The Bill of Rights Petition  [February 1970]

[Editor’s Note: The front-page headline in the February 1970 edition of the “Irish Democrat” was “United campaign by Irish in Britain. . . Countrywide petition to start at once”, and the accompanying report, written by the paper’s editor C. Desmond Greaves, is given below. The organisations mentioned in the report were joined by a number of others in the months that followed. A number of Labour MPs signed this petition (See the November 1970 issue of the “Irish Democrat”). This issue of the paper also carried the full text of the Bill of Rights in proper parliamentary form, as drafted by its editor, Desmond Greaves. In April 1971 the annual conference of the National Council for Civil Liberties adopted a resolution from the Connolly Association, proposed by Sean Redmond, calling for an amendment to the Government of Ireland Act on the lines of the Bill of Rights. The petition to the Prime Minister was presented at 10 Downing Street on 5 May 1971, over a year from its launch, with some 80,000 signatures on it, collected by the different organisations involved. This was followed by a lobby of Parliament on the same day. The Bill of Rights as drafted by Greaves was published by H.M. Stationery Office following consultations with Arthur Latham MP.  On Wednesday 12 May 1971 the Bill of Rights was proposed in the House of Commons as a Private Member’s Bill by Arthur Latham and in the House of Lords by Fenner Brockway but was rejected by the Conservative majority in both houses. See the next item in this sequence of articles, taken from the June 1971 issue of the “Irish Democrat”, for details of the latter event.] 

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United campaign by Irish in Britain

Countrywide petition to start at once

At a historic meeting in London on January 11th representatives of Irish organisations in Britain formed a co-ordinating committee to launch an all- Britain petition demanding the establishment of democracy in the six counties of Northern Ireland.

A form of petition was drawn up and is published with explanations on the back page of this issue of the “Irish Democrat”.

The chair was taken by the editor of the “Irish Democrat”.

Those present included Mr Tom MacDowell of the Birmingham Campaign for Social Justice; Mr Frank Conway of the Coventry campaign; and Mr Michael Brennan, of Manchester. Mr Oliver O’Donoghue represented the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster, and Mr Sean Redmond the Connolly Association.

A number of English organisations who had been invited did not send representatives, but the Movement for Colonial Freedom subsequently requested to be included on the committee.

The Committee is to have no funds or executive powers, but to coordinate by interchange of information the independent campaigns of the organisations and thus preserve unity.

Text of petition for a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland

“We, the undersigned, residents of Great Britain, being over 18 years of age, hereby request the Prime Minister of Great Britain to secure the introduction in the Westminster Parliament of a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, which would so amend the Government of Ireland Act(1920) as to write into the constitution of Northern Ireland the guarantee of a standard of civil liberty not lower than that obtaining in the remainder of United Kingdom, and through the establishment of democracy make possible peaceful constitutional progress.” 

                Explanation of some points of drafting:

Residents:  Signatures will be collected of residents of Britain, irrespective of nationality, not only Irish.

Over eighteen:  Because these have votes. 

Prime Minister:  To the Prime Minister, because petitions to Parliament have to be drawn up in a special form with too much “humbly praying” in it.

Bill of Rights: This means legislation introduced in Parliament for securing democratic rights for the people in the Six Counties. It need not bear this name when introduced.

Amend 1920 Act:  This means that the Six Countries do not come back under direct English rule.

Constitution: Northern Ireland has not got a real constitution as only independent States have such. But Stormont publishes the Government of Ireland Act under the sub-title “Constitution of Northern Ireland”. It is this document we want altered.

Guarantee: The Government of Ireland Act (the “Constitution”) lays down what the Six County administration can do and cannot do. We want it laid down that they must not promote or allow discrimination, gerrymandering, police terror or any of the other things the various organisations standing for  civil rights object to.

The standard: The standard of civil liberties should be tied to that in England. Why? Not because the English standard is good enough, but because if England undertakes to rule the six Irish counties, that standard is the minimum we are entitled to demand. We demand it as a minimum.

Not lower: Makes it clear we mean a minimum.

Democracy: The use of this word shows that we look upon the establishment of elementary civil rights as a step in the direction of fuller democracy which will make possible progress towards a United Ireland. 

Peaceful: We want peaceful progress. We believe democracy gives the best chance of it. We cannot guarantee it, if the British Government is deaf to our requests. But that is what we want.