Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Origin of the MacBride Principles
- Chapter Two MacBride and the Campaign after the Publication of the Principles
- Chapter Three MacBride and the British Government
- Chapter Four MacBride and the Irish Government
- Chapter Five MacBride and the British Labour Party
- Chapter Six MacBride, the SDLP and Sinn Féin
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter One The Origin of the MacBride Principles
- Chapter Two MacBride and the Campaign after the Publication of the Principles
- Chapter Three MacBride and the British Government
- Chapter Four MacBride and the Irish Government
- Chapter Five MacBride and the British Labour Party
- Chapter Six MacBride, the SDLP and Sinn Féin
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Arguably, the MacBride Principles have been more influential in achieving change in this area than the Anglo-Irish Agreement; we may appeal to the hearts and minds, but it is those who control the purse strings that can wield the greatest influence.
(Anne Anderson)The focus of the campaign to end political and religious discrimination at the point of recruitment has been, in large part, effective.
(Committee on the Administration of Justice)Laws alone don't change things.
(Taoiseach Garrett FitzGerald)The task the MacBride campaigners had set themselves was a formidable one: to confront the UK and US establishments; challenge policies; and achieve social, economic and political change in Northern Ireland. It was something that previous generations of Irish-Americans had failed to achieve. To do it, they had to break the stranglehold of the ‘special relationship’ between the two states, to enable the UK's Northern Irish policy to be debated in the Congress. The campaign was independent of constitutional Irish nationalist leaders. Its organisation, funding and policy decisions were all made in the United States. It triumphed over the hostility of the leading Irish nationalist politician of the late twentieth century, John Hume. Its progress was orchestrated as much by United States domestic politics as events in Northern Ireland. Ending religious discrimination in the employment practices of US corporations in Northern Ireland was something that appealed directly to non-politicised Irish-Americans because of their own experiences in the civil rights movement.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Macbride PrinciplesIrish America Strikes Back, pp. 206 - 215Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2009