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
Fact is the Falklands Islands would have probably been handed over to Argentina by now if the Junta hadn't have invaded. Britain has accepted it is no longer a colonial power as evidenced by the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
ReplyDeleteThe Shinners in the Provos read the writing on the wall. They couldn't win militarily so rather than try to up the ante and provoke an unacceptable backlash on their own community they did the best they could. Claim a victory and quietly accept partition.
I don't like the Duppers either but the EU can go fuck itself. You are an old school Marxist, you should be opposed to it. Mass movement of non-unionised labour across the continent unopposed? The Capitalists wet dream. Pay the labourers peanuts and have them frightened to join a union with the threat of sacking.
The "Shinners and the Provos", as far as I can see, have got no more than was on the table back in the seventies under the Brits, carrot and stick policy known as Ulserisation.
ReplyDeleteAs for the EU, I'm no lover of it. It is a capitalist bloc but Ireland outside would still be capitalist and probably back under the economic and, to a slightly less extent political, heel of Britain. The mass movement of non unionised labour that is true but the unions should ensure they are recruited. They should also be taking emplyers rewarding less than mimum wage.
My texting is fucked here can't pget detais.p
Caoimphion Mura
as bad as the EU is with its neoliberalism, it offers more protection for working people than Brexit.
DeleteThis piece by Angela Nagle looks at the type of concerns Steve raises - how the free flow of labour works to the advantage of capitalism.
When she first published it the Leftoids jumped on her much the same as Woketoids jump on people who raises questions that invite exploration of what Woketoids don't want explored.
I was attempting to say something along those lines Anthony, but my phone keeps jamming.
ReplyDeleteLets try again, we did the seventies bit so on to the EU. As I said, I am no lover of the bloc, it is a capitalist experiment, but the alternative for Ireland, itself a capitalist country, would be worse. As Anthony says, it "offers more protection for working people than Brexit". That is correct, and as for the movement of "non unionised labour across the continent unoppossed" it is our job, within the trade union movement (though I have retired) to make these people welcome and "unionised labour". The trade union movement should be taking employers to court who pay below the legal minimum wage and not blaming the EU and the workers themselves. We, as trade unionists, are back to the nineteenth century in many ways. We had to fight then, and we have to fight now and an integral part of that fight will be formerley "non unionised labour". These workers are brothers and sisters and must never be scapegoated. The unions must get out and recruit, it is the job of every shop steward to meet and recruit every new employee irrespective of where they come from. These workers then metamorph from "non unionised labour" to "unionised labour.
Caoimhin O'Muraile
I'm very much in favour of strong trade unions and always will be. Not sure how it works in Europe anymore but down here even the non-Unionised are protected by the Union as it should be.
DeleteAnd they got no more because there was no more on the table. Like I said, they recognised the reality and probably pulled the only move they could. I was listening to the BelTel podcast recently on the Castlereagh break-in. There was an interesting hypothesis that it was actually allowed to go ahead as a way of showing the Republican movement how infiltrated it really was. They wanted to purge but it would have ripped families apart including those of very well known people. Anthony what did you make of it?
The non unionised can take advantage of a free lunch as a result of the gains unions make and which apply across the board. In terms of individual representation, unions generally don't stand in unless the person seeking representation is in the union or joins it. People sometimes see unions a fire brigade - there when the blaze needs tackled and to be forgot when it is extinguished.
ReplyDeleteCastlereagh? We might never know.
I once discussed it with the former head of Belfast Special Branch
Interesting interview. The whole think stinks to high heaven in my opinion. I've worked in Castlereagh and that security was tight. Even doubly so when workers were in. How the fuck did they know where exactly to go, what door to open, what filing cabinets to go to? In and out no messing about? Tie up the cop and check his vitals ? Place was never manned solo either, not to mention the ubiquitous cameras. No cook would have got any near that room. Fingerprints of spooks all over it. One way to make sure they didn't return to war and a bloody effective one at that.
Delete