The GFA: ‘Power devolved is power retained’ – Enoch Powell

national | rights, freedoms and repression | other press

Sunday April 13, 2008 18:52

by G F Eh

éirígí analyses the Good Friday Agreement ten years on.

It is now ten years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement, or the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) as it is more commonly known. The political establishments in Ireland, Britain and further a field are busily lavishing praise on both those who negotiated it, and the political landscape created by it. It is difficult to find a mainstream news article or television piece, which goes beyond the rhetoric to expose the reality of the current situation.

All of this is, of course, to be expected at the denouement of a British counter-insurgency strategy initiated by General Frank Kitson in the mid 1970s and broadly adhered to by successive British political and military leaders ever since. The GFA and the institutions and context it created are simply complimentary additions to his original three-pronged strategy of ‘Ulsterisation’, ‘Criminalisation’ and ‘Normalisation’.

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Comments (3 of 3)

its all there

by seeker

Mon Apr 14, 2008 19:40

Kitsons theory was put into action no doubt about it it was initiated right after the introduction of Eire Nua proposals/programme by the Republican Movement..i too suggest anyone intrested read the book by the man himself and everything becomes clear from the removal of the Republican leadership of O'bradiagh down to the gfa. its all there. everything kitson said was done , if only more Republicans had give it a read there'd be no adams 'republicanism' today.

return to the fold.

Frank Kitson

by watcher

Mon Apr 14, 2008 19:15

Anyone who wants to understand British military strategy in Ireland should read Kitsons books.

# Gangs and Counter-gangs (1960), Barrie and Rockliff
# Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping (1971), Faber and Faber - reprint 1991 ISBN 0-571-16181-2

Great article

by GF eh? indeed!

Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:27

Just finished reading this piece. It is a very fresh and productive analysis of where the momentum for the GF eh? came from, where it has brought Irish Republicanism and the quest for an Irish Democracy, and most importantly, the reality that the whole GFA-underwritten political edifice (as craftily designed and executed as it may have been) is very open to collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions.

British political and military interference in ireland is a denial of democracy & the right to self-determination. It was before the GFA, remains so today, and will be the cause of renewed struggle in the occupied six-county area

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The GFA: ‘Power devolved is power retained’ – Enoch Powell

Comments (3 of 3)