Member's statement: Irish National Self-Determination
Member's statement by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 7 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Irish National Self-Determination
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5669578
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Andy Burnham is not the first British Prime Minister to come to Ireland and seek to impose a unionist veto on the right to self-determination. Hopefully, he will be the last. There has been speculation on whether his comments had more to do with a gaffe or lines that were drafted by Britain's colonial outpost here in the North, the NIO. Whatever the case, it is not in his gift to put on to or remove from the table the right to self-determination. Irish national self-determination is integral to the Good Friday Agreement. That, of course, conflicts with the unionist security and military mindset of the British state. However, the Good Friday Agreement is an international peace treaty, so it is not for Andy Burnham or for political unionism to undermine or unpick the terms of that agreement. His remarks have also coincided with the latest attempts, which we have just discussed, by political unionism to drag us all back into sectarian strife over Orange parades. All of that is about slowing down and attempting to block the momentum for change, but here is the thing: the Good Friday Agreement was not negotiated as a handbrake on continued progress in this society. It is a framework to manage change. The right to national self-determination and a unity referendum are absolute. Neither will be vetoed by either Andy Burnham or political unionism.
231 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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