February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
Six members of the House of Representatives have expressed concern that Wednesday’s peace process speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair might undermine power sharing in the North.
“As members of Congress who have has a long-standing interest in Ireland we are genuinely concerned that your words may be used to undermine the power sharing institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement,” the congressmen said in the letter.
The letter was signed by House members Jim Walsh, Peter King, Joe Crowley, Ben Gilman, Richard Neal and Chris Smith.
“These institutions have been working effectively and it is our strong belief that they should not be tampered with,” the six stated.
The congressmen said they were “equally concerned” over what they called a growing “anti-Agreement sentiment” in Northern Ireland.
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“We would hope that all pro-agreement parties would reaffirm their unambiguous support for the full implementation of the historic peace accord. And we would caution against any attempt to re-write the agreement,” they said.
“There is still work to do in the long road towards reconciliation. And the creation of another crisis in this process will not bring us closer of these important goals,” they concluded.