Open letter to Tony Blair
At the very least, all stakeholders in the peace process have the right to
an open and transparent inquiry into how and why Britain's intelligence
services brought the Assembly down three years ago.
The Rt Hon Tony Blair, PC, MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
England
December 28, 2005
Dear Prime Minister,
In October of 2002 your government closed down the Northern Ireland Assembly,
charging three people including Denis Donaldson, then Sinn Féin's head of
administration at Stormont, with running an “IRA spy-ring".
On 9 December, 2005, the “Stormont spy-ring" case ended at Belfast Crown
Court when your government directed that all charges be dropped.
Seven days later, Denis Donaldson admitted having served as a paid agent for
the British Security forces for 20 years. The British government has not
disputed his claim.
The Assembly, despite its limitations, provided the people of the North of
Ireland with their first opportunity for democratic debate and
self-government on a genuinely representative basis since the partition of
Ireland 85 years ago. It was a remarkable achievement for tolerance and
fairness by all the parties involved in reaching the Good Friday Agreement.
However, successive British Secretaries of State have twice acted
unilaterally to shutter the gates of Stormont and shatter the aspirations of
people of all political and religious persuasions in the North of Ireland.
Each time they have cited information from the British security services of
foul play by Sinn Féin. Once again, this ‘information' has been exposed as a
fabrication. In this latest debacle, the only “spy-ring" at Stormont was
that orchestrated by the British security services themselves.
The implications are serious in the extreme. British officials promised
devolved government; British officials have violated that promise and
manipulated the fragile institutions of power-sharing. The result is that,
nearly eight years after the Good Friday Agreement, those institutions have
been in operation for only 20 months, with direct rule from Britain for the
overwhelming majority of the time.
Your government bears the responsibility for bringing down the freely and
democratically elected Assembly. If this happened in any other part of the
world, a British Prime Minister would be first in line to condemn such
police state misconduct.
The peoples of Ireland and Britain are all stakeholders in the peace
process. The United States, through President Clinton and his special envoy,
Senator Mitchell, played a vital role in building cross-community confidence
and securing the Good Friday Agreement.
That confidence has been betrayed and all concerned have the right to demand
a thorough and transparent investigation into the conduct of those
responsible. Unless British security services are operating without control
and accountability, senior persons in your government must have known
throughout that ‘Stormontgate' was a fraud and that Donaldson was working
for your own security services.
The tragic irony is that while the devolved assembly was allowed to run, it
worked better than anyone had reasonably expected. With cross-community
confidence now at an all-time low, your government bears the responsibility
for restoring hope and breathing new life into a moribund peace process.
At the very least, all stakeholders in the peace process have the right to
an open and transparent inquiry into how and why Britain's intelligence
services brought the Assembly down three years ago. Just as importantly, the
British government has to show the resolve necessary by immediately
reinstating the political institutions and make the Good Friday Agreement
work.
Sincerely,
Frank Durkin, Chairman,
Americans for a New Irish Agenda
Ned McGinley, President,
Ancient Order of Hibernians
James Cullen, Patrick Doherty, Steven McCabe,
Esqs. Brehon Law Societies
Robert Linnon, President,
Irish American Unity Conference
Joe Jamison, President,
Irish American Labor Coalition
Paul Doris, Chairman,
Irish Northern Aid Committee
Sean Cahill,
Irish Parades Emergency Committee
Edmund Lynch,
Lawyers' Alliance
Julie Coleman,
Secretary, Irish American Action Committee
