The MacBride Principles - 9781846312175

Published in November 1984, the MacBride Principles were nine proposals aimed at eliminating religious discrimination in the employment practices of United States corporations with subsidiaries in Northern Ireland. The federal constitution of the United States allowed states and cities to pass their own corporate legislation incorporating the MacBride Principles and to use their pension fund investments to pressurise corporations into adopting the Principles. Using devolved legislation, the MacBride Campaign broke the stranglehold on the discussion of Irish issues maintained by the US, UK and Irish governments in the Congress. Instead, these issues were debated in state legislatures and city councils, and Irish America was given an opportunity to participate in a non-violent campaign to further social justice in Northern Ireland.
Using interviews with key personalities involved and hitherto unpublished and inaccessible archives of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin, as well as papers obtained using the Freedom of Information Acts of the United States and the United Kingdom, Kevin McNamara maps out the evolution and eventual success of the MacBride Campaign.