THE British and Irish premiers yesterday outlined their plan to restore direct rule from Westminster, via Dublin, if the Paisleyite DUP does not agree to restore the power sharing local government executive in the north by November 24th.
The two Prime Ministers said that the assembly will be recalled on May 15 and given until the end of June to form an executive. If that fails, the 108 members of the assembly will be given a further 12 weeks before direct rule is restored and their salaries are stopped.
This means that the British and Irish governments are going to scrap the Good Friday Agreement next November, if there is no agreement in the north, and that the UK will then continue to run the north from Westminster, with a little help from the Irish government, working along the lines of new legislation to be pushed through the UK parliament.
The British and Irish governments will then work in ‘partnership’, claiming that this represents the Good Friday Agreement.
Blair said yesterday: ‘We have today set out a framework beginning with the recall of the assembly on the 15th of May and running up to November of this year for that ultimate decision to be made.
‘At that point we close the chapter . . . or we close the book.’
Ahern said: ‘It is time to talk and to agree,’
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said there were ‘negatives and positives’ in the statement. He added:
‘We welcome that the assembly has been brought together. . . We have concerns about the timeframe, about other aspects of the statement, but we think that’s a good forward step.
‘We would like to think that unionism generally would see it as a positive opportunity.’
DUP leader Ian Paisley added: ‘Currently there is no evidence that Sinn Fein/IRA will be any further advanced in giving up criminality in November.
‘Given the reality that there will be no executive formed for the foreseeable future the best way forward is to get working in the assembly.’
The regional government at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring headed by Denis Donaldson.
Donaldson was shortly afterwards revealed to be a longstanding British agent in the ranks of the Republican movement, just after legal proceedings were dropped.
There was no Republican spy ring at Stormont. Donaldson was used to bring the power sharing regime down.
His death is now being used to hold up the return to power sharing, with the suggestion being made that it shows that the IRA ‘leopard’ just cannot change its spots, despite the fact that the IRA has denied any responsibility for his death.
Now the period from April to November will be used to batter down Sinn Fein and the IRA, or else see power sharing in the north vanish.
The British and Irish governments and the Unionists want to see Sinn Fein in full support of the new revamped RUC – the PSNI – its members joining it and its leaders sitting on its controlling committees.
They also want to see the IRA officially disbanded and turned into an old comrades historical association, as well as Sinn Fein MPs taking their seats in the House of Commons so that they can ‘properly represent their constituents’.
In a sentence, they want to see Sinn Fein become a part of the constitutional ruling establishment in the north of Ireland.
This will create the conditions for the continuation of British rule in the north, leaving a united Ireland well and truly a matter for future generations in the north to resolve, should there be a catholic or nationalist majority, and should that majority wish to vote solidly for forming an all-Ireland republic.
That this is not what those who took up arms against British troops in the north in 1969 were fighting for, is obvious. Despite the enormous heroism of the movement, the Republican outlook has proven to have feet of clay. Ireland can only be united through a socialist revolution.
