BY CAROLINE BELLAMY
LONDON - The "Good Friday Agreement" was approved by big majorities in separate referenda in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic May 22. The agreement "marks a phase and it is our firm intention to continue to make advances in the next phase," said Sinn Fein chairman Mitchell McLaughlin leading up to the vote. Sinn Fein is the party leading the struggle for Irish self-determination.

In Northern Ireland, 71 percent of those who voted said yes to the question, "Do you support the Good Friday Agreement?" The voter turnout was high - about 81 percent of the 1.18 million electorate. The same day, 94 percent of those who voted approved an amendment to the Republic of Ireland's constitution that incorporated the principle of consent of the majority in the British occupied six counties in the North to the unification of Ireland. There the turnout was 55 percent.

The agreement is the end result of the recent round of talks between the British and Irish governments and nationalist and Unionist parties (those who support the continued "union" of Northern Ireland with Britain). Its main points are the setting up of a Northern Ireland assembly and cross-border links with some executive powers between that body and the Irish government on certain all- Ireland issues. The agreement also provides for the release of political prisoners within two years, a commission to examine the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and a Council of the British Isles.

At its emergency Ard Fheis (national conference) May 10, Sinn Fein overwhelmingly endorsed its leadership's proposal to cast a Yes vote in the referenda. Rita O Hare, moving the leadership motion, said "All aspects of the agreement have to be viewed in the wider context. Change is coming as a result of our struggle." An exit poll conducted for the Sunday Times concluded that 96 percent of the Catholic vote was in favor of the agreement. The main pillar of British rule in the northeastern six counties of Ireland has been institutionalized discrimination against the Catholic population.

Commenting on the vote, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said that people have signed up for a future and not a past. Changes now have to be made across a whole range of issues. On TV, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness reminded a BBC interviewer, "This war is not over. British troops are still on our streets."

Television showed celebrating politicians drinking champagne as the results came in. British prime minister Anthony Blair called it, "A day of joy," and U.S. president William Clinton sent a message saying "After a 30 year winter of sectarian violence, Northern Ireland, today has the promise of a springtime of peace."

This mood was not reflected on the streets. The Irish Times reported that there were no street parties, champagne or victory cavalcades, and that visitors to Belfast would not have detected any special buzz. "I'd love to think this was a new beginning," said Pauline McCann from Belfast, adding more cautiously, "the peace isn't secure. Some Unionists want to destroy the agreement."

Adams analyzed the agreement at the first session of the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis April 18. "On the one hand it upholds the Unionist veto over the constitutional position of the north, and, on the other hand it reduces the British territorial claim to that one hinge while it compels unionists to accept key and fundamental changes involving all-Ireland dimensions." Sinn Fein leaders also emphasized that the agreement is the end of a phase in the struggle, not the end it.

Even before the referendum it was clear how this struggle will take shape in the immediate future. In an effort to woo unionists into voting Yes, Blair published a handwritten, signed pledge that promised that those who used or threatened violence will be excluded from the Northern Ireland assembly and that prisoners will not be released unless violence is permanently renounced. Conservative politicians said on television that they would block the legislation needed at Westminster to release prisoners if they did not believe these pledges would be carried out. Gerry Adams however refused to accept decommissioning -that is disarmament by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other groups who have issued cease-fires - as a precondition for his party sitting in Northern Ireland's new cabinet. "I do not accept for one minute that those who vote for Sinn Fein will be treated any differently from anyone else," he said.

Adams also demanded that the July 5 Orange Order parade in Drumcree, Northern Ireland, and other contentious marches be called off. Every year, the Orange Order, Apprentice Boys, and other pro-British groups hold a series of triumphalist marches through mostly Catholic neighborhoods, attempting to intimidate the population. The demand to stop or reroute the parades has been a flashpoint of the nationalist struggle in recent years. David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP) insisted the marches were legitimate celebrations of the Protestant tradition and asked nationalists "don't allow the IRA to manipulate you into causing violence this summer."

Last year, the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition appealed for other nationalists to stay away from their protest against the Orange Order march from Drumcree church through their mainly nationalist area, in a bid to defuse tension. Nonetheless, the police forced that parade down the Garvaghy Road. This year, the residents have voted 82 percent in favor of extending their protest to people from other areas. A future meeting will decide on what particular plans to put into practice.

A recent march in nationalist Dunloy was rerouted away from the village center, although 100 Apprentice Boys filed to the Presbyterian church on the outskirts, past several Catholic homes. Tony Chivers of the Dunloy Residents' and Parents Association urged dialogue, saying, "The loyal orders have to talk to us...to help the common good."

Polarization among unionists is increasing. Exit polls suggested that 55 percent of Protestants voted in favor of the agreement, marking the beginnings of an acceptance that things cannot go on the old way. Ultrarightist Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the main figure in the "No" campaign, was greeted with taunts of "Cheerio, Cheerio, Cheerio" from loyalists as he entered the hall for the referendum result announcement.

Nonetheless, Paisley and loyalism are far from spent forces. Ian Paisley Jr. said that in the June 25 elections for the Northern Assembly, the DUP would use its support to "frustrate any role for Dublin to have any control whatever over our affairs and to deny Sinn Fein any active role over us."

John Taylor, deputy leader of the UUP, has put into question the connection between the party and the Orange Order, which opposed the agreement. "The time is now right to break the link" he said. The UUP itself was split over the vote, with six of its MP's rejecting the document. A No voter on the Protestant Shankill Road commented angrily "This unionist party will not talk to that unionist party, and they're all going to fall out among themselves and Sinn Fein's going to take over."

Meanwhile, Seamus Mallon of the reformist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Taylor have both expressed interest in the idea of their voters offering support to the other's candidates in the elections to the Assembly.

Caroline Bellamy is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union. Pete Clifford contributed to this article.  
 
 
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