No final settlement short of British disengagement.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Wednesday October 04, 2006 20:39 by Seán Ó Murchú - Republican Sinn Féin - Cork

Statement by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin

Contrary to what today's British government statement says an agreement between the DUP and the Provos as to how to reconstitute Stormont will not be "a final settlement" of the historic "Irish Question".

Contrary to what today's British government statement says an agreement between the DUP and the Provos as to how to reconstitute Stormont will not be "a final settlement" of the historic "Irish Question".

History teaches us that nothing short of total British government disengagement from Ireland will provide the basis for such a settlement.

Already in the eight-and-a-half years of its existence, the Stormont Agreement of April 1998 has failed miserably, precisely because it did not address the basic question of the English government's presence here.

That Agreement was concerned merely with restructuring British rule in Ireland and nothing beyond that. The conflict here from 1969 on was not simply about civil rights and a civil rights solution will not resolve the situation.

Those who ignore such realities have blinded themselves as to the way forward. The best hope in the wake of British disengagement lies in a nine-county Ulster as part of a new four-province federation with power and decision-making shared naturally - not artificially - according to local majorities.

All sections would feel comfortable in such a New Ireland.