Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Origin of the MacBride Principles
- Chapter Two MacBride and the Campaign after the Publication of the Principles
- Chapter Three MacBride and the British Government
- Chapter Four MacBride and the Irish Government
- Chapter Five MacBride and the British Labour Party
- Chapter Six MacBride, the SDLP and Sinn Féin
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Three - MacBride and the British Government
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Origin of the MacBride Principles
- Chapter Two MacBride and the Campaign after the Publication of the Principles
- Chapter Three MacBride and the British Government
- Chapter Four MacBride and the Irish Government
- Chapter Five MacBride and the British Labour Party
- Chapter Six MacBride, the SDLP and Sinn Féin
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
[The] real reason for the government's need to reject the MacBride Principles was their provenance. They came with the support of the Irish National Caucus and Noraid (among others), both having links with the Provisional IRA. In the light of … the imperative of preventing non-partisan legislation (and content), it is clear that no matter what the MacBride Principles had contained, the government could not be seen to do be doing business with the authors and promoters.
‘I do not think there is any discrimination against Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. The record of successive British governments has been completely honourable in Northern Ireland, and one of which we can be justly proud’, claimed Secretary of State James Prior on 24 May 1984. He was replying to a question asked of him by a Catholic Conservative MP, David Atkinson, concerning allegations of continuing discrimination against Roman Catholics in the report of the New Ireland Forum, recently published by the Irish government. Given the accumulating evidence to the contrary, Prior was in a state of denial. As Secretary of State, he had received reports from the FEA on discrimination in the engineering and electricity supply industries, as well as the civil service. Commenting on the Northern Irish situation, he wrote that each worker at Harland and Wolff was being subsidised to the tune of £7,500 a year by the taxpayer. This was essential, he said, not only for the jobs it provided, ‘but also because of its symbolic importance’.
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- Information
- The Macbride PrinciplesIrish America Strikes Back, pp. 84 - 128Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2009