THE three days of the conference to mark Agreement 25 at Queens' University, a quarter of a century after the Good Friday Agreement, was an opportunity to meet again many of those who were there when the Agreement was thrashed out in 1998. I was particularly happy to see George Mitchell. He was in great form and for me his speech was the highlight of conference. Lucid, reasoned, futuring and compelling.
The absence of John Hume, Ian Paisley, Martin McGuinness, David Trimble, Seamus Mallon and David Irvine and others was a reminder of the transient nature of life and the permanency of death.
QUB did a great job of putting together this event. It must have been a logistical challenge but it worked. Victims of the conflict undoubtedly deserved a more central place on the agenda and I was disappointed at the lack of Irish language signage or content. These are matters which can be improved by QUB in the time ahead. But thank you and well done to all involved.
Looking back twenty-five years from Sinn Féin’s perspective was interesting. The Good Friday Agreement is the most important political initiative in over 100 years. Some of he key elements of the Agreement have still not been implemented by the British and Irish governments, in particular the Bill of Rights for the North and the Charter of Rights for the island and the establishment of the Civic Forum. Twenty-five years later these are still necessary parts of the Agreement that require action.
The GFA was/is an agreement on a journey without agreement on the destination. For some it is about maintaining the union with Britain. For others it’s a pathway to a united Ireland. Ultimately it is for the people to decide democratically. And that presents Irish republicans with a major challenge. We have to persuade those who are either opposed to Irish unity or ambivalent on it that their future will be best served in a united Ireland. We have to convince those who are British that their culture, their rights and sense of Britishness, will be protected within a new Ireland, within the European Union.
I believe we can do that. I believe that an Irish government taking a pro-active united Ireland stance, along with our many friends and allies internationally, can successfully chart a course to that new Ireland.
We also have to get the Assembly and the Executive back up and running. Anyone listening to the panel discussions at Queen's will have been encouraged by the unanimity of approach by the Irish, British and US governments, the leaders of the European Union and critically by all of the parties – with the exception of the DUP. All want the institutions back in place. Speaker after speaker – and frequently to loud applause – made this very clear. Uachtarán Shinn Féin Mary Lou McDonald spoke of the need to “recreate the spirit of 1998. We need a renewed commitment from all political leaders that we will work together, that we will share power together and that we have a government that will work in the interests of everyone.”
So too did George Mitchell who challenged the “current and future leaders of Northern Ireland to act with courage and vision, as their predecessors did 25 years ago.”
For the past year the DUP have absented themselves from the institutions. It is my firm view that they will return to the Northern Assembly. But I don't know when. And I think it’s foolish to speculate about this. Our time is better spent persuading or trying to persuade the two governments to convene the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. So far An Taoiseach has refused to do this. Why not. Leo?
Stalling continues on Presidential voting rights
THE British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is not the only matter that the Irish Government is failing on. Dublin Castle was the venue last week of 'Together Again – Le Chéile Arís' – the third of the Irish Government’s Global Irish Civic Forums. These events bring together representatives of the Irish diaspora from across the world to promote a conversation on issues of concern and interest to the diaspora.
Another issue of concern that has been repeatedly put on the back burner by the Government for the last decade is that of voting rights in Presidential elections for Irish citizens living outside of the Southern state, in the North and in the diaspora.
Votingrights.ie is a group advocating for Presidential voting rights for Irish citizens within the diaspora. During the Global Irish Civic Forum event they raised this in a letter to the Tánaiste Micheál Martin. The group expressed its “disappointment that a referendum granting citizens living outside the state the right to vote in future Presidential elections has been kicked to touch once again, and is now scheduled for 2025."
President Michael D Higgins
Votingrights.ie point out that this will mean that the earliest election these citizens could vote for the President would be 2032.
In July 2012 the Irish Government established a Convention on the Constitution. Its purpose was to consider a wide range of constitutional issues and make recommendations on each matter to the Houses of the Oireachtas and to the Government. In 2013 the Convention considered the proposal to give Irish citizens resident outside the state the right to vote in Presidential elections. It examined specifically whether citizens outside the state should have the vote in Presidential elections. 78 per cent of the Convention said Yes. When specifically asked if citizens resident in the North should have that right, 73 per cent voted Yes.
The Government then refused to bring forward any report to the Dáil on this issue.
In November 2015, following criticism by the European Commission, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs recommended extending voting rights. In February 2018 An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Seanad that the referendum would be held within two years. In October of that year he announced that a referendum would be held in May 2019. Later that date was shifted back to October 2019. Varadkar’s proposal was that all citizens, wherever they live in the world, “will be entitled to register to vote for the next President.” It would be a postal ballot for those not living in the state. In September 2019 the government published the Presidential Voting Right Referendum legislation. However, to date the referendum still hasn’t happened.
The office of the President and the role of the Presidency in the day to day life of the Irish nation are hugely symbolic and important. It is now ten years since the Constitutional Convention voted in favour of a referendum on Presidential voting. It’s time the Irish Government honoured its commitments. Well done to Votingrights.ie for raising this important issue.
In Praise Of Tulips
I BOUGHT a bag of assorted tulip bulbs before Christmas. I was looking for daffodils and picked up the tulips by mistake. When I discovered this I was disappointed. I love daffodils. Now I love tulips as well. They are in full bloom. In pots. Beautiful bright colours. Pinks and reds. Mauve. Purple. White. Gladdening the eye and brightening my day. I will never look down my nose at tulips again. I can’t wait to plant next year's technicolour bloom. Along with the daffodils.
Defending our natural environment
Last Saturday was Earth Day. The theme was ‘Invest in Our Planet’ with the emphasis on encouraging businesses and people to use sustainable practices in their everyday work.
The first Earth Day took place in April 1970 in the USA. The massive oil spill at Santa Barbara in California in January 1969 and the student anti-Vietnam war movement were the catalysts. Twenty years later the event went global and hundreds of millions participated and set the scene for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Today Earth Day is more important than ever. This is evident from the report published last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the body that advises the UN and governments. In very stark terms it delivered a “final warning” about the climate crisis facing the world.
António Guterres, the UN Secretary General, described the IPCC report as a “clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.”
In December the leaders of the world’s nations will gather at COP28 in Dubai to assess progress since the Paris Agreement and agree on the ambitious climate plans needed to avert the climate disaster that is looming.
António Guterres has warned that these plans must “cover the entire economy. Partial pledges won’t cut it... We have never been better equipped to solve the climate challenge – but we must move into warp speed climate action now. We don’t have a moment to lose.”
He is right. We need an Executive in the North and a government in Dublin that understand that climate action must be a priority now and an all-island agreement on how best to achieve that.
