Irish-America set up committee to protect Irish Peace Agreement

The US is Britain's main trading partner outside the EU bloc, and exports to the US are worth an estimated 100 billion pounds to theBritish economy each year.

A committee to protect the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement has been established by a group of leading Irish Americans in the wake of what they describe as the erosion of the deal by Tories, "almost to the point of dismissing it as irrelevant even though it is a binding international peace agreement".

The new Committee’s first move was to send a letter to British Prime Minister Theresa May and 26 County Taoiseach Leo Varadkar outlining its concerns regarding the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

The Committee warned that a border would "resurrect the memories" of the militarisation in the north of Ireland during the conflict.

The committee involves US Republicans and Democrats, and includes two former US Senators, five former US Ambassadors, leaders of prominent Irish American organisations, and former US Senator Gary Hart, who acted as the Special Envoy for the North for then US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Former Congressman Bruce Morrison, who also co-chairs the committee, noted: “Pro-Brexit advocates have been diminishing the importance of the GFA almost to the point of dismissing it. This really is short-sighted, and the ongoing debate is only resurrecting old animosities and stereotypes. The people of Ireland, North and South overwhelmingly supported the GFA in the 1998 referendum. They know what is at stake."

The US is Britain's main trading partner outside the EU bloc, and exports to the US are worth an estimated 100 billion pounds to theBritish economy each year.