The so-called British-Irish Council or Council of the Isles met yesterday in Belfast, bringing together eight Governments.

The Council, set up as part of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, brings together representatives from four of the six Celtic countries (Alba, Cymru, Eire and Mannin), in addition to representatives from Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and Westminster. Yesterday's meeting was the first to take place since the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive earlier this year and this was the ninth summit and the first to take place in Northern Ireland, but the Council has failed to meet regularly.

The Council focused on the issue of Transport, which is the lead work area for the Northern Ireland Government. Other work areas of the Council include Demography (Scotland), Environment (United Kingdom),Knowledge Economy (Jersey), Misuse of Drugs (Ireland), Social Inclusion (Scotland and Wales jointly), e Health (Isle of Man), Tourism (Guernsey), Transport (Northern Ireland), Indigenous, Minority and Lesser used Languages (Wales).

With Wales' Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones deputising for Rhodri Morgan, who was still recovering from a heart operation earlier last week, meant that Nationalists were present for the Council of the Isles meeting for the first time, with Martin McGuinness from Sinn Fein, Alex Salmond from Scottish Nationalist Party and Ieuan Wyn Jones from Plaid Cymru.

Earlier this year Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, called for the re-establishment of the Council to encourage cooperation. A spokesman for Mr Salmond said earlier this week, that with the new Prime Minister in Downing Street and the new elected Governments in Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff and Edinburgh, "now is the ideal time for a council meeting to enable dialogue and co-operation right across the governments of these islands."

However, as Bernard Moffatt said about the Council in 2002:

…"the attempt by London to bind the new structures into an artificial confederation through the British Irish Council, has so far proved ineffectual."

Without the participation of Brittany and Cornwall in such a Council an inter Celtic dimension cannot really be claimed. As Bernard Moffatt rightly added:

"The Celtic League and the Celtic Congress are still the only bodies via which all the Celtic countries coalesce"

April 29th 2002 in statement to Peter Berresford Ellis

(This article for Celtic News compiled by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

18/07/07

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