YouSaid · the spoken record

Hillery

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS HILLERY

lines on the record: 106
first: 1969-09-24
most recent: 1972-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It will act, by every constitutional means open to it, to work towards a reasoned political settlement, because it believes such a settlement would be clearly in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland, of both the British and Irish Governments, and of all the people of both islands.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“We consider that a stable and lasting settlement in Ireland on the basis I have outlined is in the real interest of both, and we believe and hope that the British Government will come to see this, if indeed it has not begun to do so already. 88. Over the past year there have been exchanges of view between the British and Irish Governments on the mutual problem of Northern Ireland. The situation there and the approach to it I have outlined require deep involvement by both Governments. 89. The Irish Government, for its part, is fully prepared to play a constructive role in reaching a just and lasting settlement of this last difficult problem in Anglo-Irish relations.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“So we must try to achieve, by agreement, new political institutions in Ireland which do not divide its communities or subordinate one to another, but which are responsive to all elements of its population and their diversity of outlook and tradition. A beginning must be made now which will promote and encourage progress in the right direction, but it would be unwise to demand absolutes, or to set a rigid time-table. 87. In speaking to the General Assembly as I have done on tills issue, which deeply troubles us in Ireland, I should like to emphasize that my Government does not consider that the interests of the national majority in Ireland are in any way at variance with the real, long-term interests of the Unionist community. Nor are the interests of the Irish people in conflict with those of the British people.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“It is not enough simply to speak of this as a "legitimate aspiration", or to suggest that reconciliation, now, is a prerequisite to any progress towards this aim. If a real and lasting process of reconciliation is to begin now, there must be courageous and far-sighted policy decisions aimed at such a settlement, and there must be provision for movement towards it as the opportunities become available. 86. In brief, the aim must be not merely to hope for but to encourage actively, by every available political means, progress towards a new Ireland. It would clearly be wrong to repeat on a larger scale in the island as a whole a pattern which has already proved unstable in the North.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“This administration must provide for an equitable division of political power between the elected representatives of the communities in the area, and there must be no possibility of the abuse of security powers in the interests of one community. Beyond this, there must be recognition of, and a real political outlet for, the legitimate aspirations of the non-Unionist community. 85. Interim measures can allow a process of reconciliation to begin: membership by Britain and both parts of Ireland in the European Community will undoubtedly help. But the process of reconciliation will advance only if there is an acceptance of the need to promote and work positively towards a stable and lasting settlement on a new basis in Ireland.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“The deepest concerns of the Unionist community in Ireland will have to be, and can be, met by an eventual accommodation with the national majority by negotiation and on terms acceptable to both. And the deepest concerns and desires of the Unionist community in Ireland cannot be met any other way-certainly not by coercion or by the inter-communal violence who threatens all Irishmen with common ruin. 83. It is evident that there can be no instant solution to the present difficulties. Short-term measures alone, based on a simple balance of forces within the area, will not be enough. 84. There is general acceptance at present of the need to provide a new framework for administration in the North of Ireland.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“But what Britain has to face is that the very structure of Northern Ireland the unworkable attempt to create an area to deal separately with unionism in Ireland-is the fundamental difficulty and that there is no way in which the pieces can be put together again so as to have permanent stability within a purely Northern Ireland setting. If a successful political structure is to be built, it must be one which is open to, and capable of, operating in a wider context, that of Ireland as a whole. 82. But the conflict of wills must also be faced. Britain and Ireland together with the divided communities in the North will have to be involved in the resolution of that conflict.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Attempts at piecemeal reform and the violent refusal of the more reactionary Unionists to accept them brought no stability and the situation grew worse. 81. Moreover the attempts at conciliation were accompanied by efforts to coerce the minority, which simply increased their alienation, and generated tolerance or support for violent tactics, and this in turn left the two communities in the North of Ireland even further divided than before. In short, these attempts to resolve the conflict of wills failed. Six months ago, in March, in the face of persistent violence and instability, Britain took the more drastic step of suspending the structures of dominance within the area by proroguing the Northern Parliament in an effort to reassemble the shattered pieces of the structure in a more equitable and stable way.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“And as I have said, the central dilemma of the North lies not only in a conflict of wills, but in the fact that this conflict of wills can never be resolved within the existing structure of Northern Ireland. A permanent solution therefore can only be found, in the view of my delegation, through a genuine attempt both to resolve the conflict of wills and to replace the existing structure. 80. To date, all the attempts by Britain and by successive Belfast administrations to bring about consensus government in Northern Ireland through reform have focused on only one element of the dilemma. In 1969 when the abuses which the divisions within the area had made virtually inevitable came to world attention Britain intervened to see to the reform of these abuses.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“In the demographic and political circumstances of Ireland as a whole in 1920, when Northern Ireland was established, unionism could not-and cannot today-exist on its own. A purely Unionist area could not, and cannot, be established as viable. To cater for unionism therefore required the creation of an area divided into two communities with assured dominance for one. The structure of Northern Ireland, in consequences, had political instability built into it from the beginning. As a solution for the Anglo-Irish problem it was, in the words of my Prime Minister, "a recipe for slow disaster". 79. A permanent peace and genuine democracy cannot be established until all the elements of the dilemma in Northern Ireland are squarely faced and dealt with together.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“These events have tended to reduce the problem there more and more to its most basic elements. The problem derives essentially from a conflict of political wills and is aggravated by a defective political structure. 77. The conflict of wills is that between Unionism and anti-Unionism, between those who seek to perpetuate a nakedly sectarian state in Northern Ireland-while pro-testing their loyalty and allegiance to Britain and British democracy-and those who are struggling for basic civil rights and substantial recognition of the legitimacy of their allegiance to the ideal of a united Ireland. 78. Northern Ireland was created as a political entity in order to provide an area in which to cater separately for unionism in Ireland.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Speaking in the context of Europe about East-West relations, he said: "We must face the facts even when they are unpleasant. Since the last World War the confrontation over the years between the Warsaw Pact countries and those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization led to an almost total loss of confidence. Western Europe had no desire for this, but the fact is that neighborliness, once confidence is broken, cannot be recreated in a day." [2042nd meeting, para. 107.] 76. These remarks are, I feel, cogent in another context, that of Northern Ireland, and relevant to another relationship, that of my country and Great Britain. For the relationship between Britain and Ireland could not escape the influence of events in Northern Ireland over the past three or four years.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Since I last addressed this Assembly the Irish people have expressed their overwhelming will to participate fully in the European Economic Community, which in a few months' time, with the accession of new member States, will group together some 250 million people. Ireland will bring its own heritage to this community of complementary cultures-which in Europe is endeavoring to build unity in diversity and, through co-operation and consensus, to guarantee to all our children that birthright of peace, of physical security, of material prosperity and of moral enrichment which should and can be the right of all mankind. 75. One paragraph in the speech made in this general debate by the United Kingdom Secretary of State struck me as being especially arresting.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Just as the adoption of the United Nations Charter laid the foundation of a new world structure and order, the Treaty of Rome laid the foundations of a new regional structure and order in which the peoples of Europe would assume obligations which bound them even more closely and committed them to work out together the common destiny to which both geography and history summoned them. In the years since 1957, when the Treaty of Rome was signed, the European Economic Community has undergone a process of evolution and development-which has been sometimes painful and often difficult but which, we are confident, is now about to repay the work, the tenacity and the vision of those men who labored to translate the ideal of European economic and political unity into a reality. 74.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“The tasks of the United Nations in this regard and its responsibility to succeeding generations are hardly less arduous and grave than those which it has assumed in its primary purpose of saving our children from the scourge of war. 72. Twice in this century the clash of opposing national wills brought war to Europe. And the tragic lesson which war sometimes teaches and out of which the United Nations was born has a crucial relevance for Europeans. Those who had endured those terrible years had also reaped a new wisdom. The leaders of Europe realized that, if the continent was to avoid a further and perhaps final catastrophe, a profound transformation of European relations was necessary. National economic and political rivalries and dissension had to be replaced by co-operation and consensus. 73.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Resources have been depleted by rapacious exploitation; other resources have been destroyed by pollution and industrial waste; and many of the great cities of our civilization have been made barbarous by the refuse of mindless consumerism and planned obsolescence. 71. The recent success of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held at Stockholm in June, is therefore a heartening sign. It is evidence of a growing realization of the gravity and complexity of the problems which world industrialization and urbanization have created and of a willingness to develop through the United Nations system a means of regulating growth and achieving and maintaining a proper equilibrium between the exploitation and conservation of the earth's resources.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“The interplay of our will to act and the structures through which we can act in the political and economic spheres is also manifest in the complex relations between man in general and the earth which we all inhabit. There has been a growing realization in recent years of the importance of achieving a saner and more balanced view of the relations between man and the human environment. Piecemeal and uncoordinated development of industry, overpopulation, urbanization and rural depopulation, we now realize, can disturb, and have disturbed, the delicate balance between man and his ecological habitat.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“The problems with which UNCTAD has to deal are numerous, delicate and difficult. They directly affect the well-being and livelihood of all the peoples of the world. The relatively disappointing results of the third session of UNCTAD, which took place some months ago in Chile, should not, therefore, be allowed to weaken our determination to persevere. The session should not be judged solely in the light of its immediate or concrete results. It served to define more clearly the areas in which our efforts must be concentrated and has made the international community both more aware of what needs to be done and more alive to the need to do it. It also demonstrated that, while the many problems involved are interrelated, the best hope of success lies in attacking them individually rather than in trying to solve them all simultaneously. 70.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Ireland welcomes these developments, as we welcome, too, the movement towards full universality in this Organization, which gained enormous momentum last year when the People's Republic of China took its place among us. My delegation believes that Bangladesh should be a Member of the United Nations. For dialog detente and universality must surely serve to strengthen the structure of the United Nations and strengthen both the confidence of the peoples in the Organization and their will to make it work. 68. The difficulties confronting national and international society are frequently more acute and more complex in the economic area. The United Nations, through UNCTAD, is engaged in what the distinguished Foreign Minister of France rightly called a "great movement of solidarity" [2041st meeting, para. 73]. 69.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“We have always held that the establishment of a peace-keeping operation is primarily a matter for the Security Council, but we have contended equally that if the Council cannot take that step the residual authority of the Assembly should be capable of being invoked. Moreover, once an operation has been mounted, it is vital that its successful completion should not be jeopardized through the inadequacy of the method of financing it. 67. Many previous speakers have referred to recent encouraging and hopeful developments in international and political relations the movement towards detente and dialog between the great Powers and between nations and States which are divided or dismembered by ideology or the fortunes of war.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“66. This is the eighth regular session in which our agenda includes as an item "Comprehensive review of the whole question of peace-keeping operations in all their aspects" [item 41]. It is well known that the Irish delegation has long stressed the importance of this item, for it is obvious that situations can arise, and quite unexpectedly, in which the peace-keeping role of the international community is the most effective means of containing potentially explosive conflicts. Ireland consequently has contended that it is essential that the United Nations evolve a system, within the existing structure, by which a peace-keeping operation can be mounted at short notice and can be effectively pursued until it has achieved its purpose.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“It is the will and commitment to make it work that must be continually reinforced. 65. The central political function of the United Nations, as the Secretary-General has recalled, is, in the words of the preamble to the Charter, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war". We can do this by making the Organization an instrument of collective security. Although mankind has been spared the horror of a third world war, nevertheless we are all aware that the United Nations has been unable to act to end a series of bitter and long-drawn- out localized conflicts. However, its failure in this regard is not due to the weakness of the Organization itself but manifestly to the unwillingness of the parties to those conflicts to make use of the instruments of peace-making and peace-keeping which the United Nations has at its disposal.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“As a structure, the United Nations, the Secretary-General reminds us in the introduction to his report on the work of the Organization, is "not an independent sovereign organization but an association of sovereign Governments, and ... its failures are also their failures". [A/8701/Add.l, p. 2.] 64. The ability of the Organization to succeed is primarily dependent on the will of its Members. I believe that, if one examines the Organization's work and achievements to date and, more importantly, its capacity to meet the needs of the contemporary international society, one must conclude that as a structure, while some adaptations and adjustments could profitably be undertaken, the United Nations remains adequate for the tasks which it has assumed. It is not the structure which is lacking.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Men of vision and goodwill felt that the old inter-national order of sovereign, independent States which had characterized the nineteenth century was no longer adequate. The social, economic and political realities of the modern world require that we achieve a saner and more balanced view of our relations with our neighbors, within national societies, and between nation and nation, and indeed a saner and more balanced relationship between man in general and the earth which we all inhabit. 63. To meet our individual and collective purposes we are constantly adapting structures and institutions or developing new ones. If the structures fail the fault may lie not in the institution itself but in the will of the national or the international community to make it work.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“We sincerely hope that the international community will heed his advice and will take advantage of the services which he, as depositary of important responsibilities under the Charter and ideally placed to play a detached role, is so well qualified to render. My delegation much appreciates his offer to help in any way possible in connexion with the North of Ireland. 61. When I spoke in this Assembly at the twenty-sixth session [1956th meeting] I said that we in Ireland believed that political and moral power grew not out of the barrel of a gun but out of the will of people to act together so as to translate values into facts. The United Nations was established for this purpose. 62.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Naturally his long experience in the field of international affairs, both as representative of his country at the United Nations and elsewhere and as Foreign Minister, eminently fitted him to undertake the onerous duties of that office. In the intervening months we have admired the initiative and drive he has shown since assuming those functions. 60. We have in particular been gratified by the Secretary- General's determination to use the powers conferred on him by Article 99 of the Charter to call attention to serious situations and by the readiness he has shown to make himself available to help in resolving such situations.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“These are sentiments which are fully reciprocated by the Irish people. Consequently my delegation is most gratified that the presidency of the Assembly should be assumed by Poland, and we are particularly happy that this high office should devolve on a personality of your experience and competence. The proceedings over the past three weeks have demonstrated that you will discharge your functions in a manner calculated to promote the purposes and principles of the United Nations and to enhance the standing of the Organization. 59. I should like, too, to say how much my delegation welcomed the election last December of Mr. Waldheim to fill the office of Secretary-General.”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“Mr. President, I wish to convey to you the very warm congratulations of the Irish delegation on your election as President of the twenty- seventh session of the General Assembly. 58. In your inaugural address you stated that your country owes its existence, its freedom, its independence and its present dynamic development to great effort on the part of its people but also to tremendous sacrifices'" [2032nd meeting, para. 55]. Here I am reminded of an observation made by the Polish representative in the Security Council on 29 August 1946 in connexion with our application for admission to the United Nations. On that occasion Dr. Lange said that .. the people of Poland have always, throughout the whole history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, had a great sympathy and feeling of great and deep community with the people of Ireland".”
1972-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 27 (1972)
“It is essential that through dialog a structure will be created in the North of Ireland which will permit the minority there to play an effective role in the community and permit them likewise to realize their passionate aspiration for national unity. If stability and peace are to return to Northern Ireland, they will only return when an administrative structure which establishes justice is created there. Such a structure is the indispensable foundation on which to build the national consensus which will reunify Ireland and finally guarantee to Irishmen, and to all the children of the nation, full political and civil freedom so that together we can face the future enriched by, and cherishing, car several traditions.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“The history of almost every country has only too many examples of violence doing what statesmanship had neglected to do. A French writer has said that we all have sufficient fortitude to bear the misfortune of others. Complacency, too, can be the enemy of justice. 166. Great Britain is rightly proud of its people's profound regard for democracy and fair play. And indeed, even when we were engaged in our bitterest struggles with British Governments, there was never lack of voices raised in Britain on our side. Many British statesmen have pleaded eloquently for Ireland. And the voice of the plain-working English men and women has always been raised against policies of their Governments which, whatever their specious justification, were wrong and unjust. 167.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“From a peace-keeping force they have become, in the eyes of the minority, a coercive instrument to prop up the Northern regime. It is in these events that we can find the causes of the present violence and through understanding them endeavor to bring about the changes which will bring the peace and stability we all long for to the suffering people of Ireland. 165. The Foreign Secretary o; the United Kingdom has rightly said: "Each of us has the means to redress legitimate grievances within our own community; that is whaA gives us the right to insist that violence within the borders of our State shall not be used" [ibid., para. 85]. I would say that it is when we fail to use that means to redress legitimate grievances that violence will appear, to demand redress.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Chichester-Clark from 10 Downing Street on 19 August 1969. Lord Caradon read the terms of that declaration into the record of the Security Council on the following day, at its 1503rd meeting, and he spoke of the determination of his Government to pursue relentlessly the program outlined in the declaration. He also said that the British troops which had been sent to the North were a peace* keeping force, and that no better peace-keeping force could be there. I ventured the opinion, on the same occasion, that the use of British troops alone was unacceptable and that in the long run they would prove to be more a hindrance than a help. Events have vindicated my opinion. British troops have been used in one-sided arms searches and in carrying out a policy of mass arrests and internment.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“And the Belfast regime's failures in this regard are there for all to see. 163. My Government deplores the use of violence as a means of solving political problems and more specifically we deplore the use of violence as a means of solving the problem in the North of Ireland. We in no way whatever condone the use of violence there by either side. 164. But in order to end the present violence we must try to understand and eliminate its causes. It seems obvious to us that the current campaign of violence has as its cause the growing frustration of the minority in the North at the failure of the reform program to afford them substantial redress. The promise of redress was set out in the declaration on human rights and absolute equality of treatment issued jointly by Mr. Harold Wilson and Mr.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Rather would I invert the order of Sir Alec Douglas-Home's observation that in Northern Ireland: "... a terrifying manifestation of the old danger of religious confrontation has reappeared, complicated in this case by other political and social problems" [ibid., para, 82]. In my view, what we have there is a confrontation because of political and social problems, complicated by the exploitation of a religious factor. Confrontation, particularly within national societies, is not simply a manifestation of anarchic forces at work, still less the result of doctrinal differences. It is much more likely to arise when the existing political or administrative structure fails to provide the means of effective democratic participation by a large section of the community or frustrates their demands for justice and equality of treatment.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“However, dialog, if it is to be worthwhile, must not solely create an impression that something is being done to improve matters but must give positive results. The resolution of political problems by dialog demands a dispassionate diagnosis of the roots of the problem. And a reiteration of received ideas is a poor substitute for objective analysis. 162. In this connexion I must say that my delegation would find difficulty in accepting the Foreign Secretary's opening remarks on the situation in the North of Ireland. He is, of course, quite right in speaking of the existence of a highly dangerous situation there, but it would not be correct to suggest that this arises solely or mainly from a confrontation stemming from religious differences.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Practical political steps are necessary so as to guarantee to the minority in the North of Ireland an effective exercise of their political will and an effective role in the collective life, both of Northern Ireland and of Ireland as a whole. 161. Several speakers have referred to the usefulness of a dialog in resolving political problems. The United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in his statement on 29 September [1944th meeting] concerning the risk of confrontation, laid stress on dialog as a principal means of preventing the deterioration of dangerous situations. My delegation shares this view and, as the representatives are aware, we are actively engaged on dialog on this issue.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“We are determined to build this society peacefully, both because we would otherwise negate our achievements since independence and because we thereby conform strictly to the letter and spirit of the Charter which enjoins us "to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors". 160. The establishment of justice and the consolidation of peace in the North of Ireland fall now within the power and responsibility of another Member State: the United Kingdom. We do not doubt its consent to these aspirations. But consent to values demands commitment, and promise demands performance.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“The Charter prescribes recourse exclusively to peaceful means for the settlement of any dispute between Member States, and those are, we believe, the means by which justice in Northern Ireland must be sought. But justice there is the essential condition for the social and economic progress of the area as, indeed, for the social and economic progress of Europe and of the international community as a whole. 159. My Government is firmly committed to a policy of peace and justice in Ireland, which we regard as the indispensable foundation for progress and the promotion of a national society informed by the purposes and principles of the Charter.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“And if we must keep faith with the dead, how much more are we obliged to keep faith with the living, and ensure that justice is accorded to the minority in the North of Ireland now? But the means by which justice for the minority in the North is secured must not render the achievement nugatory. The tragic history of past and present conflict, both national and international, has taught us that the means used to achieve political goals are often of greater relevance to the end result than the intended goals themselves, however just they may be. It is thus vital to eschew those means which would bring even greater tragedy to Ireland. 158.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Michael Stewart, the former Foreign-Secretary of the United Kingdom, whose task it was to deal with this matter in 1969 when it came before the United Nations, said two weeks ago in the United Kingdom Parliament that if the situation was to be sorted out, the proposition had to be accepted that "the whole island of Ireland has to be a single Republic"; and he said that internment, the impossible position of British troops and the employment of terrorist methods, all arise from the fact that "we are trying to maintain a connexion which cannot be maintained". 157. In our commitment to national reunification we are sustained by the recollection of those men and women, from north and south, who over the centuries suffered and died in the cause of justice for Ireland.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“On the contrary, we are convinced that political power, and the moral power of a community its ability to transform values into facts-lies in the capacity of people to act together in concert. We trust that in time the people of Ireland, of all Ireland, will join together in the exercise of a collective political will to translate into living and permanent realities our aspirations for peace, justice and progress, principles which the twenty-fifth session of this Assembly adopted as its motto, since they are the essential and interdependent elements of a decent international order. 156. Our conviction that the achievement of justice and stability lies essentially in national unity has secure growing recognition not only in Ireland. Mr.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Demands for elementary civil rights were met with official repression, which led in turn to an increasing resort to violent means and finally to the suspension of habeas corpus, the withdrawal of the opposition from Parliament, mass arrests and detention without trial and the virtual collapse of civil order in the North. 155 . It is natural that my delegation should bring to the attention of the international community the plight of the minority in Northern Ireland. We have done so with restraint, both in this Assembly and in the Security Council. It is not our purpose to try to coerce the Unionist community in the North of Ireland into a united Ireland. We do not believe that power, political or, above all, moral, grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“The Northern Protestant worker was reminded, whenever there seemed a danger that he would pursue the real interests of his class or social group, that any deviation of that kind would result in the dissolution of the Northern Administration and the consequent loss of his caste privileges and the material advantages which he enjoyed over his Catholic neighbor. 154. Thus, the political life of the North was distorted, the norms of British democracy, which the regime pretended to uphold, were flouted, and the British parliamentary structure, which the Stormont system was supposed to emulate, was perverted into a caricature and farce. The world has witnessed the tragic cycle of events in Northern Ireland over the past three years.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“If the Northern Administration should appear to falter in what the reactionaries consider is the duty of the Administration to maintain Northern Ireland as a sectarian State, they threaten in turn to withdraw their consent from the regime and thereby bring it either to heel or to defeat. 152. The contradictions and divisions in Northern society which reflected the divisions in Irish society as a whole when our country was divided in 1920 were not resolved by partition; they were compressed, exacerbated and intensified. Because of the political and demographic structure of Northern Ireland, discrimination against and oppression of the minority became not merely a choice for those who held power but, in their eyes, an absolute necessity. 153. To maintain its grip on the Northern masses, the Unionist regime made its supporters into a caste.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“There is ample evidence-from the dispassionate investigations of the political scientist, from the passionate testimony of the petrol bomb, mass civil disobedience by the minority, and the threat of violent reaction from Orange extremists and armed militia-that the Northern regime has not achieved that consent to its democratic legitimacy which is the hallmark of a just and stable society. 151. The non-Unionists repudiate a regime which oppresses them and denies their national aspirations. The reactionary elements in the Unionist community and the Orange Order regard themselves, for their part, as the final source of the regime's authority.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“It is a society which has oppressed the economically and politically deprived and, worse, which has sought to justify that oppression. For 50 years, every attempt by the minority to assert its human dignity and to obtain elementary civil rights was characterized by the Northern regime as an attempt to overthrow the Northern State. Justice, indeed, was a fugitive from the camp of that victory. 150. But even a regime whose origins are dishonorable may validate itself in time and may secure a measure of consent or reluctant assent to its authority. A de facto regime which does not legitimate itself is doomed.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“The Northern Unionists, paradoxically, had threatened to fight Great Britain in order to remain within the British Empire and outside an independent Ireland. "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right" was their motto. But were they right? Has the society which evolved in Northern Ireland vindicated the forceful resistance of the Northern Unionists to the democratic wishes of the masses of the Irish people? 149. We must measure the value of a society, not by the mottoes and slogans inscribed on the walls of its temples or proclaimed in its constitution and laws; these are usually impeccable. The true measure of a society or a political system is the actual relations in that society between man and man and between community and community. And by this standard of measurement Northern Ireland has been a tragic failure.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“We know that there is no humiliation in defeat itself but, rather, in the acceptance of defeat. But we equally know that too often -in the words of Simone Weil "Justice is a fugitive from the camp of victory". When Ireland was divided in 1920-and that division was reinforced by an unequal treaty in 1921-those who had struggled for national independence, for justice and for peace with justice were, in a sense, defeated. But those who succeeded in dividing Ireland, and into whose hands Britain delivered the six Counties of the North, thereby assumed a grave responsibility. 148. The establishment of the Northern Ireland Administration was a victory for those who were opposed to Irish independence and who wished to remain part of the British Empire-then still a vigorous and powerful figure on the international scene.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“The problem of my country may seem small compared with those of other Member countries, but perhaps they may have a moral for the more terrible problems. We have tried to be a loyal Member of the United Nations; we have tried to work in harmony with others for peace. The violence and bloodshed in Ireland are not of our seeking or our making, and we hope that the conscience of mankind as here represented will help to end it. For human misery, wherever it exists, affects us all. 146. The occupation of Ireland in recent centuries was dictated by what were felt to be the strategic needs of a powerful neighbor which was constantly embroiled in war wife oilier neighbors. In such quarrels the rights of small nations have never been much regarded. 147. like many others here, we Irish are no strangers to defeat.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)
“Sterile arguments about the past are of no service to humanity; and they certainly do nothing to solve the very grave over-all financial position of the Organization which, as the Secretary-General has warned [A/8401j Add J, para, 121], and you, Mr, President, recalled on 21 September [1934th meeting], now faces the prospect of imminent bankruptcy. 144. Ireland has been proud to provide soldiers for United Nations peace-keeping and observer missions. Irish soldiers have died under the United Nations flag. It is with regret, then, that I must refer to the fact that the Irish Government and the Irish people themselves have had, in the last two years, to face the reality of escalating violence and bloodshed in Ireland itself, though in that part of Ireland over which the United Kingdom retains control. 145.”
1971-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 26 (1971)