Ahern calls for protocol banning sectarianism

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern today urged all political parties to sign up to a protocol banning sectarianism from Irish politics.

Speaking in Dundalk this morning, Mr Ahern said it was time for all parties, North and South, to sign a protocol on sectarianism along the lines of the anti-racism protocol signed before the last election.

Mr Ahern said the protocol should be "a declaration, that politicians or political parties will not resort to the gratuitous, populist narrative of Catholic versus Protestant or unionist versus nationalist for political gain".

He said that it would send a "powerful message" from political leaders, throughout the island, that sectarianism "is just not on".

"I'm talking about a clear political statement that those who rioted in Dublin, those who have attacked families in North for no other reason than their religion or their political beliefs are wholly without legitimacy and open to nothing but condemnation," Mr Ahern said.