Civic leaders seek delay of referendum

A group of Irish civic leaders has written to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, urging him to delay the Government’s planned referendum on citizenship rights.

The group said the Government should not hold the referendum on June 11 and should instead facilitate a proper consultation on the issue of citizenship and take into account the views of parties to the Good Friday Agreement.

The letter was signed by former ICTU president Inez McCormack; Michael Farrell, a founder of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association; social campaigner Sr Stanislaus Kennedy; TCD lecturer and pro-life activist William Binchy and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire.