The Eire Nua program,
initially proposed by Republican Sinn Fein in 1972, would as a
basic requirement, reunite the British occupied six counties of
Ireland with the rest of Ireland in an all-Ireland federation
comprised of the four historic provinces of Ulster, Munster,
Leinster and Connacht. This comprehensive and far-reaching
program is in stark contrast to British imposed arrangements
such as the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Sunningdale,
Hillsborough and the Good Friday Agreement, all calculated to
copper-fasten and legitimize British control over the occupied
six counties of Ireland.
The British imposed
Government of Ireland Act of 1920 coupled with the Anglo-Irish
Treaty of 1921 partitioned the Irish nation into two dominion
states of the British Empire, the 26-county Irish Free State and
the six-county Northern Ireland State. This British enforced
arrangement was the most insidious of all the treacherous acts
perpetrated on the Irish nation, it not only divided Ireland; it
also divided its people. As a consequence, it denied the people
of different religions and traditions the opportunity to work
together to build a nation in which they both could prosper and
live in peace. Instead, as intended this insidious arrangement
perpetuated direct British control over the occupied six
counties and indirect control over the twenty-six county Irish
Free State.
Any political program
that does not include the reunification of the Irish nation as a
prerequisite is meaningless and doomed to failure from the
start.
The Eire Nua program
authored by the late Daithi O'Conaill, Ruairi O'Bradaigh and
others is visionary in concept and far reaching in that it
includes all of Ireland. It offers a solution that guarantees
equality and the maximum distribution of authority at provincial
and subsidiary levels in a unitary federal system comprising the
four provinces of Ireland. It views the war in the North not as
a religious conflict but as an ongoing effort to remove the last
vestiges of colonialism. It sets forth specific conditions to
start the process of reconciliation and unity including;
A British
declaration of intent to withdraw from Ireland,
The convening of a
constitutional convention to draft a new all-Ireland
constitution
The unconditional
release of all political prisoners, and 4) a British withdrawal.
The proposed
all-Ireland constitution embodies the following fundamental
principles,
A Charter of Rights
that would clearly define the rights and privileges to be
accorded to each and every individual.
New Governments
Structures that would embody a system of power sharing
administered at the national, provincial, county / district
government levels.
The Separation of
Church and State would guarantee the various religious
denominations the freedom to attend to the spiritual needs of
their adherents. By the same token, the government would not be
in the business of legislating morality.
An Independent
Judiciary that would ensure that the nations' Supreme Court,
as guardian of the constitution, would have equal status to the
legislative and executive branches of government. The judicial
power of the nation would be vested in the Supreme Court.
The NIFC consider the
Eire Nua program to be innovative and far-reaching and believes
it to be a positive approach that recognizes the rights of all
Irish people, irrespective of their ancestry or religious
affiliations. For this reason the NIFC has adopted and will
promote Eire Nua as the most logical choice to achieve a lasting
peace for Ireland. We believe that this program is based on
sound and honorable principles incorporating fair and realistic
plans to achieve national unity within the framework of a
32-county Irish Republic.