IRELAND will not be united under the auspices of the Good Friday Agreement because the sectarian dynamic and conflicting national allegiances are baked into it, the guest speaker at the Kilmichael Commemoration said last weekend.
John Crawley, an author and former US marine, was jailed for IRA gun-running in the 1980s and spoke at the annual commemoration, which took place last Sunday. The commemoration recognises the Kilmichael engagement between the West Cork IRA ‘flying column’ and British forces which occurred on November 28th, 1920 and was viewed as a turning point in the war for independence.
‘Under the present political dispensation, the future of the Northern state rests securely in a political and legal framework of terms and conditions comprehensively safeguarded within an intricate web of constitutional constraints controlled exclusively by the British government. No Irish citizen, elected or otherwise, can call an Irish unity poll in Ireland,’ said Mr Crawley.
‘That decision lies firmly in the hands of the North’s Secretary of state, an English politician belonging to a political party that doesn’t organise in Ireland and who personally hasn’t received a single vote in Ireland; so much for the unfettered control of Irish destinies being sovereign and indefeasible. The British have taken great pains to ensure that ending partition and uniting Ireland is not the same thing.
‘Ending the partition of the country while sustaining the partition of our people, giving it constitutional legitimacy, and imprinting that division with a democratic mandate, is a dream come true for Britain,’ he added.
