Allister responds to Sinn Fein's Irish Unity event in Brussels
18 October 2006
"Today Sinn Fein ran an event in Brussels under the title "THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE END OF PARTITION", seeking to engage the EU in promotion of its goal of Irish unity.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK not because of forceful compulsion, oppression or military might, but because that is the settled choice of the greater number of its people. Thus what is referred to as "Partition" is not some arbitrary imposition but a reflection of democratic choice.
In 1998 Sinn Fein supposedly endorsed the Belfast Agreement.
It is claimed that the Belfast Agreement settled the constitutional issue pertaining to Northern Ireland by accepting that its position as a part of the UK could only be changed with the consent of its people. This is generally referred to as "the principle of consent".
Last week Sinn Fein engaged in negotiations at St Andrews in a process designed to re-establish a devolved government for Northern Ireland at Stormont. Sinn Fein aspires to a place in that government, indeed demands such a place, and indignantly proclaims itself fit for government.
Yet, here today in Brussels, totally in conflict with any genuine commitment to the principle of consent, it is agitating for the EU to promote and facilitate Irish unification. This is part of their totalitarian attempt to thwart, disrespect and circumvent the settled will of the people of Northern Ireland to continue to be a constituent part of the UK.
How can Sinn Fein at one and the same time credibly claim to accept the principle of consent while urging an international body like the EU to assist it to bypass and subvert the necessary consent of the people of Northern Ireland? In so doing it not only shows its own duplicity but seeks to have the EU breach of its own Treaty obligations of acceptance of the national integrity of each Member State.
As the elected representatives in Europe of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland, we reject and repudiate Sinn Fein's clumsy stunt here in Brussels today, which, of course, is primarily related to upmanship for the forthcoming election in the Republic of Ireland.
Its time Sinn Fein started living up to what it means to respect the principle of consent in Northern Ireland. Irish unity is not on the agenda and they will not force it onto the agenda by seeking to strongarm the people of Northern Ireland through the EU or any other international body.
I welcome the fact that apart from the usual cronies of its hard left GUE Group, its event today was largely ignored by serious opinion formers in the EU.
Finally, I note that in the document launched today
• there is not a single mention of the need for consent at any stage by the people of Northern Ireland.
• while lamenting economic difficulties in Northern Ireland there is not a single mention or hint of regret for the concerted campaign of bombing against economic targets in Northern Ireland, which Sinn Fein supported in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Pretending an interest now in economic betterment is just so much cant and hypocrisy from those who supported the bombing of countless businesses into oblivion.
• It is interesting to note that Sinn Fein openly acknowledges in their document that they see the Good Friday Agreement as providing a transition to Irish unification and, for the first time, I believe, they postulate a timescale of "twenty years or so".
Let me make it clear economic co-operation between two neighbouring states is natural and right, but where, as here, it is subverted to drive an agenda for political unification, then it is being abused. The EU is being invited by Sinn Fein to lend itself to such a stratagem. This it cannot and must not do. Much of this document is the republican pipedream dressed up in euro-speak, to make it all seem disarmingly reasonable, but at its heart is the intent to subvert the settled will of the greater number of people to remain within the nation where they were born."
