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 New York City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin in the early 1980s.[1] They were endorsed by four well known Irish activists, two Catholic and two Protestants. One was Sean MacBride (a founding member of Amnesty International) and the principles became known as the MacBride Principles.
The Principles not only became adopted by the NYC government but they were quickly adopted by States and localities across the country. 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 and the Irish National Caucus, and by John Finucanne and the American Irish Political Education Committee (PEC). They were launched by Goldin in November 1984 for NYC.[2]