Adams's appeal to Unionists

(First Edition)

PROTESTANTS will command far greater influence in a united Ireland than they do through political union with Britain, the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, claimed yesterday.

The Unionist veto, which he said was preventing the establishment of new political alliances free of religious privilege and sectarianism, would end, and Republicans needed to be mindful of Protestant fears. Demands for British withdrawal were not aimed at them, he said.

Mr Adams told Sinn Fein supporters preparing for this week's local government elections in Northern Ireland that a failed Unionist leadership had caused uncertainty among Protestants.

A new all-Ireland constitution must also include written guarantees for Unionists, granting them real security instead of tenure based on repression and triumphalism, he said.

Mr Adams, former MP for West Belfast, added: 'National reconciliation depends on the willingness of the Irish people to leave aside their fears and prejudices, to forgive and to be forgiven, and to embrace each other as neighbours in building a new society which reflects the diversity of our nation.

'Our northern Protestant neighbours are part of what we are. We are divided at present because of differences carefully fostered by an alien government which divides a minority from the majority, and by the obstacles which have been erected upon these differences.

'A future Irish society without a Protestant input will be less than sufficient. It will not be a national democracy.'