Sinn Féin urges Biden administration to appoint special envoy to North

Sinn Féin has urged the Biden administration in the United States to appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill said as the year of the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement approached, having an “honest broker” from the United States at the table would be “a good addition”.

Ms O’Neill said on Wednesday she had met politicians on Capitol Hill as well as officials of the State Department during a visit to Washington this week.

She said her message in Washington was the Tories in London were “sabotaging the Good Friday agreement”. Ms O’Neill said she was confident support for the accord in the United States remained “resolute and steadfast” and that politicians there would continue to make their voices heard.

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She also said Sinn Féin had had “a good year” in terms of fund raising by supporters in the United States.

The Irish Times reported earlier this week the party’s US organisation, Friends of Sinn Féin, raised $612,000 (€603,000) in donations and paid €53,552 in expenses for the party in Northern Ireland in the six months to April last.

The latest returns for the party’s New York-based advocacy and fundraising body show Friends of Sinn Féin bounced back from the fundraising slump of the Covid-19 pandemic. Contributions to Sinn Féin for the most recent half-year reporting period are among the highest to the party in recent years.

Sinn Féin said on Wednesday that small donations of under $500 — such as from its internet fundraising — could be sent to Ireland but larger amounts had to be used in the United States.

“We declare everything and go by the rules”, Ms O’Neill said.

She said it was within the rules to transfer such small donation amounts to meet general expenses.

Ms O’Neill also said she had urged that the White House “be in the ear” of whoever was appointed as Conservative Party leader and new British prime minister in September and “tell them Good Friday agreement must be upheld and they need to stop pandering to the DUP”.

She also said she wanted to see the Biden administration appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland.

“It is particularly important as we move into the [year of the] 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement. In the past we have benefited from special envoy, and I would like to see that [post] in place again”.

“An honest broker from the United States at the table — via a special envoy — would be a good addition.”

In a joint letter to the British government in May, senior Irish United States congressmen indicated the Biden administration was on the verge of appointing a special envoy to Northern Ireland. However, the White House has not said anything publicly on the issue as yet.

Ms O’Neill said she had forecast to politicians and Government officials in Washington that Northern Ireland was witnessing the dying days of partition and that a Border poll would be held within the next ten years.

“This is the decade of opportunity. There is opportunity to plan for a future that is better than we have right now. Partition has failed everybody on the island. Brexit has been a real catalyst for change.”

“People realise the British government can pull you out of Europe against your wishes even though you voted against it. People realise this is the jeopardy of having a British government with jurisdiction.”

She said the time was right now for planning for constitutional change in Northern Ireland. “Let’s have the conversation. What does the health system look like, what does the education system look like, what does the all-island economy look like.”

Ms O’Neill predicted there would be no change to the British government policy in Northern Ireland under either of the two remaining candidates to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. “Both are Tories,” she said.

She said that as of this week the British government’s legislation to override key parts of the Northern Ireland protocol had passed through the House of Commons. However, she said it could take some time for it to get through the House of Lords.

She said the DUP in Northern Ireland had “stomped their feet and said they are not going back into the Executive until protocol legislation goes through”.

However, she said that for the DUP “the real issue is the loss of the balance of power — the election result itself — but they are running out of road”.