Meath Peace Group
Letter to Gerry Adams, MP - Presented during the course of his visit to Navan, 28 May 1997
Mr. Gerry Adams, M.P., President of Sinn Fein
Dear Mr. Adams,
On the occasion of your visit to Navan today we would like to put to you some simple
points and to ask you some simple questions, most of them centring around the fundamental
question: Why is there no IRA cease-fire?
1. Building of a just and peaceful society:
The vast majority of the people who live on this
island want peace and an end to violence. We recognise that the building of a just and
peaceful society in Ireland is a difficult and slow process - a process that requires
commitment, determination, hard work, courage, generosity, openness and vision. It
requires commitment not only by governments and political parties, but also the active
participation of ordinary people throughout the island, working to find ways to promote
understanding, reconciliation and healing.
2. Obstacles to peace:
There are many obstacles to peace - injustice, deep
historical divisions, violence, distrust, discrimination, human rights abuses,
marginalisation, exclusion, intolerance, bigotry and sectarianism. The list is endless.
Many of the obstacles exist on both sides of the traditional divide, and on both sides of
the border. Some obstacles to peace can be tackled by positive and pragmatic action on the
part of politicians and both governments. Most of the obstacles to peace will take a long
time to address - they will require changes in attitudes, changes in hearts and minds,
honest and open dialogue, firm commitment, real leadership. The greatest and most
immediate obstacle to peace and justice is violence and the threat of violence.
Politicians, governments, community workers, peace groups and ordinary people must renew
their efforts to promote a peaceful and just society, but the violence must be stopped and
it must be stopped now. Violence can have no part to play in a genuine peace process.
Violence is an abuse of the most basic human right of all, violence leads inevitably to
further violence and injustice, further pain and division, it destroys trust and hope, as
well as making it very difficult if not impossible to heal the divisions and break down
the barriers between the peoples on this island.
Q. What is the justification for continued and renewed violence in Northern Ireland today?
3. Sinn Fein’s electoral mandate:
Four weeks ago your party went to the polls in the
Westminster elections and received a strong mandate (c. 17% of the votes cast), returning
two members of parliament. That election also resulted in a change of government in the
UK, a government secure in its overwhelming majority, a government which has committed
itself to working to bring about a peaceful society in Northern Ireland.
You entered the Westminster elections and the subsequent local elections on a peace ticket
-
"We stand on our strategy for peace, our record in building the peace process, our
continuing efforts to restore that process on a sound basis..... Our voters know that
their vote is a vote for freedom and justice and peace in Ireland and for an end to all
violence."
In the course of your address to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis this year you pledged "Sinn
Fein’s commitment to peace and to negotiations and to agreement."
You further stated that
"Sinn Fein is absolutely committed to democratic and peaceful methods of resolving
problems ..."
Since that election have you gone to the IRA to demand that they recognise your electoral
mandate?
4. Changing minds and attitudes: rebuilding
relationships:
You said at your party’s Ard Fheis this year,
that the task of republicans is to be
"agents of change - to build equality and partnership, and to empower change within
our society. It is to change minds and attitudes and to rebuild relationships between the
people of this island and with our nearest neighbour Britain. "
How can you work to change minds and attitudes while the real threat of IRA violence
remains?
How can you rebuild relationships between the people of this island and Britain within the
context of IRA threats and violence?
How did the bombing of Manchester last summer, resulting in the injury of over 200 people,
help to rebuild relationships?
With no IRA cease-fire what guarantee is there that bombings such as at Manchester will
not occur again?
5. Open and honest dialogue:
Again, you said at this year’s Ard Fheis:
"We ask no more than is accorded to any other party, open and honest dialogue,
everyone at the table, everything on the table and no unionist veto...
How can there be open and honest dialogue when the threat of violence remains?
How can there be open and honest dialogue when you seek to impose a precondition of an
unreasonable time limit on dialogue?
6. Union of Catholic, Protestant and
Dissenter:
You say you are committed to peace. You recognise
that the "road ahead will be difficult and dangerous and risky", you say that
for Irish republicans "the aim has never been the victory of one section of our
people over another, but a new union of Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter."
What is the purpose of IRA violence and what is the justification for it now?
How can IRA violence contribute to a "new union of Catholic, Protestant and
Dissenter"?
How has it contributed to this aspiration in the past?
Has it not only contributed to greater divisions - between Catholic and Protestant,
between nationalist and unionist, between North and South?
7. Civil and religious liberties:
Again at this year’s Ard Fheis you stated that
you "are not prepared to tolerate triumphalism and sectarianism" and that you
"will not be reconciled to the burning of churches and schools, to the denial of
civil and religious liberties."
The most basic of all human rights and civil liberties is the right to life - in view of
what you said at the Ard Fheis, how can you be reconciled to the continuation of IRA
violence which has destroyed so many lives and has brought pain to so many families?
8. Accommodation with unionists:
Again at this year’s Ard Fheis, you said:
"We want to make peace with unionists, to work with unionists so that when we
collectively reach the end of our journey we will be able to accommodate and celebrate our
diversity as equals."
"Republicans need to be concerned about what is happening inside unionism. It is not
in the national interest that unionists remain trapped inside a siege mentality."
"We must make every effort to ensure that the northern protestant and unionist
section of our people are not forced to occupy that political space we wish to escape
from. If being marginalised, abandoned and disempowered was bad for us, then it is bad for
the unionists."
"Republicans recognise that there will be no peace in Ireland if unionists are not a
part of shaping that peace. Therefore our heartfelt wish is for a unionism that is capable
of shaping its future inside a negotiating process based upon equality. Our wish is to
reach an accommodation with unionism".
These are noble aspirations - but how can you even start to work towards an accommodation
with unionism when the threat of IRA violence represents a threat to their very existence
and identity?
How can you work towards an accommodation with unionists, when you do not seem to
understand and respect their very identity, their culture, their basic difference, their
sense of Britishness?
Whether we like it or not, unionists do not see themselves as part of "our
people" - just as you do not see yourself as part of the British people. The
Irishness and Irish identity of northern Irish nationalists has not been properly
recognised or valued to date - but is there not also a need for Irish nationalists to
respect, recognise and come to terms with, the sense of Britishness felt by unionists?
There are many other questions and points which we would like to put to you, but for the
moment we would be very grateful to receive your answers to the above.
Yours sincerely
Signed on behalf of the Meath Peace Group
Julitta Clancy
Pauline Ryan
Meath Peace Group contact addresses:
Julitta Clancy, Parsonstown, Batterstown, Co. Meath
Anne Nolan, Gernonstown, Slane, Co. Meath
Appendices:
1: Meath rallies for peace - February and March 1996
2: Meath Peace Group - background information
3: Copy of interim report on 25th public talk of Meath Peace Group:
"Unionism and Unionist Politics" (speakers: Dr. Feargal Cochrane; Dr. Norman
Porter; Mr. Roy Garland)
[Note. Only appendix 1 has been reprinted here on
the web site. The other information is repeated elsewhere.]
Appendix 1:
Peace rallies in Meath - February and March 1996
Following the resumption of IRA violence in February 1996, hundreds of thousands of people
throughout this island came out and demanded a restoration of the cease-fire and an end to
all violence.
Rallies were held in towns all over Meath in which thousands of people participated.
Young people representing schools from all over the county organised and spoke at rallies
in Trim, Dunboyne, Ashbourne and Navan.
The Navan rally held in March 1996, organised by the Meath Trades Council, the Meath
County Council, the Navan Urban District Council, and the Meath Peace Group, was supported
and attended by Dail deputies Noel Dempsey (FF), Brian Fitzgerald (Lab.) and Colm Hilliard
(FF), Senator John Farrelly (FG), members of the Kells, Navan and Trim Urban Councils,
Meath Youth Federation, Meath IFA, Meath Travellers Workshop, Meath Federation for the
Deaf, and representatives of community and sporting groups from all over the county.
Clergy from the Catholic, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian congregations led the people
in a prayer for peace and messages of support were read from Cardinal Cathal Daly and
Archbishop Robin Eames as well as from An Taoiseach, John Bruton and An Tanaiste, Dick
Spring, . Speakers on the platform included Mrs. Finola Bruton, junior ministers Joan
Burton and Austin Currie, members of the Ardoyne Survivors of Trauma Group, the Shankill
Community Theatre Group and a peace group based in Lurgan and Portadown, as well as young
people from primary and secondary schools in Ashbourne, Drogheda, Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne,
Dundalk, Kells, Navan, Nobber and Trim.