PRESIDENT Clinton's backing this week for US legislative principles of "economic justice" in relation to American financial aid for Northern Ireland was a total endorsement of the MacBride principles, according to Father Sean McManus, president of the Irish National Caucus.
Father McManus, who is visiting Co Fermanagh, yesterday warmly welcomed the President's move and said it established for all time "that MacBride is not going to go away".
He said the President's endorsement meant that the MacBride principles of fair employment had now reached "the very pinnacle" of US foreign and domestic policy.
It meant that recipients of International Fund for Ireland money must comply with these principles of equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in employment. "The President must certify to Congress that all foreign aid is given in accordance with the principles that it is supposed to conform to," he said.
It gave Americans a very immediate, direct and non violent way of addressing the issue of Justice in Northern Ireland. The London government should "face reality", abandon its futile attempts to block the issue, and address the problem which had brought the MacBride principles into existence, "namely, systematic antiCatholic discrimination".