The Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement was formed in February of 2019 out of a concern that the Good Friday Agreement, which had kept the peace in Northern Ireland, was in jeopardy as a result of Brexit and the ongoing debate in the House of Commons.
Alarmed by the tone of the debate in the House of Commons, a group of 40 Irish-American leaders wrote a letter to then-Prime Minster Theresa May and then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stating, “The recent decision by the Prime Minister and the Parliament to seek to re-open the withdrawal agreement and find an alternative to the backstop has put the Good Friday Agreement into play. This alarms us. The backstop is the insurance policy that protects the GFA and the GFA cannot be used as a bargaining chip as the Brexit advocates search for an alternative arrangement. The United States led by President Clinton and former Senator George Mitchell worked tirelessly to bring the GFA about and many of us have continued to work and support the peace process during the last twenty years. Political leaders who support Brexit seem to have little knowledge of Northern Ireland and are continuing to play down the role of the GFA in maintaining the peace in their effort to leave the E.U.”
The Ad Hoc Committee is bipartisan and is chaired by former Republican Congressman James Walsh (R -NY) and former Democratic Congressman Bruce Morrison (D. Conn). Kevin J. Sullivan is the Executive Director for the Ad Hoc Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee has grown to over 80 members and represents the broad spectrum of Irish American groups, organizations and leadership. The Committee includes five former American Ambassadors, two former Special Representatives and policy experts such as former U.N. Ambassador Nancy Soderberg and Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor to Vice President Biden as well as a Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The Ad Hoc Committee works closely with the Friends of Ireland Caucus in the House of Representatives led by Cong. Richard Neal and Cong. Mike Kelly and maintains a continuing relationship with both the Embassy of Ireland and the Embassy of Great Britain .
Irish America has a long history of active engagement in supporting the cause of Irish Independence, advancing civil rights, and supporting the Good Friday Agreement. Irish-American leaders including Niall O’Dowd, Bill Flynn and Bruce Morrison acted as key intermediates in making the case to President Clinton in 1994 that he should grant a 48 hour visa to then Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams as a way to advance the peace process. Key members of Congress including Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Daniel Moynihan, Speaker Tip O’Neill.,Cong Richard Neal, Cong. Peter King and Cong. James Walsh would invest years of effort to support the peace process and protect the Good Friday Agreement. The Ad Hoc Committee follows in that tradition.
We believe the peace process is a work in progress and there is a great deal of work to be done to foster reconciliation among the two Nationalist and Unionist traditions. The peace walls have yet to come down in Belfast. There are many issues that remain unrsolved around legacy, the lack of a Bill of Rights and full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the subsequent agreements such as the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. The United States has played a powerful and positive role in upholding the peace process through the Presidencies of Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama. The Good Friday Agreement is seen by many as one of the great diplomatic success stories of the United States in the last quarter century.
SPECIAL THANKS
The Ad Hoc Committee owes a special thanks to Ambassador Susan Elliot, Ambassador Nancy Soderberg and John Connorton, Esq, key leaders of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. NCAFP has a long and distinguished history of working on the Northern Ireland peace process going as far back as 1994 when they invited Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to New York for a peace conference. The ensuing political battle over whether Adams would receive a visa from the Clinton Administration to attend the conference was a key turning point in the peace process. NCAFP has been a trusted ally of the AD HOC Committee over the last five years and continues to be deeply engaged in the peace process including the creation of an Emerging Leaders Program for Northern Ireland.
We also owe a special thanks to Professor Katy Hayward of Queens University who has been a key advisor to the Ad Hoc Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee was pleased to co-host two delegations led by Professor Hayward to D.C. to alert members of Congress and the Administration on economic and political implications of the Brexit referendum.
Ad Hoc also owes a great deal of thanks to Daniel Holder of the CAJ for his continuing advice on human rights and legacy issues.
AdHocGFA.org 