A key negotiator in the Good Friday Agreement has said that US President Biden is risking “civil unrest” and “a return to sectarian strife” in Northern Ireland by siding with the EU in the Brexit border dispute.
The remarks were made in a letter to the White House penned by David Trimble, who was one of the architects of the Good Friday peace deal.
“I wish to express my concern about the way in which the [Good Friday] Agreement is being undermined by the Northern Ireland Protocol, and in particular the role which your administration has played in contributing to the damage being caused,” wrote Trimble, a former First Minister of Northern Ireland.
“You are on record as saying that the primary aim of your administration is to defend and support the Belfast Agreement, when in fact defending the Northern Ireland Protocol does the exact opposite and damages community relations within NI, undermining the good work which John Hume and myself achieved at great personal sacrifice,” Trimble said admonishingly of the US president.
“I know you have a genuine interest in Ireland and its future, but would appeal to you to consider the way in which the Northern Ireland Protocol has undermined the peace process. Accept that it is not good economically or politically for either NI or the Irish Republic.”
Trimble, who won the Nobel Peace Prize along with the late John Hume for their work on the GFA, said that the protocol was “damaging the Northern Ireland economy,” and accused Biden of supporting a protocol that “risks a return to sectarian strife.”
“The Northern Ireland Protocol has not only subverted the main safeguards within the Belfast Agreement causing civil unrest and political uncertainty, it is also damaging the Northern Ireland economy disrupting supply chains, inflating prices and diverting trade from our main market in Great Britain.
“The result [of the Northern Ireland Protocol] has been political unrest and violence, and threats of further violence on our streets because the political promises of the Belfast Agreement have been flippantly dismissed.”
Trimble went on: “At the heart of the Belfast Agreement is consent, meaning that there can be no change to the constitutional position of NI as part of the UK without the agreement of a majority of the people of the country.
“But the Northern Ireland Protocol, by giving the EU powers over the movement of goods into and out of the Province, has torpedoed the ‘consent’ principle and risks a return to sectarian strife.”
Trimble added that the protocol had, in his view, “totally destroyed” the consent principle, “to the detriment of the Unionist community.”