History in the North of Ireland is Repeating Itself with a new Dimension added to it - British Interference in America.

By AM Friday, March 30, 2012

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Tonight The Pensive Quill features guest writer Helen McClafferty from the Free Gerry McGeough Campaign, www.freegerry.com

I don't know if people realize the degree to which the injustices in the North of Ireland are starting to mount again, especially since 2006 when the Weston Park Accord was withdrawn?  The British government is blatantly treading all over people's human and civil rights by arresting and incarcerating republicans at whim, flaunting their total disregard for a person’s right to ‘due process’, interfering with legal documents, and refusing to prosecute those British soldiers responsible for the murder of innocent Irish men, women and children during the ‘troubles,’ while aggressively pursuing Irish republicans on offences prior to the Good Friday Agreement.

There can be no misunderstanding, the British government and their civil servants - the RUC/PSNI, Minister of Justice David Ford and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Paterson, are on a roll. It started with the politically motivated arrest and incarceration of Gerry McGeough on 31 year old troubles related charges (less than a year after the withdrawal of the Weston Park Accord) when he ran in the 2007 elections. The arrest and continued interment of Marian Price and Martin Corey without charge or due process; the subpoena of the Boston College oral Irish history tapes by the RUC/PSNI in America, attempting to legally interfere with our American academic freedoms; and now Prime Minister Cameron’s new attempt to have President Obama amend the US/UK Extradition Treaty.

These acts are a deliberate disregard by the British government for the Good Friday Agreement and yet they go ‘unchallenged’ by the media and the majority of political parties in the 6 counties, thus giving the British government the illusion they are ‘untouchable.’

Anyone concerned with continued peace with justice in the North of Ireland are obligated to speak out and make every peaceful effort to ensure these acts of ‘abuse of power’ by the British government are stopped now, in its tracks, before it’s too late and the peace process winds up in jeopardy.

Letters of protest to your local representatives should be made a priority with regard to the above concerns.  Make it clear you have no intention to continue putting up with their silence and lack of follow-through with regard to these unjustifiable arrests and interment and you want them to take immediate action to address the fact the British government is in clear breach of the Good Friday Agreement by perpetrating these injustices.

For those in America, we need to add to these concerns the Boston College subpoenas and let our elected representatives know we are not going to put up with their silence on this issue any longer as well.

It is also imperative that we find a way to balance the British propaganda we are constantly fed from the media, not only in the 26 counties but also in America.

If the media refuses to be more responsible in their reporting of these injustices, than it's time to boycott their papers.  If you have a subscription to a local paper you feel is not giving equal time to those concerned about these abuses or they continue not to report on them...call and cancel your subscription and tell them why!

Take notice.  The British government is moving aggressively in contradiction to the Good Friday Agreement which looks like an attempt on their part to dismantle it.

Remember, we are responsible for how our elected representatives relate to us and these issues.  If you don’t take the appropriate steps necessary to protest such injustices and seriously hold your elected officials and the media accountable for their indifference or silence on such serious matters, then the status-quo will continue to exist and injustice will continue to flourish. Without justice for all, a stop put to politically motivated arrests, selective internment, attack on academic freedoms - how can there be a lasting peace in the North of Ireland?