Remarks on Recent Statement by Irish Republican Army

REMARKS ON RECENT STATEMENT BY IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY -- (House of Representatives - February 10, 2005)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon to once again call upon the British Government to get the Northern Ireland peace process back on track and implement the recommendations of the Patten Commission in reforming the police service. The recent statement by the Irish Republican Army that they are taking their proposals to fully and finally decommission their weapons off the table is a direct result of the culture of hypocrisy and humiliation that plagues the Unionist parties and the British Government.

It troubles me that we have arrived at this point after the significant strides that had been made by Sinn Fein and the republican movement in the north in persuading the IRA to pursue a peaceful end to their struggle for a free and united Ireland.

Mr. Speaker, the fact that the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Hugh Orde, along with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn, have publicly accused the IRA of masterminding the recent bank robbery in Belfast without showing one piece of evidence is anathema to the core principle of due process that we hold so dear here in the United States.

These statements made to the press by the Chief Constable, and repeated by the Prime Minister and Taoiseach, are politically motivated and have no place in the criminal justice system. Sinn Fein and the IRA have said they will not tolerate criminality within the republican movement, and this policy of criminalization by the British Government brings us back to the days of Margaret Thatcher and the hunger strikes.

The public humiliation that the Reverend Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionist Party so desperately seek of the Catholic community of Northern Ireland and the IRA should not be carried out by the likes of Mr. Blair and Mr. Ahearn while they maintain that they are committed to fulfilling the spirit and promise of the Good Friday Accords.

Central to the peace process in the north is the reform of a police service that for far too long has served as a tool of the Unionist majority and has sought time and again to punish, discriminate, and publicly humiliate the Catholic minority.

The Catholics in Northern Ireland will never see the PSNI as their own police service if it is continually being used as a tool of unionism to disenfranchise their community.

Mr. Speaker, I call upon Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahearn to stop their public posturing and press ahead with a return to the Good Friday Agreement and, most importantly, the implementation of Patten. Sinn Fein has stated unequivocally that they are committed to the peace process and are opposed to any return to violence. It is essential that we get back to devolved authority for the people of Northern Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant alike.

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