The Good Friday Agreement in many respects is no different to this trend, as it mirrors the Treaty of Limerick, 1641 and the Anglo/Irish Treaty of 1921/22 by way of a sell-out.
Like the GFA, the Treaty of Limerick was consisted of two parts: the first was a military surrender by the forces of King James II to those of King William III and the second was a guarantee of religious and civil liberties to Catholics in Ireland which were ignored greatly. The military agreement led to what is historically called the “Flight of the Wild Geese” 1691/92. The GFA was also two separate agreements, the Multi Party Agreement (MPA) and the British/Irish Agreement (BIA), the latter being annexed to the former to give the GFA legal status. Like the Treaty of Limerick and the 1921/22 Agreement the latter which sold The Republic down the river, the GFA brings Irish unification no closer as the British Secretary of State can veto many aspects if he/she does not think “it is the right time” for say, a border poll. In fact, arguably the GFA is the sell-out of sell outs!
Since the signing of the “Terms of the Agreement”, leading to the “Anglo Irish Treaty” on 6th December 1921 no Irish Government has accepted partition as a done deal. Even the W.T. Cosgrave administration, pro-treaty, harboured hopes, based on the ill-fated Border Commission, that partition would be temporary. When de Valera came to power in 1932, he abolished many of the minor details of the treaty and in 1937, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis in London, he drafted his constitution of that year. Articles two and three of that constitution laid claim to the area covered by the six counties governed by Britain. Admittedly he did not do much to achieve the reconquest of the occupied areas but at least he had it written into the constitution of the time - the Dublin Government laid claim to the land, which has now been removed. Today we hear broadly accepted narratives like “Ireland and Northern Ireland” which accepts that two countries exist on the island of Ireland. Such discourse is used by both the twenty-six-county administration and the London Government as well these days as Sinn Fein.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 it has become noticeable that both Sinn Fein (P) who were then the political voice of the IRA and the Dublin Government have accepted partition as a living entity which, at least for the foreseeable future is here to stay. This is a historical first insofar as recognition of partition goes, even superficially, because part of the GFA was the removal, or replacement of articles two and three written into the 1937 constitution.
Since the signing of the “Terms of the Agreement”, leading to the “Anglo Irish Treaty” on 6th December 1921 no Irish Government has accepted partition as a done deal. Even the W.T. Cosgrave administration, pro-treaty, harboured hopes, based on the ill-fated Border Commission, that partition would be temporary. When de Valera came to power in 1932, he abolished many of the minor details of the treaty and in 1937, taking advantage of the constitutional crisis in London, he drafted his constitution of that year. Articles two and three of that constitution laid claim to the area covered by the six counties governed by Britain. Admittedly he did not do much to achieve the reconquest of the occupied areas but at least he had it written into the constitution of the time - the Dublin Government laid claim to the land, which has now been removed. Today we hear broadly accepted narratives like “Ireland and Northern Ireland” which accepts that two countries exist on the island of Ireland. Such discourse is used by both the twenty-six-county administration and the London Government as well these days as Sinn Fein.
Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 it has become noticeable that both Sinn Fein (P) who were then the political voice of the IRA and the Dublin Government have accepted partition as a living entity which, at least for the foreseeable future is here to stay. This is a historical first insofar as recognition of partition goes, even superficially, because part of the GFA was the removal, or replacement of articles two and three written into the 1937 constitution.
As for Sinn Fein? Well, what can be said? They have, at very best, parked the bus, at worst driven it over a cliff as regards ending partition. From the twenty-six-county government we have grown to expect nothing less but Sinn Fein, the party who gave political weight to the IRAs military campaign for thirty years, surely nobody expected this did they? I remember a friend of mine and former comrade in the IRSP back in 1988 commenting saying “the Provos are talking of a non- use of weaponry.” So perhaps this about turn in political direction is not such a huge surprise after all! Some party members who, it is alleged, once held high ranking positions in the IRA are now sitting pretty as TDs in the Dail on a high salary. What then of the young volunteers they sent out on active service and, again in many cases, are now pushing up daisies in Milltown or other graveyards across Ireland?
Like their predecessors who accepted the treaty in 1921/22 and formed the first “Executive Council” of Cumann na nGaedheal in league with the British they have probably conveniently forgotten the republican dead they themselves bear much responsibility for. These young men and women did not die for this. They did not sacrifice their young lives in order that certain elements of the leadership could enjoy well paid cushy numbers in politics, part of which is the betrayal of the republican ideal and certainly forgetting as an immediate issue the ending of partition.
Again, there is nothing new about this, it has happened before and even as recent as the mid-sixty’s veterans of the War of Independence and the Civil War were sitting in Dail Eireann. In fact, Sean Lemmas, Taoiseach during the mid-sixties himself was a former fighter in both conflicts and did nothing to end partition, something he once thought worth going to war over! When Fianna Fail came to power in 1932, they were the anti-Treaty party in the Irish Civil War. Despite this, veterans and families of who fought on the anti-Treaty side had huge problems obtaining their IRA pensions even after de Valera introduced to 1934 Pensions Act which covered anti-Treaty veterans. Treatment of former volunteers from both sides was not good as unemployment after the Civil War was high as was emigration. For further reading on this I recommend No Middle Path, Owen O’Shea chapters 14-20.
Today the modern Sinn Fein(P) appear to have forgotten the young volunteers who put them, inadvertently, where they are. Would it not have been more honest (that’s a joke) to have told the young volunteers something along the lines of; “you are all going out today to fight for not The Republic and ending partition by driving the Brits out, but even more importantly so we, in the leadership, can retire on well-paid salaries to Dail Eireann, now that is worth fighting for isn’t it.”? Would that not have been a more honest appraisal of events? Admittedly, not many if any would have volunteered but the leadership's consciences would have been clear!
The shift in policies by Sinn Fein is tantamount to Margaret Thatcher announcing she wished to enter talks with the Dublin Government about handing the six counties back! After this she may have announced compulsory trade union membership as a condition of employment and a massive nationalisation of industry programme before travelling to Argentina for talks over the Falklands/Malvinas!! Like all former revolutionary parties which enter the various bourgeois parliaments around the globe, and Sinn Fein (P) are no exception, they join a right-wing conveyor belt. They cease to be revolutionary in any shape. Both the Irish and British Labour Parties at their inception were, at the time, considered revolutionary. They were formed at a time when liberal democracy was in its infancy. Socialist politics at that time were revolutionary. Once they gained popularity, more so in Britain than the twenty-six-counties, and seats in the parliament the right wing charged begins. It becomes unstoppable and the net results are today’s variants of those once revolutionary parties founded by revolutionary thinkers. Today Sinn Fein epitomise such a shift!!
Let us skip forward now to the so-called “Northern Ireland Protocol” and the ability of a few hundred seventeenth century religious nutters to disrupt it. In fact, unless the Democratic Unionist Party agree to every I being dotted and T being crossed the whole thing, along with that joke of a so-called government, Stormont, collapses. Even if the new deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is negotiating on the “Northern Ireland Protocol” is satisfactory to both the UK and EU sides but not the DUP then there is no deal! Sinn Fein and the twenty-six-county government are bending over backwards to accommodate the DUP, even though this party does not represent a majority in the six counties. Sinn Fein are now the largest party in Stormont but insist on allowing the DUP to act as if they are.
Even by the undemocratic standards of liberal democracy this is a joke beyond jokes. So, we have a situation where 25 DUP MLAs are holding the government of the 26 counties and 27 EU member states to ransom!! 25, 26, 27 how nice, neat and convenient for the DUP. How much longer are the majority going to be bullied by the minority of the DUP? If an agreement is reached tomorrow morning or, by the time of publication of this blog has been reached it will only be with the approval of the DUP. Therefore, in any future negotiations it will be the DUP, irrespective of how many people they represent, even as low as 20%, who will call the shots!! That is worrying, very worrying indeed. One night on TV a loyalist was caught off guard when he was asked; “if in a referendum a majority voted for a united Ireland, would you accept that verdict”. He answered an unreserved “no”. This then is very much in line with DUP thinking it would appear.
While the DUP deliberate over whether they will condescend to support any deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is trying to negotiate with the EU the people of the six-counties have no local government, no goods and services or any of the things promised by these parties, including the DUP in the election. Sinn Fein, the largest party in the assembly appear to be allowing the DUP to act as if they are the largest gang! Is this not taking the “chuckle brothers” bollocks a bit too far? The DUP, and their allies in the ERG (European Research Group) in Parliament only care about their own right-wing political aims. The electorate can go and whistle. Is it not time for the people, going without their daily needs due to no assembly sitting, courtesy of the DUP, is it not time for them, republican, loyalist, unionist, nationalist and neither to kick out the self-interested DUP once and for all? Equally, is it not time for Sinn Fein to stand up to this gang of proto-fascists with more than a religious tinge?
As for Sinn Fein (P) (I use the P to differentiate from Republican Sinn Fein who do not go along with this folly) I cannot recall anywhere in the world a party which has binned or, to be kind, done such a dramatic U Turn on their political position in such a short time span. The British Labour Party are now unrecognisable to that of 1905 and have been since the abolition of Clause IV, a commitment to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, under Tony Blair back in 1997.
While the DUP deliberate over whether they will condescend to support any deal British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is trying to negotiate with the EU the people of the six-counties have no local government, no goods and services or any of the things promised by these parties, including the DUP in the election. Sinn Fein, the largest party in the assembly appear to be allowing the DUP to act as if they are the largest gang! Is this not taking the “chuckle brothers” bollocks a bit too far? The DUP, and their allies in the ERG (European Research Group) in Parliament only care about their own right-wing political aims. The electorate can go and whistle. Is it not time for the people, going without their daily needs due to no assembly sitting, courtesy of the DUP, is it not time for them, republican, loyalist, unionist, nationalist and neither to kick out the self-interested DUP once and for all? Equally, is it not time for Sinn Fein to stand up to this gang of proto-fascists with more than a religious tinge?
As for Sinn Fein (P) (I use the P to differentiate from Republican Sinn Fein who do not go along with this folly) I cannot recall anywhere in the world a party which has binned or, to be kind, done such a dramatic U Turn on their political position in such a short time span. The British Labour Party are now unrecognisable to that of 1905 and have been since the abolition of Clause IV, a commitment to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, under Tony Blair back in 1997.
This transformation, though gradually coming since the early eighties, has taken the best part of a century to achieve. The Irish Labour Party probably started their reforms six years after their formation in 1912, in 1918, under the leadership of Thomas Johnson when, in 1918 they agreed to stand “aside” in the general election of that year thus giving the Sinn Fein of the day a clear run. Would James Connolly have accepted the “labour must wait” position held by Sinn Fein as they pushed the labour party aside? I doubt that very, very much.
So, let us move a little further afield and Germany or, to be a little more precise, West Germany. Founded in 1875 the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are the oldest political party in the country, now a unified Germany. They adopted a Marxist position for the first eighty-four years of their existence until 1959 at their Bad Godesberg conference they agreed to reform and drop Marxism as their political position thus taking a bourgeois avenue. They too are unrecognisable compare to the original party. Here are three large parties in different countries who have abandoned their positions in favour of reforms and gentrification. It took all of them a number of years to a greater or lesser extent. It took Sinn Fein (P) the time it for the ink to dry on the GFA they had signed to start their reforms publicly. Gone has the thirty-two- county democratic socialist republic, gone has the demand for an immediate British withdrawal, in fact gone have most of the policies, including immediate Irish unity, which had made this variant of Sinn Fein a household name. And what of the IRA? Well, we can forget they ever came about, won’t mention them again and hope nobody else does eh!
So, we have Jefferey Donaldson, leader of the DUP calling all the shots with no apparent opposition either from the British Government, the EU or the twenty-six-county government now accompanied by Sinn Fein (P). Why not give Jeff Dono (sic) and his mob the keys to Number Ten and to the European Parliament, and, while we are at it, Dail Eireann kicking out Sunak and the MEPs of other countries and the TDs of the twenty-six-counties. Where could these leaders go? Broadmoor springs to mind as a permanent residence!!
So, we have Jefferey Donaldson, leader of the DUP calling all the shots with no apparent opposition either from the British Government, the EU or the twenty-six-county government now accompanied by Sinn Fein (P). Why not give Jeff Dono (sic) and his mob the keys to Number Ten and to the European Parliament, and, while we are at it, Dail Eireann kicking out Sunak and the MEPs of other countries and the TDs of the twenty-six-counties. Where could these leaders go? Broadmoor springs to mind as a permanent residence!!
🖼 Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist
