22 January 1998 Edition
Back issue: Morrison slams Barry
In the course of what has been styled as a two-day Œfact-finding¹ visit to the North this week, Dublin Coalition foreign minister, Peter Barry, has made a promise that the Free State¹s constitution would be reviewed by his government in an effort to exclude from it the claim to jurisdiction over thirty-two counties.
During this visit, Barry met privately with Official Unionist, Alliance and SDLP politicians, as well as media people and academics. It is understood that the visit is in preparation for meetings between Barry and the British foreign minister, Francis Pym, followed by one with Northern direct-ruler James Prior.
Commenting on the visit, Sinn Féin¹s elected representative for Mid-Ulster, Danny Morrison, said:
³Peter Barry¹s promise that the Free State¹s constitutional position on the North will be reviewed, will encourage loyalist intransigence and invite further sectarian attacks to demoralise the nationalist community and try to force them to accept partition.
This move comes in the wake of attempts to re-write Irish history, and the broadcasting ban on members of Sinn Féin is there to ensure that the truth is suppressed.
³The Free State government may well be prepared to sell the birthright of the Irish people and capitulate to sectarianism, but republicans will defend the Irish people¹s right to self-determination, for which countless people have died, including the patriot dead upon whose graves the Free State stands.
Mr Barry¹s so-called fact-finding tour also ignored the elected representatives of a large section of the nationalist people, namely those of Sinn Féin.²
During this visit, Barry met privately with Official Unionist, Alliance and SDLP politicians, as well as media people and academics. It is understood that the visit is in preparation for meetings between Barry and the British foreign minister, Francis Pym, followed by one with Northern direct-ruler James Prior.
Commenting on the visit, Sinn Féin¹s elected representative for Mid-Ulster, Danny Morrison, said:
³Peter Barry¹s promise that the Free State¹s constitutional position on the North will be reviewed, will encourage loyalist intransigence and invite further sectarian attacks to demoralise the nationalist community and try to force them to accept partition.
This move comes in the wake of attempts to re-write Irish history, and the broadcasting ban on members of Sinn Féin is there to ensure that the truth is suppressed.
³The Free State government may well be prepared to sell the birthright of the Irish people and capitulate to sectarianism, but republicans will defend the Irish people¹s right to self-determination, for which countless people have died, including the patriot dead upon whose graves the Free State stands.
Mr Barry¹s so-called fact-finding tour also ignored the elected representatives of a large section of the nationalist people, namely those of Sinn Féin.²