The National Irish Freedom Committee (NIFC) views the Agreement signed on April 10th 1998 between the Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of Ireland as a restatement of the British enacted Government of Ireland Act 1920, which established the Northern Ireland state. Notwithstanding the inclusion of philosophical platitudes, this latest agreement commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) allows the British to retain sovereignty over six Irish counties comprising the Northern Ireland state and requires the Irish Government to relinquish all constitutional claims to these six Irish counties.
The GFA does not revoke the partition of Ireland, which was the basis tenet of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and the subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. The centerpiece of the GFA, the power-sharing executive is merely a compilation of earlier failed agreements repackaged in frilly English lace to impress the gullible and provide cover for the latest batch of traitors and power hungry political predators. Consequently, the NIFC contends that all provisions of the agreement are irrelevant as long as the annexation of the six Irish counties stands.
The ongoing annexation of the six Irish counties along strict sectarian lines continues to be the most insidious of all the tragedies perpetrated on the Irish people, as it not only divided Ireland; it also divided its people. It denied the people of both traditions in Ireland an opportunity to work together to build a nation in which all could prosper and live in peace. The sectarian division of Ireland will continue to foster a climate of opportunity for self-serving politicians on both sided of the border to enrich themselves at the people's expense. The Good Friday Agreement ensures the continuity of this nefarious climate by retaining the same old players and strengthens it by inducting new players into the fold.
This British-initiated Good Friday Agreement ensures their continued occupation of the six Irish counties, thus, allying their fears that the loss of any territory comprising the United Kingdom, in this case the six Irish counties, would precipitate the eventual breakup of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, they realize that the loss of the six counties would deprive their troops of valuable training grounds, deny their intelligence services a made-to-order laboratory for testing and refining intelligence gathering techniques, and rob their security forces of a recalcitrant populace on which to practice repressive methods of quelling civil unrest. Another compelling reason for the British to remain in Ireland is that it provides them with an opportunity to apply, test and legitimize repressive laws that can be used on the mainland if the need arises.
The 26-county Government contribution to the 'Agreement' was to remove Articles II and III from the 1939 Irish constitution, thus relinquishing Ireland's right to sovereignty over all the lands and waters of Ireland including the six occupied counties. This 'Agreement' ensures that self-serving governing elite of the 26 counties will not have to share power in a united Ireland. By accepting the 'Agreement' including the continuation of British established institutions in the occupied six-counties, the leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein (PSF), betrayed Irish Republican principles and the people who carried the thirty-year struggle for Irish freedom. For their part the British rewarded PSF with legislative and ministerial positions in the reconstituted Stormont government, personal protection by British security forces, and a free hand to control opposition to the continued British presence in the six counties. In pursuit of this British mandate, PSF thugs resort to beatings, knee cappings, and murder.
Despite glowing official praise for the GFA an increasing number of published reports indicate that the level of violence, ethnic cleansing, sectarian division and community mistrust has risen to the highest level since 1975. In the last century the Irish people have suffered the dire consequences of numerous failed British political initiatives including Sunningdale, Hillsborough and now the GFA. The Irish people have not been given the opportunity to vote as a 32-county unit since the general election of 1918 when they voted for a slate of candidates advocating an independent united Ireland. The British reacted to the voice of the people by unleashing a reign of terror and ever since have not allowed the Irish people as a unit to consider or vote on any issue, particularly an Irish sovereignty initiative. The attitude is applied to the Eire Nua initiative, which is visionary in concept, and designed to incorporate the four historic provinces of Ireland into an all-Ireland Federal Republic.
