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News about the Irish & Irish American culture, music, news, sports. This is hosted by the Irish Aires radio show on KPFT-FM 90.1 in Houston, Texas (a Pacifica community radio station)
July 28, 2005
Reaction to IRA Statement
News about Ireland & the Irish
SF 07/28/05 - British Prime Minster Tony Blair's Response
SF 07/28/05 - Bertie Ahern Speaking Following IRA Statement
(Poster's Note: There are some great lines to include in
your letters to the press re: the IRA statement.
For example: Blair: "This is a step of unparallel magnitude
in the recent history of Northern Ireland."
Ahern: "The war is over, the IRA`s armed campaign is over,
paramilitarism is over and I believe that we can look to
the future of peace and prosperity based on mutual trust
and reconciliation and a final end to violence."
Jay)
******************************************
http://www.sinnfeinonline.com/events/389
British Prime Minster Tony Blair's Response
28 July, 2005
But speaking in 10 Downing Street British Prime Minster
Tony Blair said: "This may be the day which finally after
all these false dawns and dashed hopes, peace replaced war,
politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland."
"I welcome the statement of the IRA that ends its campaign.
I welcome its clarity.
"I welcome the recognition that the only route to political
change lies exclusively in peaceful and democratic means.
"This is a step of unparallel magnitude in the recent
history of Northern Ireland.
"The Unionist community in particular and all of us
throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom will want to see
this clear statement of principle kept to in practice.
"The instruction of the IRA statement that volunteers must
not engage in any other activity whatsoever will be taken
as a forthright denunciation of any activity, paramilitary
or criminal."
"The statement is of a different order to anything before.
"It is what we have striven for and worked for throughout
the eight years since the Good Friday Agreement.
"It creates the circumstances in which the institutions can
be revived.
"Unionism will want to know that these circumstances are
permanent and verified.
"But if in time they are, then proper, devolved democratic
government should be restored to Northern Ireland."
"The IRA believe that their means were justified. The rest
of us do not and we will remember today the many thousands
of victims of their campaign.
"But the best way to serve the memory of those victims is
to make the future brighter and there is, at least, some
hope today that the future will indeed be such as to banish
the ghastly and futile violence from Northern Ireland
forever."
******************************************
http://www.sinnfeinonline.com/events/390
Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Speaking Following The IRA
Statement
28 July, 2005
Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern speaking following the IRA
statement said:
"As a statement goes, this delivers what I`d been seeking,"
"I had set down in the public domain since the meeting I
had with Sinn Fein in January what I wanted.
"I wanted to see decommissioning be dealt with, I wanted to
see the IRA as a paramilitary organisation ceasing and I
wanted to see that the issues as set out in the [two
Government`s] Joint Declaration were covered, this
statement covers those points, there`s no doubt about that.
"The war is over, the IRA`s armed campaign is over,
paramilitarism is over and I believe that we can look to
the future of peace and prosperity based on mutual trust
and reconciliation and a final end to violence.
"And that`s what people like myself and others have been
working for for a long time."
"The two Governments have been the people who have driven,
on behalf of all the people in our respective countries,
the peace process over the last 11 years," he said.
"The end of the IRA as a paramilitary organisation is the
outcome the Governments have been working towards since the
cessation of military activities exactly 11 years ago.
"And if the IRA words are borne out by the verified action
it will be a momentous and a very historic development."
"Our focus now, as is always as the two Governments, is on
the complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
that people voted for back in May of 1998 and that has
brought such immense benefits to the country.
"The reality is that we have been stalled at various times
in the process, it's not unusual for peace processes around
the world that that happens but today is moving along I
think in something that allows us to move the process to
where we want it. We have worked very hard to get to this
day," he said.
"The IRA as a paramilitary force has ended its terror
campaign and that is what we are seeking to achieve."
SF 07/28/05 - British Prime Minster Tony Blair's Response
SF 07/28/05 - Bertie Ahern Speaking Following IRA Statement
(Poster's Note: There are some great lines to include in
your letters to the press re: the IRA statement.
For example: Blair: "This is a step of unparallel magnitude
in the recent history of Northern Ireland."
Ahern: "The war is over, the IRA`s armed campaign is over,
paramilitarism is over and I believe that we can look to
the future of peace and prosperity based on mutual trust
and reconciliation and a final end to violence."
Jay)
******************************************
http://www.sinnfeinonline.com/events/389
British Prime Minster Tony Blair's Response
28 July, 2005
But speaking in 10 Downing Street British Prime Minster
Tony Blair said: "This may be the day which finally after
all these false dawns and dashed hopes, peace replaced war,
politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland."
"I welcome the statement of the IRA that ends its campaign.
I welcome its clarity.
"I welcome the recognition that the only route to political
change lies exclusively in peaceful and democratic means.
"This is a step of unparallel magnitude in the recent
history of Northern Ireland.
"The Unionist community in particular and all of us
throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom will want to see
this clear statement of principle kept to in practice.
"The instruction of the IRA statement that volunteers must
not engage in any other activity whatsoever will be taken
as a forthright denunciation of any activity, paramilitary
or criminal."
"The statement is of a different order to anything before.
"It is what we have striven for and worked for throughout
the eight years since the Good Friday Agreement.
"It creates the circumstances in which the institutions can
be revived.
"Unionism will want to know that these circumstances are
permanent and verified.
"But if in time they are, then proper, devolved democratic
government should be restored to Northern Ireland."
"The IRA believe that their means were justified. The rest
of us do not and we will remember today the many thousands
of victims of their campaign.
"But the best way to serve the memory of those victims is
to make the future brighter and there is, at least, some
hope today that the future will indeed be such as to banish
the ghastly and futile violence from Northern Ireland
forever."
******************************************
http://www.sinnfeinonline.com/events/390
Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern Speaking Following The IRA
Statement
28 July, 2005
Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern speaking following the IRA
statement said:
"As a statement goes, this delivers what I`d been seeking,"
"I had set down in the public domain since the meeting I
had with Sinn Fein in January what I wanted.
"I wanted to see decommissioning be dealt with, I wanted to
see the IRA as a paramilitary organisation ceasing and I
wanted to see that the issues as set out in the [two
Government`s] Joint Declaration were covered, this
statement covers those points, there`s no doubt about that.
"The war is over, the IRA`s armed campaign is over,
paramilitarism is over and I believe that we can look to
the future of peace and prosperity based on mutual trust
and reconciliation and a final end to violence.
"And that`s what people like myself and others have been
working for for a long time."
"The two Governments have been the people who have driven,
on behalf of all the people in our respective countries,
the peace process over the last 11 years," he said.
"The end of the IRA as a paramilitary organisation is the
outcome the Governments have been working towards since the
cessation of military activities exactly 11 years ago.
"And if the IRA words are borne out by the verified action
it will be a momentous and a very historic development."
"Our focus now, as is always as the two Governments, is on
the complete implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
that people voted for back in May of 1998 and that has
brought such immense benefits to the country.
"The reality is that we have been stalled at various times
in the process, it's not unusual for peace processes around
the world that that happens but today is moving along I
think in something that allows us to move the process to
where we want it. We have worked very hard to get to this
day," he said.
"The IRA as a paramilitary force has ended its terror
campaign and that is what we are seeking to achieve."
