[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 195 (Tuesday, December 11, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H10033-H10034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PROTECT GOOD FRIDAY PEACE ACCORDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, one of the dominant news 
stories on both sides of the Atlantic was the announcement by British 
Prime Minister Theresa May that she was postponing a much-anticipated 
vote on accepting a preliminary Brexit package that had been negotiated 
with the European Union. Her decision, unfortunately, continues the 
turmoil in her own party and Parliament at large about how to implement 
a referendum that was narrowly passed instructing her government to 
leave the European Union that the United Kingdom joined 45 years ago, 
in 1973.
  As a Member of the U.S. Congress that is also divided and struggling 
with its own ability to execute basic functions, I have a great deal of 
empathy, as I am sure many of my colleagues do, with the frustration 
that members of Parliament and the British public are feeling today.
  Fundamentally, of course, this is a domestic question for Parliament, 
and it would be presumptuous for elected officials from the outside to 
weigh in on the agreement's proposals regarding residency, immigration, 
visa requirements, and how healthcare coverage will be coordinated if 
and when the U.K. exits the European Union. However, there is one 
issue, in which myself and many of my colleagues from

[[Page H10034]]

the U.S. have a very keen interest, and I raise it today in a friendly 
but firm voice. That is, namely, the status of Northern Ireland under 
the Good Friday peace accords.
  Unfortunately, Mrs. May, in her announcement yesterday, indicated 
that that was the one issue, that her efforts to protect the Good 
Friday peace accords were going to be renegotiated and possibly 
dismantled.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish to remind the House that the Good Friday peace 
accords, which were signed 20 years ago last April 10, have the active 
and supportive involvement of the U.S. Government and the U.S. 
Congress.
  The Clinton administration in the 1990s, at the invitation of the 
Irish and British Governments, named former U.S. Senator George 
Mitchell as Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, and he chaired the all-
party peace negotiation over a number of years, which led to the Good 
Friday peace accords. His work, along with his successor, Richard 
Haass, was crucial to the success of the talks and the execution of the 
agreement.
  In the U.S. Congress, members of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, 
including our colleague Richard Neal of Springfield, Massachusetts, 
were frequent visitors and participants during the negotiations.
  To this day, Mr. Neal and bipartisan members of the Friends of 
Ireland Caucus, of which I am a member, continue to monitor the 
progress and success of the Good Friday peace accords and are deeply, 
deeply concerned that Brexit, if it reinstates a hard border on the 
island of Ireland, will undo one of the great diplomatic successes of 
our time.
  Mr. Speaker, the successful results of the peace agreement cannot be 
denied. During The Troubles, which preceded the accords, more than 
3,600 residents of the six counties of the North lost their lives due 
to sectarian violence and 763 servicemembers of the British Government 
and the Northern Irish Government lost their lives. To put that in 
perspective, 464 U.K. troops have lost their lives in the long war in 
Afghanistan. The economic results have also been undeniable.
  Mr. Speaker, I have a little bit of experience because in 1973 and 
1974, I was a student in England and spent the Christmas break in 
Northern Ireland visiting a fellow student in the town of Enniskillen. 
I took the train from Dublin to Belfast. In the border town o Dundalk, 
where I was asleep, I was awoken by a British soldier heavily armed, 
poking me to look at my backpack.

  While we visited in Enniskillen, there was a bombing in the village. 
Looking around, it was clearly a depressed economy because of the hard 
borders and because of the isolation of Northern Ireland.
  Fast forward, I took a trade mission from the State of Connecticut to 
Belfast 2 years ago, and it is a transformed city. It is thriving. It 
is healthy. Clearly, allowing the Northern Irish economy to participate 
both in the full island as well as Europe has had beneficial effects. 
That is why the people of Northern Ireland actually voted ``no'' on 
Brexit.
  Mr. Speaker, we are at a point today where the British Government 
clearly has to make a decision about whether to preserve one of the 
great diplomatic successes, which provides a roadmap for sectarian 
violence all across the world. Diplomacy succeeded in Northern Ireland. 
It is imperative that those in charge there protect the hard-fought 
work and remember that there are stakeholders outside of England and 
Great Britain, including the United States Government and the United 
States Congress, which have skin in the game and have investment in 
terms of the great success over the last 20 years.
  Protect the Good Friday peace accords. Protect the peace that has 
flowed from it. Protect the prosperity that has improved the lives of 
the people of Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, and the world at 
large.

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