COUNTY TYRONE, Northern Ireland -

Sinn Fein, through its elected leadership, has negotiated a Northern Ireland settlement that it claims will advance the cause of Irish independence and reunification in the ultimate establishment of a 32-county Irish Socialist Republic.

The British government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Alliance Party, the Ulster Democratic Party and Popular Unionist Party are signatories to the same settlement as Sinn Fein. Their negotiators claim to have reached an agreement that will modernize and strengthen the British Union.

Both outcomes are mutually exclusive of the other. Somebody here negotiated a bad deal. And all the evidence points to that somebody being Sinn Fein, whose contention of Northern Ireland's certain and imminent departure from the United kingdom is shared only by the right-wing followers of the likes of (Protestant) Rev. Ian Paisley. This school of loyalist purism is of the opinion that free access to daylight and fresh water for nationalists leads inevitably to a United Ireland.

This is a bad agreement. It is an unworkable deal. Sinn Fein has a responsibility to Republicans to reject it.

Significantly, none of Sinn Fein's mentors and allies make any claim of advancing Ireish independence through this settlement. These include the White House, 'Irish America", the Irish government and the Social Democratic and Labor Party, the latter two also being signatories to the agreement. These parties tend to support the contention that the settlement does not provide an answer to the constitutional question of Irish reunification. It replaces it with a different question - that of a devolved administration just like Scotland's on a power-sharing basis.

The SDLP has had this as a central plank of its policy since 1972. Sinn Fein has consistently opposed the formation of such a power-sharing assembly and argued against it in negotiations.But the agreed settlement not only creates a Northern Ireland Assembly, it also give that assembly pivotal importance in the settlement.

Sinn Fein has also consistently argued against the existing "union ist veto" on British government policy toward Northern Ireland, on the cdevelopmpent of relationships between Britain and Ireland and on relationships within the island of Ireland. (Protestants make up a majority of the Northern Ireland population, but would be a minority in a unified Ireland. Protestant Unionists want to remain under the rule of Great Britain. If the Uniionists attain a majority in the Northern Ireland Assembly created by the peace agreement, they will surely veto any move for a united Ireland.)

The agreed settlement reinforces that veto in three separate institutionalized mechanisims, as well as with respect to British government policy. The veto is now written into the British "Government of Ireland Act", thereby limiting the authority of the British Parliament to what the Unionists will consent to. It is to be written into the Northern Ireland Assembly procedure in the "60 percent support requirement" for independence or other issues. It is also to be written into the consittution of the Irish Republic.

This will require an amendment of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Consittution which Sinn Fein has consistently opposed in the past. There are, or course, concessions to the nationalist community, but none relate to furthering the peaceful advance toward independence. There is the early release of prisoners, conditioned upon the organization to which the prisoner belongs, and presumably the prisoner him or herself, agreeing to the settlement.

There will be further British government attempts to legislate against discrimination against Catholics in employment. Policing, decommissioning of weapons and other issues will give common status to Catholics and Protestant sides in a series of proposed commissions yet to be established and which will be dependent on the new assembly.

All of these issues are to be put in one "take it or leave it" package to be voted for or against by the people of Northern Ireland on May 22.

A separate and different referendum will be held in the Irish Republic on the same day to amend the Constitution. No referendum will be held in Britain. Sinn Fein has consistently opposed all partitionist referenda held since 1918, the year in which the Irish people last spoke as one constituency on the issue of independence. At that time, they voted overwhelmingly for independence. Sinn Fein is required by this settlement not only to accept these referenda as valid, but to support a "yes" vote.

Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly will begin almost immediately - June 15 will be election day. In order to access any of the concessions, Sinn Fein must not only join these elections, but must also actively participate in the Assembly itself. This will require a change in the consitution of the Irish Republican Movement to allow those elected to take their seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Assembly will determine (again only by 60 percent support) the makeup of the cross-border council and the limitations of its authority. It will regulate such affairs as the British government deems to delegate to it. Constitutional authority will remain solely with the British government and be exercised solely by it.

To date, the leaders of Sinn Fein have offered no political, ideological, pragmatic or intellectual argument to support their insistence that this is a good deal for Republicans. After 30 years of struggle, both armed and unarmed, after 30 years of resistance, 30 years of pain and loss, all the Sinn Fein leaders can come up with in response to those who question the agreement - those who have served so long in the Republican movement and with good faith heeded appeals for trust and loyalty - is that we have ulterior motives and are warmongers. And besides, they persist in telling us, there is no other alternative. But there is an alternative for responsible Republicans: Reject the agreement.

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