February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The group, made up of Democrats Edward Kennedy, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Patrick Leahy, and Republicans John McCain and Susan Collins, also urges the IRA to disarm and cease all paramilitary activity.
The resolution describes the 1998 agreement as the “blueprint for lasting peace in Northern Ireland” and states that it “rejects” the recent statement by Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley that the agreement “should be given a reasonable burial.”
Inclusive power sharing based on the defining qualities of the agreement was essential to the viability and success of the peace process, the resolution adds.
It calls on the IRA “to immediately complete the process of decommissioning, cease to exist as a paramilitary organization, and end its involvement in any way in paramilitary and criminal activity.”
“We know that discussion of the issue is underway within the IRA, and we all await a final, positive, and decisive action,” the signatories state.
The resolution calls on the DUP to share power with all other parties, according to the democratic mandate of the Good Friday agreement, and commit to work in good faith with all the institutions established under the agreement.
It further calls on Sinn Fein to work “in good faith” with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The resolution urges justice in the case of Robert McCartney and calls on the British Government “to permanently restore” the democratic institutions of Northern Ireland, complete the process of demilitarization and advance equality and human rights.
“The Good Friday agreement is the only way forward in Northern Ireland, and it deserves our strong support. I urge my colleagues to approve this resolution,” Sen. Kennedy said in a separate statement.
The inclusion of Sen. McCain in the group of resolution sponsors is significant and a possible clue as to the Arizona senator’s future political ambitions.
Earlier this year, McCain took the IRA and Sinn Fein to task in a speech before the American Ireland Fund dinner in Washington, D.C.
The inclusion of his name as a primary sponsor of the more even-handed Senate resolution would appear to indicate an attempt to appeal to a broader swathe of Irish America, a move that will only fuel speculation that McCain, who claims Irish roots in County Antrim, has his eye on the White House in 2008.