Frank McManus: Letter to Varadkar on Brexit “powerful sign of feeling from Nationalists”

Posted By: December 16, 2017

Rodney Edwards. Impartial Reporter. County Fermanagh.Thursday, December 14, 2017

FORMER Fermanagh-south Tyrone MP Frank McManus has praised a letter signed by more than 200 nationalists in Northern Ireland, including a number of prolific people based in Fermanagh, and sent to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar calling on him “to protect the rights of citizens” ahead of Brexit.
The signatories from sport, academia, business, community and arts have also expressed “growing concern at the ongoing political crises” at Stormont and say they have observed a “concerted undermining” of the political institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement and “a laissez-faire approach” adopted by the Irish and U.K governments in recent years. 
“The impending reality of Brexit now threatens to reinforce partition on this island and revisit a sense of abandonment as experienced by our parents and grandparents,” states the letter.
The letter has been signed by a number of people from Fermanagh, including Peter Quinn, Chris Conwell, Eamon Fitzpatrick, Martin Carey, Mary Connolly and Thomas McAloon from the business community as well as Father Joseph McVeigh, Oliver McCaffrey, Father Gary Donegan, Bernard O’Connor, Lorette Gleeson and journalist Martin Shannon.
Mr. McManus, who was elected in the 1970 general election as the Unity candidate for the area also signed the letter, and has described the initiative as “a powerful demonstration of the strength of feeling that exists within the northern nationalist community.”
“Irish citizens in the North have the right to expect the Taoiseach and the Dublin Government to stand up for their entitlements. There is no justifiable reason why citizens here should be denied access to the same rights that exist elsewhere on this island,” he said.
The letter, states, Mr. McManus is “demanding equal treatment” and “an end to the disrespect and denigration of Irishness that we have witnessed over recent years.”
“We want local institutions back in place but they must be based on proper power-sharing and equality. The nationalist community is stronger and more confident than it has ever been and when you have such a vibrant community in place, there is no way they will accept second-class treatment of any kind,” he said, in a statement on Tuesday.