Capitol
Hill. Tuesday, September 27, 2005 — The final
decommissioning of the IRA arsenal will help reveal
to the world what has always been at the heart of
the problem in Northern Ireland.
That
is how the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus
has reacted to the IRA initiative. Caucus president,
Father Sean Mc Manus, said: "Northern Ireland
came into existence in 1920 for a twofold reason
— to ensure England would continue to have
a foothold on the island of Ireland, and to ensure
Unionist/Orange supremacy in the new artificial
state. In this way, British interests were secured,
and Catholic inequality guaranteed."
Fr.
Mc Manus further explained: "The problem has
always been about the British Government militarily
backing up that sectarian, undemocratic entity.
Now that it appears, under Tony Blair, the British
government is no longer interested in being identified
with a sectarian regime, there is a chance for the
word to see clearly the remaining problem: Unionist
reluctance to accept the concept of equality with
Catholics. That is now the issue, and there's no
way of denying it."
"But
Tony Blair must do something else," Fr. Mc
Manus emphasized.
"To
show his Government has abandoned all sectarianism.
He must immediately remove the 'constitutional'
basis for all Orange bigotry and sectarianism: the
anti-Catholic section of the Act of Settlement of
1700, which is still in force today. Under this
ridiculous, but malicious, Act, a Catholic is forbidden
by law to become the King or Queen, and that if
the Monarch converts to Catholicism or marries a
Catholic s/he forfeits the Throne and 'the people
are absolved of their allegiance'."
"That
would be similar to the U.S. Constitution having
a provision that would outlaw an African-American
becoming President or marrying a Black person. And
if the President were to marry a Black person his
election would be declared null and void by the
Constitution."
"It
is, therefore, this wretched Act of Settlement that
is ultimately behind all anti-Catholic bigotry in
Northern Ireland because it provides Protestant/Orange
extremists with motivation and justification. If
the very top law in England, the Queen's own law,
declares Catholics cannot be Monarch, therefore
it follows Catholics are inferior, and, therefore,
cannot be equal to Protestants."
"And
the sad thing is that British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, until now, has blocked all efforts to change
this horribly anti-Catholic law because, 'it would
be too much paper work and too expensive'!"
