Allister highlights Sinn Fein strategy
23 October 2006
Statement by Jim Allister MEP
“Anyone who thinks, or would like to hope, that in devolution Sinn Fein would work reliably for the good governance of Northern Ireland, should reflect on two post-St Andrews publications by Sinn Fein.
Within 48 hours of St Andrews Gerry Adams made a speech in Belfast in commemoration of 3 IRA terrorists, whom he described as “our patriot dead”. In that speech, which Sinn Fein clearly sees as important because they circulated it to every one of the 732 MEPs across Europe, Adams gave an interesting insight into the republican vision of the role and purpose of devolution. He said:
“In every successful liberation struggle there is a phase of reconstruction, of securing peace with justice, of national reconciliation, of nation building. This requires negotiation and outreach. It demands patience and generosity. To move from one phase of struggle is not only a matter of political judgement and strategic or tactical planning. It requires political courage...so Irish republicans will, and must, judge these proposals on whether they can move us nearer to the Ireland that we have struggled so long to achieve...We are about ending...British rule in our country...Now we are in a phase of transition from an unacceptable form of society towards a national republic.”
Then 5 days after St Andrews in Brussels Sinn Fein published a document “EU Support for Irish Reunification” In it they demand EU assistance over “the transitional period to reunification”, which, interestingly, they specified as “twenty years or so”. (Such will be something of a disappointment to those fed a diet of propaganda about unity coming on the centenary of the Easter Uprising in 2016.)
Even discounting the spin and rhetoric, on the basis that Sinn Fein has a sales job to do with their own supporters, for Unionists, the message of these enlightening publications is clear – devolution, for Sinn Fein, is but a means to their age old end. If it should happen, the challenge for Unionists is to ensure their grand design is comprehensively thwarted.”
