Unionists Walk Out on Talks
The continuing saga of what has come to be popularly known as “The Talks” floundered badly recently after leaders of Northern Ireland’s Unionist party walked out on negotiations with the government of the Irish Republic.
At stake are Articles Two and Three of the Irish Constitution, which spell out the Republic’s aspiration for a united Ireland. Unionists have long objected to the Articles, citing them as an “illegal and immoral” claim to a piece of land (the six counties of Northern Ireland) which is a part of Britain, not Ireland.
Unionist leaders lan Paisley and Peter Robinson have already walked out, and James Molyneaux, leader of the Official Unionist Party, vowed to do the same if Dublin refused to signal a willingness to drop Two and Three. At press time, the talks have all but broken down indefinitely.
And while the more hardline unionists have just dropped out recently, some critics considered the process a failure from the word go because of the refusal by the participants to invite the hardline Nationalist party, Sinn Féin, to the table. The reason given for the barring of that party was their refusal to condemn the IRA.
If the negotiations between the Irish Government and the Unionists do resume, recently leaked documents from the Dublin delegation show that Two and Three will not be given up unless new, strengthened links between North and South are established.
Such cross-border links were central to 1986’s Anglo-Irish Agreement, which has now been discredited and largely abandoned.
As they displayed in 1986, Unionists are dead-set against what they see as interference from a foreign government, i.e., the one south of the border.
A Win for Donegal
Donegal won their first ever All-Ireland football title in September and ended a 108-year wait for Ireland’s most northern county.
Donegal defeated hot favorites Dublin in the final, after an estimated 45,000 Donegal supporters made their way from all points of the globe to Dublin’s Croke Park for the final. In the match itself the 15 Donegal men played above themselves and administered a lesson in the finer points of the game to the Dubs.
There was a highly emotional moment the day after the match, when the cup was carried by team captain Anthony Molloy and coach Brian McEniff across a narrow bridge between Sligo and Donegal which marks the county boundaries. In Donegal itself over 80,000 fans showed up to cheer home their heroes.
San Francisco Prisoner Released on Bail
Jimmy Smyth, the Belfast-born San Francisco man who was arrested in June by the FBI on charges of passport fraud, has been freed on bail pending his hearing and a possible extradition warrant from the British government.
As this column reported last month, Smyth (38) was one of 38 prisoners who broke out of Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison (a.k.a. the H-Blocks) in 1983. Smyth had been serving a 1978 IRA-related conviction, charges which he has always said were untrue.
Smyth and another escapee, Kevin Barry-Aart, went to the U.S. where they began new lives in San Francisco and San Diego, respectively.
The two were arrested on the same day in June after the FBI discovered the real story behind the fake identities the two men had been using in the U.S. The men have been working successfully for the past eight years, and have built up widespread support in their respective communities, especially Smyth, who has been a well-known figure in San Francisco’s large Irish community. That community has rallied to Smyth’s bid to continue his life in the U.S., and support is growing among politicians such as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.
Aart is still imprisoned, and Smyth has to wear a monitoring bracelet at all times. Hearings for the two men are coming soon; also expected at some point is the extradition warrant.
Irish Introduce Divorce Bill
Justice Minister Padraig Flynn introduced a White Paper which would grant divorce in limited circumstances in the Irish Republic. A referendum will be held on the issue next year he said.
The bill would allow divorce for couples who had separated for five years. Concurrent with the expected legislation, other laws entitling married couples to equal shares in any property divided after a divorce will be drafted.
While the government is said to be in favor, there is no guarantee that a bill to allow divorce, will succeed. A 1986 referendum on allowing divorce was easily defeated. Justice Minister Flynn, known to be one of the conservatives in the Irish cabinet stated, “If the Irish people want divorce, so be it.” Ireland is the only European country without divorce.
In Derry, Looking for an Answer
The international “Beyond Hate” conference involving delegates from 19 countries convened recently in Derry in mid-September, with the goal of seeking out peaceful resolutions to conflicts across the globe. Derry was chosen as the site largely due to its central position for civil rights activism as well as much violence over the past three decades.
Reaction to the conference was optimistic, although at times incidents reminded the 80 activists, community and business leaders assembled of the realities of the conflicts which they discussed in board rooms and meeting halls.
Early on, William Flynn, the American-born chairman of the Mutual of America insurance company, one of the conference’s main sponsors, unwittingly made waves when he proposed that the conference be dedicated with a motion of sympathy for the family of an elderly Catholic couple from County Tyrone who were murdered by Protestant gunmen on the eve of the conference. He also offered sympathy to “all the innocents in Northern Ireland who have been terrorised and killed in this continuing violence.” The motion was seconded by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and greeted with general applause. However, Unionists protested the motion vehemently and during a tense exchange, during which it was reported that many of the foreign delegates were openly bewildered by the extent of the native conflict, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness gave a lesson in “conflict resolution” when he proposed that a motion be drafted expressing sympathy with all the victims of the 23-year-old Northern Ireland conflict. The motion was adopted, and McGuinness was praised for his “most gracious intervention.”
Another mini-controversy arose when Terry Anderson, Terry Waite and the Reverend Lawrence Jenco, three men who were formerly hostages in the Lebanon, told the conference that the Sinn Féin party should be included in the current talks surrounding the future of Northern Ireland.
Apart from these incidents, however, the conference went smoothly in a city which was a constant reference point for that which was being discussed.
The Irish Economy: Half a Million Jobless by Year 2000?
An independent study of the Irish economy by a Dublin consultancy firm estimates that unless 250,000 people emigrate in the next 8 years, there will be half a million unemployed in the year 2000.
The shocking news has put the pressure on Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Albert Reynolds’ government, which is scrambling to come up with a plan to offset the problem. Currently there are 290,000 jobless in Ireland. Joining the critics in a very loud way recently was Cardinal Cahal Daly, who called the continuing waves of unemployment “one of the greatest wrongs done to human beings in our society.”
One of the factors which the study cited as key to the gloomy prediction is the fact that 36 percent of the Irish population is under the age of 20 and most of them will be seeking employment in the next ten years.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the October 1992 issue of Irish America. ♦
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