Written question asked by Robert McCartney (United Kingdom Unionist), in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 4 November 1996. It was answered by Malcolm Rifkind (Conservative) on Monday, 4 November 1996 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: What representations were made after 1st April to the (a) New York Assembly and (b) other bodies on the Irish Famine as Genocide Education Bill; for what reasons his Department assessed the Bill was unlikely to pass into law; and what statements were issued by the Consulate General on the matter of Governor Pataki's signing ceremony and the invitations thereto in New York.

Answer: Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations were made after 1 April to the (a) New York Assembly and (b) other bodies on the Irish Famine as Genocide Education Bill; for what reasons his Department assessed the Bill was unlikely to pass into law; and what statements were issued by the consulate general on the matter of Governor Pataki's signing ceremony and the invitations thereto in New York. [1158] Mr. Rifkind: Following the answer that I gave to the hon. Member on 1 April, Official Report, column 9, British Officials in New York provided key legislators and their staffs with objective accounts of the history of the famine. They registered the Government's strong concern at the parallel which the New York State Assembly Bill drew between the holocaust and the Irish famine. I have described the circumstances of the passage into law of this legislation in correspondence with the hon. Member. The embassy in Washington and the New York Consulate-General made plain our concern at the passage of the Bill into law, and at Governor Pataki's remarks at the signing ceremony on 8 October. The ambassador, Sir John Kerr, wrote to the governor emphasising the seriousness with which the Government regarded the issue, and explained that, unlike the holocaust, the Irish famine was not deliberate, not pre-meditated, not man-made and certainly not genocide.

Secondary information