IAUC Appeals for Obama Support In Irish Visit
May 10, 2011 Denver, CO & Washington, D. C. The National President of the Irish American Unity Conference, attorney Thomas Burke of Denver, CO, has released a letter he sent to President Obama in anticipation of his visit to Ireland this month. “We have urged the President to call for truly independent inquiries into the killing fields of Northern Ireland beginning with the 1971 slaughter of 11 unarmed citizens of the Irish Republic by the same Paratrooper regiment that butchered 13 on Bloody Sunday in 1972.” Continued President Burke: “Former Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey reminded Irish-Americans that the British are much more likely respond to appeals of the Irish government when an American President joins their requests for truth .”
Burke noted May 17th marks the 37 anniversary of the single deadliest day of the conflict when sophisticated bombing devices supplied by a secret British Intelligence unit were delivered to a six-man team of loyalists, 3 of whom were members of the Ulster Defense Regiment of the British Army, and detonated without warning on shopping centers of Dublin and Monaghan. “An American President” concluded Burke, “could underscore U. S. support for the Belfast Agreement by calling for English transparency on the unsolved murders of nearly 1000 Catholics.”
DC Chapter President of the IAUC ,attorney Peter Kissel, stated: “We appeal to President Obama to strengthen the resolve of the Irish government to pressure the British to meet their solemn commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.”
IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE
P.O Box 55573
Washington, DC 20040
May 11, 2011
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D. C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
On behalf of the Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC), we commend and wholeheartedly support your forthcoming trip to Ireland. Your visit comes at an important time in the history of Ireland, following the most significant election in the country’s history and when progress on justice and equality in the North of Ireland is at a critical juncture. We believe that as President you now have a unique opportunity to provide an important impetus to the progress that has been made so far.
The IAUC has for over twenty years engaged in principled and supportive advocacy involving Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Irish and British governments on the subject of Northern Ireland. The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement has brought a welcome measure of peace and opportunity for all the people of Northern Ireland. The United States government, with American good will and hard work, made the difference between continuing daily discrimination and violence and the relative peace that the North of Ireland now enjoys.
Nevertheless, the work is not yet finished. Several existing obligations of the British government under the Good Friday Agreement remain the subject of official British resistance. The IAUC would like to call your attention to several areas which require addressing, and urgently requests that you remind the new Irish government that it can and must bring pressure on the British government to meet its existing solemn commitments under the Good Friday Agreement. We specifically request that during your visit you raise the following two matters with the Irish government.
Ballymurphy Massacre
Between August 9 and 11, 1971, eleven unarmed civilians were killed in the Ballymurphy area of West Belfast by the British Army’s Parachute Regiment, the same unit which committed the Bloody Sunday violence. Forty-seven children were left without a parent. There has never been an independent inquiry into the Ballymurphy Massacre. It is imperative that an independent international examination be conducted to uncover the truth of how eleven innocent people were brutally shot down by the British Army, so that their lives not be forgotten and so that such a miscarriage of civil decency and justice never be allowed to happen again.
Dublin-Monaghan Bombings
The Dublin and Monaghan coordinated series of bombings on May 17, 1974, perpetrated by a loyalist paramilitary unit with the reputed assistance of British security forces, killed 33 civilians and wounded 300 more — the highest number of casualties in any single day during the so-called “Troubles.” This atrocity has never been subjected to an independent inquiry into the possible role of the British government in delivering bombs to the loyalist killers, due largely to obstruction by the British government. Your encouragement and support of the Irish government in continuing to pursue justice in this matter will be critical.
The IAUC wishes you all success in connection with your trip to Ireland. We have great hope and expectations that your insistence that the British government be held to its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement will greatly assist in moving the peace process forward and finally achieving true justice.
Thank you in advance for raising these matters with the Irish government, and we look forward to your response.
IAUC National Board Member
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