Newspaper editors teil you that the public never want to read the good news, but for once I think the success story that the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) has become is well worth recounting.
The United States spends just one-quarter of one percent of its massive foreign aid appropriations on Ireland, according to the latest figures from Washington. That worked out to approximately $70 million dollars last year.
It’s an amazingly low figure, given the 40.7 million Irish Americans; the strength of the Irish lobby in Washington as proved on the immigration reform bill, and the desperate need for economic regeneration in Northern Ireland.
Almost all the aid was channeled through the International Fund for Ireland set up by Congress after the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in 1985, as a sign of international good faith in the Agreement by the U.S. and other governments, with the U.S. as usual, contributing by far the lion’s share.
The sum, which has now reached $250 million in just over four years, is a tiny drop in the deep well of U.S. foreign aid, and barely merits a few lines in the annual report on foreign appropriations presented to Congress. Yet it has created controversy far beyond its size.
Last year you may remember, the Washington Post thundered against it in an editorial, while columns in the Wall Street Journal and other influential newspapers also took issue with the Trish appropriation.
Their problem was that other countries were more deserving of U.S. aid, particularly those in the Eastern bloc, reemerging after decades under communism.
Meanwhile, in the ethnic Irish community, hard-line groups took aim and fired at what they perceived as a bias against nationalist areas such as West Belfast in the distribution of funds. These same groups pointed out correctly that, in the early years, some of the projects funded had nothing to do with peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, and much more to do with the hidden agendas of all sorts of people.
After a disastrous couple of years, the Fund was on the line, with future appropriations severely in doubt. Last year when Fund leaders visited the United States it was made very clear to them that future funding was very much in the balance.
Clearly the first ever aid package from the U.S. to Ireland was in peril.
But change was already in the works last year, and a key element in it was the appointment of a new chairman, John B. McGuckian to oversee the Fund.
I write these lines having come back from an interview with McGuckian, who frankly makes a virtue out of inarticulate sincerity. A big, bluff Ulsterman, perhaps more at home strolling the fields of his family holding in County Antrim, McGuckian has been the major force behind the reversal of fortune of the Fund.
Since coming on board, projects are scrutinized much more for their social and economic impact on the community rather than how good they look on paper.
In addition, he has switched the central focus of the Fund to the Disadvantaged Areas Initiative, which has now been further developed into the Community Regeneration and Improvement Special Program, known as CRISP.
Under this scheme, areas with huge unemployment and deep social problems are highlighted. A major black spot, Coal Island, County Tyrone was the first model and a $3 million investment package was created for the town and surrounding areas.
Now areas such as West Belfast are at last getting the attention and the funding from IFI which was so sorely needed. In addition, major cross border cooperative schemes, such as the linking of the Shannon River in the south and the Erne, in the north by man-made canal are creating huge incentive for tourism and employment schemes for the future.
Little wonder then, that on his most recent visit to the U.S. the silence was deafening from previous critics of the International Fund. Indeed, Speaker, Thomas Foley and other leading politicians were so impressed with the progress that there was even vague talk of increased funding. It’s a major turn around and one that bodes well for future U.S. funding to help bring lasting peace to Ireland. And what more could any Irish American wish for the old country?
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the June 1991 issue of Irish America. ♦
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