Fairness, Equality, Respect

I want to express how dissatisfied we are that a deal has not been done to get the Assembly up and running in the North. It is clear that a restored Assembly is only tenable if it is based on fairness, equality and respect.

To hear a senior DUP figure saying on Morning Ireland that the Irish Government should keep their nose out highlights what we have been up against for years. He cited that Ireland doesn’t tell other countries to operate a rights based society.

What part of the right of any person living on this Island to their Irishness or Britishness do they not understand? Why are they so frightened by the prospect of two people who love each other expressing that love in a lifelong commitment of marriage?

They also refuse to open the files that show the extent of the collusion between their security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.

Nineteen years after the Good Friday Agreement and ten years on from St Andrew’s the DUP have blocked an Acht na Gaeilge, the Bill of Rights, marriage equality, anti-sectarian measures and progress on legacy issues.

Despite the fact that more than 15,000 republican men and women have collectively served more than 100,000 years in jail the British Government, Unionist parties claim that there is an unfair focus on prosecuting murders carried out by the British State and its agents.

Sinn Féin will not consent to being governed by the DUP on their terms just as we would not expect the DUP electorate to consent to be governed by us on Sinn Féin terms.