“We are writing to you as co-guarantors of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA) to encourage you to do everything within your power to protect the GFA as the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the European Union (E.U.) continue their negotiations regarding the withdrawal of the U.K. from the European Union.”
Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement
Washington, D.C.
February 5, 2019
The Rt. Hon. Theresa May
Prime Minister of Great Britain
10 Downing Street,
London, Great Britain
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, TD
Government Buildings
Upper Merrion Street
Dublin 2, Ireland
Dear Prime Minister and Taoiseach,
We are writing to you as co-guarantors of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement (GFA) to encourage you to do everything within your power to protect the GFA as the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the European Union (E.U.) continue their negotiations regarding the withdrawal of the U.K. from the European Union.
Twenty years ago, the United States led by President Clinton successfully mounted a diplomatic effort to broker and secure the peace process in Northern Ireland which, after two years of negotiations chaired by Senator George Mitchell, led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. As Americans, we worked, on many levels, to support the negotiations leading up to the GFA and the challenging steps of implementation thereafter. President Bush and President Obama made a pointed effort to follow up this success during their terms of office by appointing seasoned Special Envoys and representatives including Mitchell Reiss, Paula Dobriansky and former Senator Gary Hart.
Irish America helped to lay the foundations for peace and justice in Northern Ireland and we have been closely following the ongoing negotiations regarding the Backstop and the potential of a hard border. At this point we have a growing concern that the GFA may be in jeopardy given the decision by the government of the United Kingdom to reopen the withdrawal agreement. In recent months pro-Brexit advocates in London have set about diminishing the importance of the GFA almost to the point of dismissing it as irrelevant even though it is a binding international peace agreement.
This is an enormous mistake and only resurrects old animosities over the constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland and has already resurrected old stereotypes that do an injustice to all the people on the island of Ireland, North and South, who overwhelmingly supported the GFA in a referendum held in May of 1998. A border defined by customs posts, checks points and infrastructure would divide communities, once again redefine the emotional, historical and political landscape and resurrect memories of the partition of Ireland in 1922 and the even fresher memories of the militarization of the border during the Troubles. The potential disruption of the current all-island economy is already well established.
Peace is not inevitable in Northern Ireland and the progress that has been made in the last 20 years is largely the result of the framework established by the GFA. Embedded in the GFA are a set of principles and rules that have allowed over 140 cross-border agreements to be stood up on everything from transportation, waterways, food safety and tourism to name just a few. The principle of consent which is at the heart the GFA has solved the issue of identity for the last twenty years and given both the Unionist and Nationalists community the reassurance needed to accept a live and let live attitude while continuing the hard work of reconciliation.
While the United States must await the outcome of the current Brexit negotiations we believe it should and must make every effort to secure and maintain the GFA which it did so much to bring about. We wish to acknowledge that the E. U. has been and remains a steadfast supporter of the peace process and has made significant contributions to it through the well-established programs including PEACE and INTERREG.
We intend to remain vigilant and are now in the process of organizing a national Ad Hoc Committee to protect the Good Friday Agreement. We will work closely with our colleagues in the U.S.Congress going forward. We hope for your success.
Sincerely,
Hon. James T. Walsh
Former Member of Congress
Former Chairman, Congressional Friends of Ireland Committee
Co-Chair, Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement
Hon. Bruce A. Morrison
Former Member of Congress
Former Co-Chair, Ad Hoc Congressional Committee on Irish Affairs
AdHocGFA.org 