MacBride Principles

The MacBride Principles — consisting of nine fair employment principles — are a corporate code of conduct for United States companies doing business in Northern Ireland and have become the Congressional standard for all US aid to, or for economic dealings with, Northern Ireland. The Principles were developed by former NYC Comptroller Harrison J.Goldin in the early 1980s. The Principles were endorsed by four well known Irish activists, two Catholic and two Protestants. Sean McBride (a founding member of Amnesty International) was one of the four and the Principles became known as the McBride Principles. The Principles not only became adopted by the NYC government but they were quickly adopted by States and localities across the country. Comptroller Goldin not only communicated with officials around the USA he visited Northern Ireland and Great Britain to meet with all sides in the dispute and to communicate the value of the Principles.They were promoted by Seán McManus (priest) and the Irish National Caucus, and by John Finucanne and the American Irish Political Education Committee (PEC). They were launched by Comptroller Goldin in November 1984 for NYC.
The principles.
In addition to the above, each signatory to the principles is required to report annually to an independent monitoring agency on its progress in the implementation of these principles.
Some of the principles were seen as unrealistic and impracticable, such as protection of employees on their way to and from work. Besides, they were perceived as throttling foreign investment in Northern Ireland and by that increasing the economic problems of the province. No cases were mentioned where a specific American investment had led to discrimination.
There was acceptance, but also a lack of great enthusiasm, by both the Government of the Republic of Ireland, and by moderate nationalists in Northern Ireland, amongst them the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), as the principles chimed with developing European labour law provisions. In 1987 the then Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Lenihan was quoted as follows regarding the McBride Principles: “The Government's policy is to press for action by the British Government on measures in the short and medium term aimed at promoting equality of opportunity…”. He later wrote in 1989 “The Government's view is that there is nothing objectionable in the MacBride principles”.
Parallel British reforms.
Within Northern Ireland itself, reforms had begun after the British government suspended the Parliament of Northern Ireland in March 1972, starting with the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976. This was further amended in 1989. In 1999 the Fair Employment and Treatment Order 1998 became law.
Since then complaints are handled by the Fair Employment Commission for Northern Ireland, now a part of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, a non-governmental but publicly funded agency. The MacBride Principles certainly speeded the reform process in the 1980s, but it is debatable whether they contributed significantly after 1989. In a 2003 report the Irish National Caucus felt that the reforms had not yet achieved complete parity, emphasising that Northern Irish Catholics were still more likely to be unemployed and undereducated, and less likely to work in managerial positions, than other groups, and calling for affirmative action policies.
Campaign.
The MacBride Campaign is conducted on a three-fold level:
Endorsement.
The MacBride Principles have been passed in the following 18 US states:
Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont and California.
They have also been passed or endorsed by over 40 cities, and are pending in many more. The following organizations or individuals have also endorsed them:
References.
Suggest add: Unpublished thesis by Kevin McNamara - listed in References of Wikipedia article on him, with link to this article.