Protestant Ireland:
Dunlop, John
the advice of his attorney general, Janet Reno, the president took this latest initiative to reward Adams for his commitment to move forward the tricky process of decommissioning of weapons. In the...
...These matters run deep as they involve the mythic consciousness of people...
...When Adams came to New York to raise funds for Sinn Fein last March, he assured prospective donors that all funds collected here will be dedicated exclusively to the democratic goal of enlarging the spectrum of opinion about the political process in Ireland...
...Clinton's pressure on England and Ireland in these matters has been consistently appropriate...
...These rertiarks are e.t-c.'erpiedfrom an address lie Katie to the Cleveland City Club on February 23, 1995...
...And he guaranteed that the books of his political organization will be subject to the careful scrutiny of an annual audit by a Big Six accounting firm...
...who spent enough time in Ireland talking to Presbyterians to understand how we think, wrote about us in these terms: The environment of clerical domination of Irish life and the dread of that power, led the Protestant peo ple in the first instance to defend the rights of dis senting nonconformist minorities...
...ernarv Congregation, Belfast, since 1979...
...What you cannot make out a case for is a style of unionism which is itself, in its turn, exclusive, dominating, discriminatory, and unjust...
...When they speak about its people, either within the island as a whole, or within Northern Ireland in particular...
...Nationalist distrust of and objection to being incorporated within such a state is as understandable as Unionist resistance to a United Ireland...
...Protestant Ireland 6: 5 May 1995 Commonweal...
...The fact that we cannot he thus described has first to be understood, before we star[ to propose ways, of dealing with the issues...
...This echoed nicely the recurrent theme in the recent New Framework document on Northern Ireland to pursue agreement "by exclusively democratic, peaceful means, without resort to violence or coercion...
...At a conference on the subject of- Beyond Ilate" which was held recently in Deny, an American visitor responded to my introduction of myself as a Presbyterian minister and the current Presbyterian moderator with [he words, "1 didn't know that there were any Presbyterians in Ireland...
...Being afraid of Roman rule they did not extend their hands gener ously to their Catholic neighbors, being afraid that if the dissenting tradition was not protected...
...It is easier to speak about uniting territory than it is to address the challenge of uniting diverse people...
...They invoke deep passions and release deep hatreds and ancient anxieties, deeper than rationality...
...It is perfectly possible to make out a reasonable case for unionist resistance to being incorporated in a centrist...
...some of whom do not wish to be united...
...That is what drove his decision to ask former Senator George Mitchell to continue his public service by supervising a major economic initiative in Ireland...
...Nor too much, avoiding the appearance of unduly intervening in the troubles of old and dear friends...
...Clinton understands better than his predecessors that all the Irish must be involved in the resolution of the Irish question...
...This program is directly related to the prospect of a just and lasting peace that includes equality of opportunity for both traditions eople often speak about Ireland as a geographical entity...
...And the president understands that this question is actually a complicated set of questions involving economics as much as politics...
...Those of us who can remember all the cash stashed away in Maurice Stans's safe in the office of the Secretary of Commerce and all the dirty tricks that were financed by the Committee to Re Elect the President [Nixon] should be satisfied that Sinn Fein is in a much better position to assure American supporters that their contributions will never be spent on guns than the Republican party was able to promise its supporters in 1972 that their contributions would be spent in fair and honest electioneering...
...Raymond Helmick, S.J...
...In the presence of Bruton, Adams, and Hume at the party, Clinton quoted Finley Peter Dunne's famous definition of a fanatic as "someone who is sure that God would be on his side if only he knew all the facts," and he urged "all the parties concerned to put aside all extremism for the common good of peace...
...JOHN DUNLOP The Re v. John Dunlop, a leading figure in the Presbeterian Church, Ireland, has been minister of Ro...
...Catholic, ultramontane, nationalist Ireland...
...In the name of these things people are killed, politicians rise and fall, and policies are made, treaties signed, and agreements abrogated...
...One recent experience illustrates my conviction that the realities of the people of Ireland are not well understood beyond our shores...
...There are in fact 35ttH)f1 Presbyterians in Ireland, consti toting about l{) percent of the pnlxilatinn of the v.lhole land or 2 percent 01'111C lxOhulati011 (?I toi-tbLrll Ireland...
...Not too little, avoiding the appearance of disinterest shown by his predecessors (including John Fitzgerald Kennedy), who left the Irish question to be resolved by the English, at least since the partition of Ireland...
...Both forms of feared subservience will he resisted...
...they often speak as if' the people were hontogeneous in their cultural and religious identities...
...it would disappear in an environment which was centralist and authoritarian, or in one in which the dissenting tra dition would he consistently outvoted in a democ racy intent on imposing policies at variance with dissenting notions of liberty...
...They touch deeply upon a people's sense of identity...
Vol. 122 • May 1995 • No. 9
