Adams Launches Unity Campaign In New York

Sinn Féin held a conference on Saturday in Mid-town Manhatten aimed at building momentum around the world toward its goal of a united Ireland.

It is the first of two conferences to be held in the U.S., the second conference planned for San Francisco on June 27th.

Speaking at the conference, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the conference provided representatives of Irish American organisations along the east coast the opportunity to discuss how best the goal of achieving a United Ireland could be advanced and "how Irish America can assist in that process."

He said: "The Good Friday Agreement provides a legislative, peaceful and democratic route to achieve Irish reunification.  Sinn Féin's responsibility, with others, is to work the agreement and to build on it in the future."

Adams, the MP for West Belfast, said the primary political goal of Irish republicans "the objective which guides everything we do," was the achievement of Irish freedom and independence, and "an end to partition and the union with Britain, and the construction of a new national democracy, a new republic, on the island of Ireland, including reconciliation between nationalists and unionists, between orange and green,"

He said that the principles, goals and ethos of the United Ireland Sinn Féin sought were best summed up in the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic: "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible."

He said the Republic guaranteed "religious and civil liberty; equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens; and would cherish all the children of the nation equally."

He said the outworking of all Sinn Féin's strategies and efforts "must be the implementation of these great words, these great ideas, into effective policies which can change the lives of the people of the island of Ireland for the better."

This was the "great unfinished and historic task of building a truly free Irish national democracy."

He said this was the challenge which Sinn Féin was asking Irish Americans and the Irish diaspora across the world to join with them in achieving.

"I believe we can succeed," the Sinn Féin leader concluded.

The audience also heard from an array of speakers including author Pete Hamill, Professor Brendan O'Leary of the University of Pennsylvania, author and broadcaster Brian Keenan, and President of the Laborers International Union of North America, Terence O'Sullivan.

He cited the reunification of Germany as an example of how it is not always mere financial benefits which is the greatest motivator for constitutional change.

O'Leary also said it was important that the growing minorities living in the North would also have to be convinced in the rationale for Irish unity, noting that there was a significant population of Poles living in the North who are generally Catholic and could be a significant voting block in the future.

Brian Keenan, who spent over 4 years locked in a cell in Beirut as a hostage of Islamic Jihad, gave his perspective on what it was like growing up as a Protestant in East Belfast while not necessarily sharing the beliefs and prejudices of his friends around him.

He spoke of the human suffering in both communities and misunderstanding which was at the heart of the conflict.  He said unity would have to be a republic of "the heart and the mind," and that the dismantling of the border was something that would have to be done with great care, if it were to be successful.

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) also spoke, both strongly endorsing the Sinn Féin strategy and promising continued support for the goal of Irish unity.

Also participating in this conference were the Presidents of Irish American organisations including the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish Northern Aid, the Irish America Unity Conference, the Brehan Law Society and the United Irish Counties Association.