Nationalist Ireland stampeded into LESS THAN SUNNINGDALE

The Stormont Agreement is less than what was in the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973 — it contained a stronger Council of Ireland — and more has been given by the 26-County administration in the scrapping of Articles 2 & 3 and the acceptance of a Council of the ‘British Isles’.

Insofar as the Stormont deal is a stepping-stone it is a stepping-stone away from a free and independent Ireland by reimposing a Stormont-type regime as an obstacle on the road to freedom.

Like the old Stormont it will be a barrier administration between the Irish people and the British government. It will also be a source of dispensing patronage to attempt to bind people to it.

The referendums campaign were carefully stagemanaged by a totally compliant media. One newspaper in Dublin even commissioned very dubious opinion polls in regard to the Six Counties which consisted of pollsters in London telephoning people at random in the Six Counties to seek their political opinions.

The churches and schools were used as political platforms in some places to urge acceptance of the Stormont Deal. Pop stars and business millionaires were flown in to back up an internal settlement. However, the euphoria is dying away as the reality of the situation in the Six Counties hits home. The Orange marchers who forced their way down the Garvaghy Road on May 30 while the Crown Forces batoned and fired plastic bullets at protesting nationalist residents is a foretaste of events to come.

Signs are not wanting that the destabilisation process has already begun. A major weakness in the Stormont Agreement is that all the concessions to nationalists are based on "commissions" which in the case of the RUC probably means there will be no substantial change in Britain's paramilitary police force in the Six Counties. The unionists, realising this, are forcing the Provisionals in the direction of handing up arms.

That this is serious is underlined by the fact that Billy Hutchinson on the loyalist side and Francie Molloy of Tyrone for the Provisionals have been appointed as go-betweens with the armed groups to facilitate decommissioning.

Another sign of this unravelling was the failure of the "peace" bandwagon to budge the GAA into dropping Rule 21, banning Crown Forces membership.

And the re-emergence of the rogue factor in the Leinster House administration with the Ray Burke financial revelations has seen cracks emerging in the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition.

The poll results in the six majority-nationalist con-stituencies in the Six Counties on May 22 are worth examining. Mid-Ulster recorded a 21% 'No' vote while Newry/Armagh (18%), West Tyrone (17%) and Foyle (16%) were close to that figure. In Fermanagh/South Tyrone the figure for 'No' votes was 13% and in West Belfast it was 12%.

Similarly, the larger ‘No’ in the 26 Counties in Kerry North and Cork North central (both 7.2%), Wexford (6.7%) and in Dublin South Central and Monaghan (both 6.4% ‘No’) are worthy of attention.

Overall in the 26 Counties the 5.6% ‘No’ vote compares to the core Republican vote in the 1981 H-Block (5% plus) and 1957 (5.3%) general election votes. The Republican vote in the 1927 general election and in the referendum on the 1937 Constitution (6.6% spoiled votes following direction from the Republican leadership) also bear comparison.

Bearing in mind the low turnout of 56% in the 26 Counties only 52% of the electorate there backed the Stormont Agreement.

Republican Sinn Féin must now organise and put itself at the head of the 85,748 ‘No’ voters south of the Border as the only political body which stood up and campaigned against the sell-out throughout the island.

In what is not a free election in the Six Counties to the New Stormont given the political test oath for candidates imposed by the British government Republican Sinn Féin is calling for a boycott of the June 25 poll.

While continuing to attempt to break through to the unionist population with our plans for a new four-province federation with maximum devolution to local level, we call on nationalists to boycott the Stormont assembly as the keystone to the current process.

Don’t give roots to Stormont!

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