SPEAKER WARNS OF BREXIT HARM
TO IRELAND AND US
Cranston, RI December 7 The UK exit from the European Union (Brexit) is sure to do economic harm to Ireland and damage America’s reputation when British Prime Minister May seeks a bail-out from the Brexit folly. The Secretary of the American Brexit Committee*, Michael Cummings, spoke at the Irish Ceilihde Club in Cranston Friday night about the fallout of various Brexit options. A likely result of Brexit is the US being played for British trade deals and failing to confront Britain’s undermining of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement (GFA), a singular foreign policy success of three Presidents.
“No matter who is doing the calculating,” stated Cummings, “Ireland’s economy will slow dramatically with particular negative impacts on the agriculture and export/import sectors. Equally worrisome is the uncertainty of the British border in Ireland being posted with Army, police and Customs facilities and its costs and political threats to the peace process.”
Jim McGetrick of Cranston and a member of the Committee indicated: “The British are undermining key justice provisions of the 1998 Agreement. These actions include obstruction of the investigations of the 1974 bombing of Dublin-Monaghan and the 1989 murder of attorney Patrick Finucane. Congress should conduct hearings on those and other human rights failures before cutting sweetheart deals to bail out the British.”
Added Cummings: “Another example of the obstruction efforts is the UK using OUR former CIA Director and former General David Petraeus to assert that the GFA and its legacy investigations under the European Convention of Human Rights could put soldiers at risk and have a chilling effect on recruitment and morale. He was duped into supporting Britain’s attempt to grant amnesty to soldiers who killed civilians in NI. Is the former Chief of Intelligence unaware that such a unilateral act would be illegal under the GFA?
Attorney John Corcoran of Philadelphia and Chairman of the Committee concluded: “President Trump has indicated he will give the UK a great trade. He doesn’t seem to care about the Brexit harm to Ireland or the GFA. We simply ask that Congress, and particularly the House Ways and Means Committee**, defer voting on such trade deals until these issues can be explored. The President has been subject to much criticism recently for bowing to the Saudi monarchy in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Why bow to another monarchy that wants us to ignore the murders of Finucane and hundreds of others by packaging a Brexit bailout for a country with which we already have a trade surplus? “
*The American Brexit Committee consists of 100 Irish-American leaders and activists (see website).
**Representative Dave Cicciline is currently a member of the House Ways &Means Committee
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