FR SEAN MCMANUS’ VIDEO ON ANTI-CATHOLIC BRITISH CONSTITUTION–EIGHTH SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO AND TEXT

Posted By: November 28, 2020

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/KKt3zdurbVc

Hi, my name is Fr. Sean McManus, President of the Irish National Caucus in Washington, DC, and Chief Judge of the World Peace Prize.

 

And this is our seventh social-media video on England’s cruel and undemocratic Partition of Ireland, enacted on December 23, 1920. So, the 100th Anniversary of that criminal Act is fast approaching on December 23, 2020.

 

That is why our “One Ireland” internet Petition, now signed by over 17,000 dedicated people, is so important and timely. The Petition states:

 

“Ireland, too, has the right to be

One Nation under God, indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all.”

 

In the previous videos, I explained how in 1920 England — knowing that

after 751 years—it could no longer hold onto all of Ireland, carved out Six Counties from the rest of Ireland to set up a sectarian (meaning anti-Catholic) and racist  (meaning anti-Irish) Statelet to be called “ Northern Ireland,”  which artificially and through gerrymandering contained one million Protestants to a half-million Catholics.

 

This enabled England to maintain a continuing foothold on the island of Ireland—through Protestant/Unionist supremacy and anti-Catholic discrimination and oppression.

                                                               ***

What empowered England—apart from violence and brute force— to construct such a Statelet based on bigotry, State-sponsored sectarianism, and vicious anti-Catholicism?

The answer—shocking and appalling though it be—is the British Constitution.

 

I know that is hard for some to understand, so let me explain.

If you want to know the core values of a State, look at its Constitution, which declares the principles by which the State is to be governed.

 A Constitution is, therefore, of foundational importance and superior to all other laws of the State, as in the case of the written U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Can you imagine how awful it would be if there were a discriminatory and bigoted provision still within the American Constitution?

Imagine, for example, if there were a provision that prohibited a Black person being President of the United States and that also prohibited the President from marrying a Black person?

Can you imagine how that would have officially condoned, institutionalized, and promoted White racism? How it would have fanned the fires of hatred and contempt for Blacks? How deeply offensive it would be to Blacks?

Would America have gotten away with such Constitutional bigotry, sectarianism, and racism? No way, every country in the world would have been, rightly, condemning it.

How come, then, that the British constitution and “the Queen/King in Parliament” – have gotten away with constitutionally enshrined discrimination and sectarianism?

You see, since 1701 – for 319 years, for goodness sake – until this very moment, and ongoing, there is at the heart of the British constitution a law prohibiting a Catholic being king or queen of England.

The Act of Settlement of 1701 is an integral part of the unwritten, un-codified British constitution.

The 1701 Act of Settlement determines succession to the Throne of England, and is, therefore, a fundamental constitutional statute.

Indeed, it is the very foundation stone of the Royal Family… I repeat: It is the very foundation stone of the Royal Family.

The Act of Settlement contained provisions that decreed only a Protestant could succeed to the British throne and that if the monarch became a Catholic, or married a Catholic, he/she forfeits The Throne and “the people are absolved from their allegiance.”

(The ban on marrying a Catholic was repealed in February 2013 by the Succession to the Crown Act—in an attempt, I guess, to be seen as a bit more liberal. But the ban on the Monarch being a Catholic is still very much in place—as we speak).

This sectarian, anti-Catholic law at the heart of the British Constitution may not mean all that much to the average English person in the street. But it means a whole lot to the extreme Protestants/Unionists in Northern Ireland.

Time and time again, extreme Protestant/Unionist leaders in Northern Ireland have pointed out that their allegiance is not just to the British Crown but, also, to “Protestant succession to the British Throne.”

This is like American White Supremacists saying their allegiance would only be to the U.S. Constitution if it guaranteed their supremacy while ensuring that Blacks were deemed inferior.

To a major degree, Protestant bigotry and anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland are but a logical, inevitable outworking of the 1701 Act of Settlement, which must be seen as an utter disgrace to modern-day England.

For as long as anti-Catholic sectarianism is enshrined in the British constitution, extreme fundamentalist Protestants/Unionists in Northern Ireland will see it as their patriotic and religious duty to endorse and implement this Act, which means refusing to accept Catholics as equals, because the British constitution does not accept Catholics as equals.

Some may want to say, “…but the Queen is the head of the Church of England…,” as if that is an excuse for constitutionally enshrined bigotry and sectarianism. After all, that is why the Founding Fathers insisted on the separation of Church and State, which is enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

***

When the Irish National Caucus first started raising this issue in the early 1980s, we were a voice crying in the wilderness about England’s dirty little constitutional secret.

However, I am pleased that this issue was eventually taken up by major figures and media in Britain, too. Irish Americans were very supportive and very pleased we had educated them on the State-sponsored sectarianism at the heart of the British constitution.

 They had been totally unaware of it because the American media had never raised it.

 But you can be certain had there been a ban in the Irish constitution on a Protestant becoming the President of the Irish Republic the American media would have made a huge issue of it.

***

Thank you for watching. Please sign the “One Ireland” Petition.

It is posted on Change.org And on Facebook. And on IrishNationalCaucus.org

Let us build up The Beloved Community in all of Ireland—in unity and peace; in solidarity and equality: One Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. A Nation that respects Protestants, Catholics, and Dissenters, and people of all faiths and of no faith. That is how Ireland is meant to be.

God save Ireland.