right to national
self-determination.


    

The solution to the conflict in Ireland lies In the
democratic
exercise of that right in the form of national
re-unification,
national independence and sovereignty.


    

In the words of the late Séan MacBride, Irish
recipient of both
the Nobel and Lenin peace prizes:


    

``Ireland's right to sovereignty, independence and unity
are
inalienable and indefeasible. It is for the Irish people as
a
whole to determine the future status of Ireland. Neither
Britain
nor a small minority selected by Britain has any right to
partition the ancient island of Ireland, nor to determine
its
future as a sovereign nation.''


    

A true and lasting peace in Ireland can only be achieved by
the
creation of the necessary political conditions. These
conditions
are:


    


  •  The ending of the British government-imposed partition;


    

 
  •   British disengagement from the Six Counties;


    


  •   The setting of a definite date within the lifetime of
a
British government for the completion of this disengagement;


    


  •  The disarming and disbandment of indigenous British
forces;


    


  • The calling of free elections to an all-Ireland
Constitutional Conference to agree upon a new constitution
and national system of government; and


    


  •  The unconditional release of all political prisoners.


    

It is only through the process of decolonisation and
dialogue
that a peaceful, stable Ireland will emerge. Only when
independence is restored can Ireland hope to prosper and
take
her place among the nations of the world.


    

The onus is on the British government to ensure a peaceful
transition to a united and independent Ireland. The shape of
that society is a matter for the Irish people. Only when
Britain
recognizes that right and initiates a strategy of
decolonisation
along these lines will peace and reconciliation between
Irish
people and between Britain and Ireland be established.


    




    

    




    


    A Scenario for Peace
    


    

     

    

    


    NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION
    


    

THE Island of Ireland, throughout history, has been
universally
regarded as one unit.


    

The historical and contemporary existence of the Irish
nation
has never been disputed.


    

The Irish people have never relinquished their claim to the
right of self-determination.


    

What has been in contest is the right of the Irish people,
as a
whole, to self-determination and their freedom to exercise
that
right.


    

For centuries, the relationship between the British
government
and the Irish people has been the relationship between the
conqueror and the conquered, the oppressor and the
oppressed.


    

The perennial cycle of
oppression/domination/resistance/oppression has been a
constant
feature of the British government's involvement in Ireland
and
the Irish people's rejection of that government's usurpation
of
the right to exercise control over their political, social,
economic and cultural destiny.


    

From the late 17th century onwards, that usurpation provoked
both revolutionary resistance and, within the narrowest
confines
of British constitutional legality, constitutional
opposition.
In the course of the 19th century, British oppression and
famine
caused the population of Ireland to be halved.


    

The only occasion on which the people of all Ireland have
been
permitted to hold free and fair elections to determine their
political future was in the 1918 Westminster election. Sinn
Fein, with a political programme demanding complete
independence
for the unitary state of Ireland, won the election with 69%
of
the vote. Those democratically-elected representatives of
the
Irish people formed Dail Eireann and, on January 21st, 1919,
enacted the Declaration of Independence.


    

The Anglo-lrish Treaty of 1922, the partition of Ireland and
the
Constitution of the Irish Free State were imposed on the
Irish
people under the threat of ``immediate and terrible
war''. They
were not submitted to the Irish people for ratification and
their imposition represents a denial to the Irish people of
the
freedom to exercise their right to self-determination.


    

The pretext for partition - the wishes of a national
minority to
maintain British rule - holds no validity against the
express
wishes of the vast majority of the Irish people.


    

Secession is not the same as self-determination.


    

Partition perpetuates the British government's denial of the
Irish people's right to self-determination. It perpetuates
the
cycle of oppression/domination/resistance/oppression.


    

In the words of Séan MacBride, winner of the Nobel
and Lenin
Peace Prizes:


    

``Ireland's right to sovereignty, independence and unity
are
inalienable and indefeasible. It is for the Irish people as
a
whole to determine the future status of Ireland. Neither
Britain
nor a small minority selected by Britain has any right to
partition the ancient island of Ireland, nor to determine
its
future as a sovereign nation.''


      
      

    

    

    LAW
    


    




    

IRELAND'S RIGHT to sovereignty, independence and unity,
the
right of the Irish people, as a whole, to
self-determination, is
supported by universally recognized principles of
International
law.


    

The right to self-determination is enshrined in the two
United
Nations' Covenants of 1966, the International Covenant on
Civil
and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic
Social and Cultural Rights. Article 1 of each covenant
states:


    

``1. All peoples have the right to self-determination. By
virtue
of that right they determine their economic, social and
cultural
development.''


    

The landmark Declaration on Principles of International Law
Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation Among States
in
Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations declares:


    

``... all people have the right freely to determine,
without
external influence, their political status and to pursue
their
economic, social and cultural development and every state
has
the duty to respect this right in accordance with the
provisions
of the Charter.''


    

Partition is in contravention of the United Nations'
Declaration
on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and
Peoples. Article 6 of which states:


    

``Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of
the
national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is
incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter
of
the United Nations.''



      
      

    

    


    LOYALISTS
    


    




    

THE MAJOR stumbling block to Independence Is British
colonial
interference. However, it suits the British and the
loyalists
for the loyalists to be portrayed as the real obstacle to
that
Independence and allows Westminster off the hook, projecting
itself as the `honest broker'.


    

While we in no way wish to ignore the economic challenge
which
reunification presents, or minimize the extent of the
problem,
or the great trauma that will be experienced by the unionist
population, we believe that loyalism derives an artificial
psychological strength from the British presence, from the
Union. Indeed, the relationship between intransigence and
past
unconditional British support is recognized (though
unacknowledged) by Thatcher's government, part of whose
present
strategy, via the Hillsborough Treaty, is to rock the morale
of
loyalists, split the unionists and force the emergence of a
pragmatic leadership which will do an internal deal with the
SDLP.


    

The loyalists are a national minority in Ireland. According
to
most opinion polls, the majority of people in Britain want
to
wash their hands of Ireland. Increasingly, loyalists are
finding
themselves in an untenable position. Their protest campaign
against the Hillsborough Treaty has cost them dearly in PR
terms
and to the British public it has only emphasized the
differences
between the Six Counties and Britain. Their refusal to enter
into dialogue (with anyone) and their disillusionment with
the
British government is producing a momentum towards disaster
where Civil War, or a Unilateral Declaration of
Independence, or
repartition are among the irrational proposals put forward
by
some of the paramilitaries and politicians.


    




    

Sinn Fein seeks a new constitution for
Ireland which would include written guarantees for those
presently constituted as `loyalists'. This would recognize
present-day social reality and would include, for example,
the
provisions for family planning and the right to civil
divorce.


    

The resolution of the conflict would free unionists from
their
historic laager mentality and would grant them real security
instead of tenure based on repression and triumphalism. We
do
not intend to turn back the pages of history, or to
dispossess
the loyalists and foolishly attempt to reverse the
Plantation.
We offer them a settlement based on their throwing in their
lot
with the rest of the Irish people and ending sectarianism.
We
offer them peace. We offer them equality.


    

It is only through the process of decolonisation and
dialogue
that a peaceful, stable Ireland will emerge. Only when
independence is restored can Ireland hope to prosper and
take
her place among the nations of the world. Britain must take
the
initiative and declare its intention to withdraw. That is
the
first step on the road to peace. Republicans will respond
quickly and positively.


      
      

    

    


    A SCENARIO FOR PEACE
    


    




    

THE ENDING of partition, a British disengagement from
Ireland
and the restoration to the Irish people of the right to
exercise
self-sovereignty remain the only solution to the British
colonial conflict In Ireland.


    

The Hillsborough Treaty and the processes it involves seek
merely to camouflage the fact that the Six-County state is a
failed entity, socially, economically and politically. The
Treaty does not challenge the constitutional status of the
Union
but actually reinforces it.


    

Sinn Fein seeks to create conditions which will lead
to a
permanent cessation of hostilities, an end to our long war
and
the development of a peaceful, united and independent Irish
society. Such objectives will only be achieved when a
British
government adopts a strategy for decolonisation.


    

It must begin by repealing the `Government of Ireland Act'
and
publicly declaring that the `Northern Ireland' statelet is
no
longer part of the United Kingdom.


    

Furthermore, it must declare that its military forces and
its
system of political administration will remain only for as
long
as it takes to arrange their permanent withdrawal.


    

This would need to be accomplished within the shortest
practical
period. A definite date within the lifetime of a British
government would need to be set for the completion of this
withdrawal.


    

Such an irreversible declaration of intent would minimize
any
loyalist backlash and would go a long way towards bringing
round
to reality most loyalists and those of their representatives
genuinely interested in peace and negotiation. It would be
the
business of such negotiations to set constitutional,
economic,
social and political arrangements for a new Irish state
through
a Constitutional Conference.


      
      

    

    


    CONSTITUTIONAL CONFERENCE
    


    




    

FREE ELECTIONS to an all-Ireland Constitutional
Conference would
be arranged. The conference would consist of the elected
representatives of the Irish people and would be open to
submissions from all significant organizations in Ireland
(e.g.
the Trade Union Movement, the Women's Movement, the
Churches)
and would draw up a new constitution and organize a national
system of government.


    

While the conference could have no influence on the decision
by
Britain to withdraw, it would play an important role in
organizing the transition to a new governmental system.
Should
it fail agreement on a new Constitution, or on any other
matter,
a British withdrawal would proceed anyway within the fixed
time
period.


    

Republicans have consistently asserted that the loyalist
people,
in common with all other citizens, must be given firm
guarantees
of their religious and civil liberties and we repeat our
belief
that, faced with a British withdrawal and the removal of
partition, a considerable body of loyalist opinion would
accept
the wisdom of negotiating for the type of society which
would
reflect their needs and interests. The irreversible nature
of a
British withdrawal strategy would be a major influence in
convincing loyalists that we were entering into a new
situation
which could not be changed by the traditional methods of
loyalist intransigence.


      
      

    

    


    BRITISH WITHDRAWAL
    


    




    

AS PART of the military withdrawal, the RUC and UDR would
be
disarmed and disbanded.


    

The introduction of United Nations forces or European forces
to
supervise a British withdrawal or fill any alleged vacuum
would
only frustrate a settlement and must be avoided. Experience
in
other conflicts has shown that such a `temporary' presence
would
become `permanent' and the deployment would have a political
bias. Their subsequent withdrawal would become a point of
contention and there would be a re-run of the
bloodbath-threat
scenario. Similarly, there should be a real effort to avoid
the
introduction of forces from the 26 Counties.


    

The Constitutional Conference would be responsible for
determining the nature and composition of an emergent
national
police service and the judiciary. There is absolutely no
doubt
in our minds that, if Britain were to be sincere about
disengaging and was committed to an orderly transference of
power, this could be achieved with a minimum of disorder.


    

All political prisoners would be unconditionally released.


    

A cessation of all offensive military actions by all
organizations would create the climate necessary for a
peaceful
transition to a negotiated settlement.


    

As part of the settlement, the British government must
accept
the responsibility for providing financial support by
agreeing
by Treaty with the national government to provide economic
subvention for an agreed period. Given the disastrous
involvement of British rule in Ireland, reparations for an
agreed period are the least contribution Britain could make
to
ensure an orderly transition to a national democracy and the
harmonisation of the economies, North and South.



    

    

    


    Useful Addresses
    


    

Sinn Fein Head Office, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1.
Telephone:
726100/726932 9:30am-5pm Monday to Friday.


    




    

International enquiries to: Sinn Fein Foreign Affairs
Bureau,
51/55 Falls Road, Belfast BT12. Telephone: 323214; Fax:
231723;
9:30am-5pm Monday to Friday


    

Sinn Fein Foreign Affairs Bureau, 44 Parnell Square,
Dublin 1.
Telephone: 7261C/726932.


    




    

Press enquiries: Republican Press Centre, 51/55 Falls Road,
Belfast BT12. Telephone: 230261; Fax: 231723. 10am-6pm
Monday to
Friday.


    




    

An Phoblacht/Republican Newspaper, Belfast Office: 51/55
Falls
Road, Belfast BT12. Telephone: 246841.


    

Dublin Office: 58 Parnell Square, Dublin 1. Telephone:
733611/733839. Fax: 733074.


    







    

    


    


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