Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney said today that the days of anyone using the political institutions in the north of Ireland to show disrespect, and contempt or to deny rights are over.
The Foyle MLA was speaking after his party launched a new Sinn Féin booklet entitled ‘No return to the Status Quo’ which analyses the evolution of the peace process since 2010.
Raymond McCartney said:
“The British government and DUP alliance is based upon a unionist agenda defined in terms of support for Brexit, austerity and opposition to a rights-based framework for government.
“They have created the current crisis and, as a result, the entire basis of the Good Friday Agreement is now faced with its most serious threat in the history of the peace process.
“A successful resolution hinges on whether political unionism can accept, and co-exist in partnership, with the Irish cultural tradition, and Irish nationalist and republican identity.
“The only way this can be achieved is through the implementation of the equality based framework of the Good Friday Agreement to guarantee the rights of all citizens and sections of society, regardless of creed, culture, colour, class, political allegiance or sexual orientation.
“The political institutions will either be reestablished and sustained on this basis, or they will not.
“Fifty years on from the Civil Rights campaign the rights and equality agenda must not be short changed. The days of anyone using the political institutions in the north of Ireland to show disrespect, and contempt or to deny rights are over.
“This much is certain, the new momentum for full delivery of rights for all citizens will not be going away.”
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