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| John Finucane speaking |
By Theo Russell
Francie Molloy, Sinn Féin MP for Mid Ulster, told a meeting in London
last week that the problems the party experienced with registering voters in the
North of Ireland for the December 2019 election “were the most difficult Sinn
Féin has ever experienced”.
He said: “There are increasing restrictions on who
gets onto the electoral register and who can send postal votes.
“We need to prepare for a unified electoral system
in the north and south that is completely out of the hands of the British
government. Every Irish citizen should be on the register and have the right to
vote.
“Demography is changing in the North but it’s not
reflected on the electoral register, and that could mean the unionists maintain
control even when they’ve lost the popular majority.”
The keynote speaker at the meeting, A decade of
opportunity: towards a United Ireland at the Westminster Parliament, was John
Finucane, new Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast.
Finucane reminded the meeting that the Good Friday
Agreement “is an evolving process” that “requires constant nurturing and active
oversight and involvement by the Irish and British Governments”.
But his main focus was on Brexit, which he said
“has exposed the failure and undemocratic nature of partition – a political
problem, which requires a political solution”.
He added that: “The majority of MLAs and MPs in the
North of Ireland are anti-Brexit. Neither the people, nor their political
representatives here have consented to the North leaving the EU today. There is
a justifiable anger about this.”
In April 2017 the European Union announced
that in the event of Irish reunification, the North “would automatically
re-join the EU with the rest of Ireland,” Finucane said.
He predicted that recent changes “will inevitably
lead to the final break-up of the constitutional structures of the United
Kingdom” and said: “It is no longer a question of if, but when the referendum
on Irish unity will be held, and many of those of a British or Unionist
identity are now considering the merits of reunification.”
Finucane called on the new Irish government after
next month’s elections to publish a Green Paper and appoint a minister on how
to prepare “a successful transition to a united Ireland”.
He added that the debate on reunification was
bringing in wide sections of society in the North of Ireland.
Last year Baroness Paisley, the widow of Ian
Paisley and vice-president of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said: “I
just wonder why (Ireland) had to be divided... and I think it was the wrong
decision,” adding that she could live in a united Ireland as long as there was
freedom of religion – in contrast to her own party leader, Arlene Foster.
Also Billy Hutchinson, leader of the Progressive
Unionist Party, which had one seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly until 2007,
told the party conference the a reunification referendum was inevitable.
On a so-called border referendum – ie to end
partition – he said: “For our part, Sinn Féin believes there should be one
within the next five years.
“That means the Irish Government need to begin to
plan for a referendum, promote the discussion, and build a vision of a new and
united Ireland.”
He called on the Irish diaspora in Britain to lobby
MPs and the British government “to live up to its responsibilities under the
Good Friday Agreement to announce a unity referendum”.
John Finucane is the son of lawyer Patrick
Finucane, who was murdered in 1989 by Ulster Defence Association (UDA) members
who were colluding with MI5, which was confirmed in parliament by David Cameron
in 2012.
Finucane pointed out that in Belfast: “The absolute
unionist majority has been lost in the last four elections and it is not coming
back. I say this not out of triumph but as a challenge.” His seat was
exclusively held by unionists until December 2019.
Amongst his predecessors was Edward Carson, who led
a revolt against Irish Home Rule, paved the way for partition and established
the Ulster Volunteers, who received arms shipments from Germany. Lenin famously
cited Carson as an example of the British government supporting treason against
against their own state.
In the discussion a speaker from the floor spoke
about the ‘Magnitsky amendments’ unanimously added to two new laws by
parliament, allowing the freezing of assets of “international human rights
violators”. (According to the USA and UK, the US lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was
murdered by the Russian Government.)
The speaker asked: “If they were so concerned about
human rights, why didn’t they pass a law after the murder of Pat Finucane?”
