In 1998, the British Government presented a Treaty to the people of Ireland, with a promise of “peace” at its ratification.  As a prerequisite to this promised “peace”, the Irish people were asked to sign away Articles 2&3 of their Constitution;  the only constitutional claim Ireland had to the Six Counties of the North.  “Peace” was then imposed, but in word only.  Since the signing of this document, State-assisted murders in the nationalist communities have continued as ever before.  Firebombings, neighborhood clearances, and police brutality have not ceased.  The only palpable change in Ireland has been a further strengthening of British rule; with the revival of a puppet British Stormont parliament, and the further enforcement of the illegally-created border.

Voting statistics have often been quoted when the Treaty and its ratification in 1998 is discussed.  The facts bear scrutiny.  In the Republic of Ireland, only 56% of the electorate actually voted on the Treaty; and in the Occupied North, 81% turned out.  These statistics must be further considered in light of a mass media campaign sponsored by the British and Irish governments in the months and weeks preceding the vote, in which a "No" vote was equated in the public mind with a vote for violence.  Reasonable and thought-provoking discussion and debate was utterly quashed in a total media blackout of dissenting voices, such as those of Marian Price, Bernadette Sands, Ruairi O'Bradaigh, and others.  The results are further compromised by the known reality of vote fraud, particularly in the Occupied North, where identities are frequently and easily stolen.

In an act of outright deception, this document, which was purely and plainly designed to co-opt resistance and to strengthen Partition, was disingenuously titled the "Good Friday Agreement" -- with all of the connotations of rebirth the name would evoke, as well as the uniquely Irish meaning and symbolism attached to the Easter rebirth and the1916 Easter Week uprising.

Like another Treaty which was forced upon the Irish people in the intent of strengthening British rule, but under the guise of imposing "peace"; the 1921 Treaty with Britain was presented for a vote with no other option than that of "immediate and terrible war".  Should the Irish people refuse to ratify it, then British prime minister warned, the might of the British army would rain down upon them.  The treaty was signed, and there followed only years of more suffering, prolonged war, and a strengthened sectarian-based society in the North.