PROPOSALS BY former UK attorney general Lord Goldsmith to remove voting rights from Irish people in Britain unless they become British citizens are "absurd" and should be resisted in the strongest possible terms, a leading Labour peer told a St Patrick's Day gathering in Westminster yesterday.
Lord (Alf) Dubs, who as a child fled the Nazis in Czechoslovakia to Britain where he became a Labour MP and Northern Ireland minister, yesterday hosted a St Patrick's Day event at the House of Lords to promote peace and reconciliation.
He acknowledged the dramatic political progress made in Northern Ireland in the past year and how yesterday was a St Patrick's Day like no other. But he urged all present to use their influence to resist Lord Goldsmith's proposals with all the resources and political clout at their disposal.
"It is not government policy, it is just a report for the government. I am not happy about it," he said. "I am not happy about the suggestion made about attaching voting rights to citizenship, whether that applies to Irish people or people from the Commonwealth."
He said that if any attempt was made to apply the same proposals to people in Northern Ireland, it would run entirely against the spirit and letter of the Good Friday agreement.
"Use your influence against this, it is not the sensible way forward," he said. "There was an attempt made in the Commons in the 1980s to take away the right to vote of Irish people in Britain and I do not want to see something like that happen again."
Ireland's Ambassador to Britain David Cooney - who earlier attended an event at the Conservative-led town hall in Croydon, Surrey, at which the Tricolour was raised to commemorate St Patrick's Day - told the same gathering that relations with the UK had never been better.
Mr Cooney, born and raised in south London, said that in the week of the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, the two countries had never been closer on so many issues.
"There has never been a better time to be Irish in Britain. [The Irish] have never felt more welcome or more comfortable, never felt more the opportunity to express ourselves," said the Ambassador.
Among those present were former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, who was recently appointed chairman of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, and Sinn Féin MP Pat Doherty.
Nottingham also marked St Patrick's Day with a parade led by country singer Philomena Begley and civic ceremonies.