Dublin urged to bring forward United Ireland plans

The Government was urged tonight to bring forward formal proposals for a united Ireland.

As republicans in Northern Ireland and Ireland heard calls from several leading Sinn Fein figures for recognition that a united Ireland was inevitable, party president Gerry Adams called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s coalition to produce its own plan.

Addressing a rally in Dublin commemorating the 1916 republican Easter Rising, Mr Adams said:

‘Four score years have past since a Government was established in Dublin and it is incredible that in all of this time we have not even had a discussion Green Paper on the subject, never mind a policy White Paper come out of Leinster House (the Irish Parliament).

‘‘Establishment parties have no strategy, no medium and long-term goals, no notion of structures, no economic analysis, no costings, no outline legislative programme.

‘‘What Sinn Fein is about - and what we have been doing in recent months - is setting out our road map to Irish unity and we believe that others should do the same.

‘‘The primary objective at this time has to be to sustain the peace process and to build the political process and the Good Friday Agreement.

‘‘Sinn Fein is wedded to this. But we continue to work for an end of the union.

‘‘So Irish unity must cease to be an abstraction and become a concrete proposition. Here, today, I am formally calling on all of the parties to embark on a process of drawing up a Green Paper on Irish unity in consultation with all interested parties and groups.’’

Mr Adams marched with thousands of republicans from the GPO in Dublin - one of the buildings seized during the 1916 insurrection - to Glasnevin Cemetery in the north of the city.

At another rally in Drumboe, Co Donegal, several hundred republicans were told by Sinn Fein Education Minister Martin McGuinness that the countdown to a united Ireland had begun.

Urging unionists to engage with republicans in a debate on the type of united Ireland they could live in, the Mid Ulster MP said: ‘‘Denying the obvious will serve no purpose other than give unionists’ false hope and discourage them from becoming equal partners in the management of that change.’’

In Monaghan, Sinn Fein’s sole representative in Dail Eireann, Caoimhghmn S Caolain invited David Trimble to address a joint session of both Houses of Parliament both as Ulster Unionist leader and Stormont First Minister.

In Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery, where the largest commemoration in Northern Ireland took place, Sinn Fein policing spokesman Gerry Kelly called on the British Government to honour all the commitments it had made in the Good Friday Agreement.

With several Sinn Fein speakers alluding to the forthcoming General Election, there was a call today from a leading member of Fine Gael for all parties in the Dail to team up to prevent republicans getting into a position of power.

Writing in the Dublin-based Sunday Independent, Jim Mitchell said;

‘‘Some form of understanding between the parties’’ was needed to ensure Sinn Fein would not wield the balance of power after the next election.

‘‘There are many people horrified by the prospect of Sinn Fein doing well electorally, never mind the possibility of them being in government,’’ he said.

‘‘Even if the IRA is disbanded and decommissioning is completed, is it not too soon to permit such recent criminals to become members of the government?’’