8 April 1999 Edition
Powerful group to support Agreement
By Fern Lane
A new, high-powered lobbying group which is hoping to attract the active support of people and organisations in Britain for the Good Friday Agreement, is due to be launched in London on Friday, 9 April. The group, to be known as Friends of the Good Friday Agreement, will be campaigning for the implementation of the Agreement. It already has the support of some 90 British Members of Parliament, 11 Lords, a number of trade unions, and a variety of celebrities, writers and lawyers.
The Friends of the Good Friday Agreement is the idea of three Labour MPs, John McDonnell, Kevin McNamara and Maria Fyfe and has been endorsed by the Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam. In calling for broad-based British support for the new group, the MPs say:
``We believe that the difficulties experienced over the last year, and in particular most recently the horrific murder of Rosemary Nelson, make it incumbent upon all of us in this country who support the implementation of the agreement to make our voices heard.
``We believe that by working together to demonstrate the enormous goodwill which exists in this country for the implementation of the Agreement, we can all contribute to its success.''
As a first step, the group is sending out thousands of copies of a statement calling on British people to ``assist in maintaining the momentum for peace and reconciliation''. People are asked to sign and return the statement indicating their support and the group hopes to collect thousands to present to the government.
A new, high-powered lobbying group which is hoping to attract the active support of people and organisations in Britain for the Good Friday Agreement, is due to be launched in London on Friday, 9 April. The group, to be known as Friends of the Good Friday Agreement, will be campaigning for the implementation of the Agreement. It already has the support of some 90 British Members of Parliament, 11 Lords, a number of trade unions, and a variety of celebrities, writers and lawyers.
The Friends of the Good Friday Agreement is the idea of three Labour MPs, John McDonnell, Kevin McNamara and Maria Fyfe and has been endorsed by the Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam. In calling for broad-based British support for the new group, the MPs say:
``We believe that the difficulties experienced over the last year, and in particular most recently the horrific murder of Rosemary Nelson, make it incumbent upon all of us in this country who support the implementation of the agreement to make our voices heard.
``We believe that by working together to demonstrate the enormous goodwill which exists in this country for the implementation of the Agreement, we can all contribute to its success.''
As a first step, the group is sending out thousands of copies of a statement calling on British people to ``assist in maintaining the momentum for peace and reconciliation''. People are asked to sign and return the statement indicating their support and the group hopes to collect thousands to present to the government.