THE POWER OF THE MAC BRIDE PRINCIPLES

Posted By: August 30, 2017

“Secret British Government papers released after an embargo of 30 years reveal again the power and effectiveness of our Mac Bride Principles campaign, as the BBC reports below.
 
The Irish National Caucus launched the Mac Bride Principles on November 5, 1984. Despite massive British Government opposition — on which, by their own admission, the British spent millions of dollars— the united Irish-American community flexed its muscle, showed its clout,  and beat back the British campaign.
 
The Mac Bride Principles have changed the nature of anti-Catholic discrimination in employment  because of the leverage of American companies and because our campaign exposed the systematic Government policy of anti-Catholic discrimination.”—Fr. Sean Mc Manus.

IRISH CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING

Distributed by Irish  National Caucus
 
“Several documents refer to the government’s difficulties combating the influential MacBride Principles, an anti-discrimination campaign in the USA that acted as guidelines for US companies doing business in Northern Ireland.”


 Mark Devenport. BBC-NI. Belfast.Friday, 25 August 2016


They cover events in the 1980s running up to 1989.

The files come from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).

They have been released under what is known as the 30/20 rule, which refers to the phased release of files that used to be kept secret for 30 years but will in future be released after 20 years.

Throughout this period the government struggled with how to address deprivation in areas like west Belfast, where Catholic male unemployment was running at 47%.

Dr. Phoenix came across one strongly worded document from April 1987 written by Sir Ken Bloomfield, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Difficulties

Sir Ken spoke of west Belfast’s “ghetto mentality” and alienation “from normal civilized behavior.”

He feared that if the government engaged in efforts to regenerate West Belfast, Unionists might respond “on the lines of “do you have to kill British soldiers… to benefit from a cornucopia of assistance?”

Despite these concerns, the government signed off on a major development programme for deprived areas in Belfast in 1988.

Several documents refer to the government’s difficulties combating the influential MacBride Principles, an anti-discrimination campaign in the USA that acted as guidelines for US companies doing business in Northern Ireland.

Secretary of State Peter Brooke wrote to cabinet colleagues that the implementation of what he called tough and radical new fair employment laws would be crucial to the success of the government’s Northern Ireland policies and to perceptions abroad, especially in the United States.