15 Years On
10 April 2013
Commenting on the 15th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement TUV leader Jim Allister contrasted the stance adopted by some 15 years ago with the position they now occupy.
“While some pretend to maintain a principled stance of opposition to the Belfast Agreement the reality is that Peter Robinson and the DUP now operate the very system they attacked David Trimble and the UUP for signing up to.
“Consider the arguments employed by Mr Robinson and his party 15 years ago.
In a speech in Ballymoney on 14th April 1998 Mr Robinson said: “Mr Trimble has not only provided cabinet positions for Adams and McGuinness but he has accepted All-Ireland bodies…. He has conceded to Nationalists not just a power-sharing Assembly but a direct tangible legislative link with the Republic through All-Ireland bodies. The distinction between Northern Ireland and the Republic has been torn away, under this deal North and South come closer together and Northern Ireland ever more distant from Great Britain”.
A few days later he told an audience in Tandragee: “The hapless fools who ask what our alternative is to such a process are implicitly suggesting there is no alternative to a united Ireland process. They are not entitled to make that claim as there are many alternatives to Dublin Rule. Complete and total integration within the United Kingdom is one such alternative and the fashion of devolution given recently to Scotland within the United Kingdom is another. However, these pint-sized political thinkers are not really asking “have you got an alternative?” They are implicitly asking “what alternative have you that the IRA will accept?”
On the 14th May 1998 Peter Robinson issued a press release in which he stated:
“The Big Lie of the Unionist Yes Men is that the agreement strengthens the Union.
Consider the facts:
1. The Agreement anticipates only one form of future constitutional change, namely Irish unification and in a separate and binding Agreement solemnly commits the British Government to legislate for it (pages 2 & 28).
2. The Agreement embraces the pan-Nationalist contention that it is “the Island of Ireland” which alone is endowed with the right to self-determination (page 27).
3. The enabling legislation will not only repeal the Government of Ireland Act but take precedence over the Act of Union (page 3).
4. The only proposal for constitutional change which can be put by referendum is one for Irish unity. The wider powers of the 1973 Constitution Act allowing other alternatives, are abrogated. Thus, never again could the Union be bolstered by calling a 1973 type poll, as a poll is only permitted when a nationalist outcome is anticipated (page 3).
5. The Agreement provides as-of-right Cabinet seats for IRA/Sinn Fein, but bans from Government Unionists who refuse to operate the cross-border executive bodies. Does anyone in their right mind think Adams and McGuinness in Government will strengthen the Union?
6. The free-standing All-Ireland executive bodies with their all-island implementation structures, must likewise weaken the Union and advance all-Ireland integration.
7. The replacement of Maryfield with not one but two Secretariats further entrenches Dublin involvement in our internal affairs.
8. IRA/Sinn Fein, which is dedicated by whatever means to destruction of the Union, endorse the Agreement because they recognise it as “a staging post” to Irish unity and as explicitly weakening the British link.
In a short publication entitled A Plain Guide to the Agreement – What Every Unionist Should Know Nigel Dodds attacked the joint office of First and deputy First Minister:
“Throughout the document the First Minister is given no role independent of his deputy. They act together at all times as joint leaders.”
Mr Dodds went on to blast a system which guaranteed Sinn Fein/IRA Ministerial posts as of right:
“The bigger parties in the Assembly, including Sinn Fein, have an automatic guaranteed right to a place in the Executive as Ministers”.
“15 years later all those things could be said about the agreement the DUP now enthusiastically operates.
“TUV continues to stand on this ground abandoned for power by the DUP and, thus, we continue to reject the pernicious Belfast Agreement, whose infrastructure has not been changed by St Andrews or anything else. Terrorists in government, north/south executive bodies, the dysfunctional joint office of the First Ministers, the ban on the electorate voting a party out of government and even the denial of an Opposition, are all still there. The only difference now lies in who operates it!”
