SINN FÉIN IS running an advertisement in The New York Times newspaper today calling on the US Government to “hold the British Government fully accountable to its Good Friday Agreement commitments”. 

The half page ad states calls for support for a referendum on Irish unity with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaching.

The advert is also running in the Washington Post, the Irish Echo/ Voice and the US Examiner, while it will also run online in the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Twenty-five years ago the Good Friday Agreement changed the course of Irish history. A generation has grown up in peace. All made possible by the ongoing support of Irish America,” the advert reads. 

It goes on to state that the agreement also provides for unity referendums, but states that the British Government continues to “break its obligations”. 

Sinn Féin calls on the GFA to be “honoured in full”, calling on the US Government to hold the British authorities to account in this regard. 

“We call on the Irish Government to establish a Citizens Assembly and to plan, prepare and advocate for Irish unity,” the ad states. 

“The next chapter of Ireland’s history is being written. Together we can be the generation to build a new Ireland. A home for all. United. peaceful and prosperous.

“The future is in the hands of the people. It is time to agree on a date for the unity referendums. Let the people have their say,” the newspaper ad concludes. 

The ads follow on from a similar campaign last year which was also organised by Sinn Féin’s US fundraising arm.

Last year, when speaking about the US adverts the party runs every St Patrick’s Day week, Mary Lou McDonald defended the adverts stating that they are dealing with the reality that things have changed and are changing and there is a need to prepare for that change.

Criticising the adverts, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today that he didn’t think they are “helpful” at this time. 

“It’s a sensitive moment. We’re trying to get everyone on board for the Windsor Framework. And we shouldn’t forget what the Good Friday Agreement says — that there can only be a border poll when it’s clear that majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote for it. And that’s not clear at all at the moment.

“So I think we need to focus on what’s important in the meantime. Now what’s most important is getting everyone on board for the Windsor Framework.

“It’s important to get the Executive and Assembly up and running because what people in Northern Ireland want more than anything is to have the politicians they elected dealing with the everyday issues — because all the same problems that we experience in the Republic are being experienced in the North.

“But there’s no government in the North to do the people’s work.”

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has also criticised the adverts. Speaking in Washington today, he said: “Over the last few days in the United States, I have focused on growing our economy and boosting jobs in Northern Ireland and bringing stability.

“Therefore I find it incredible that in newspapers across the USA this morning there is a full page advert from Sinn Féin calling for a referendum on Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom,” he said.

Donaldson said that while he was using my time in the US “to impress upon decision-makers and investors the potential of Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin is drumming up hundreds of thousands of dollars for a divisive border poll campaign”.

“There is no evidence of growing support for Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom. Indeed, every major poll points in the opposite direction,” he continued.

“Northern Ireland’s future is with unionists and nationalists working together. A border poll would pitch unionists and nationalists against each other and lead to further divisions.

“There is no place for my unionism or my British identity in a Northern Ireland outside the United Kingdom therefore the message from Sinn Féin is not one of working together but rather one of ourselves alone.”