A BOOST FOR COSGRAVE
Cooney, John
A BOOST FOR COSCRAVE FROM IRELAND The standing of Mr. Liam Cosgrave, the Irish Repub-lic's Prime Minister since February 1973, has never been so high at home of abroad. His firm refusal to...
...Lynch was becoming captive to the militant wing of his party, while Mr...
...Had Fine Gael lost the by-election, the coalition gov-ernment would have been left with a one-seat majority over a Fianna Fail party which has been reverting to the fundamentalist policy of its founder, Eamonn de Valera, of opposing the partition of Ireland into British-domi-nated North and independent South...
...Cosgrave's law and order approach corresponded with the mood of public opinion in the Republic...
...Herrema was a vindication of the principle upheld by Mr...
...The demoralization of the IRA was seen in the outbreak of a bloody squabble between the Provisional and Official wings-r-a dispute that was patched up to avoid utter disintegration of the Republican movement...
...Herrema, the managing director of the Ferenka plant in Limerick, brought inter-national media publicity to Ireland and diplomatic pres-sure when at times the 'no surrender' attitude of the Dublin government appeared to be endangering the Dutchman's life...
...Merlyn Rees, will hand the report back to the Convention for further consideration...
...In recent months the Fianna Fail party has reversed its acceptance of biparti-san policy on the North and has called for a declaration of British withdrawal...
...Cosgrave that a government has a moral duty not to yield to force exerted by kidnappers or guerrillas...
...But the kidnapping of Dr...
...JOHN COONEY (John Cooney, a member of the staff of the Irish Times, is Commonweal's correspondent in Dublin...
...Fianna Fail's anti-British posture is considered un-fortunate as it is expected that Northern Ireland Secre-tary, Mr...
...Meanwhile, the Northern impasse remains...
...Defeat in West Mayo could mean that Mr...
...Kildare, where the kidnap-pers-Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle-had taken the industrialist, proved to be correct...
...The by-election re-sult with its 6 percent swing in favor of Fine Gael proved that Mr...
...During the campaign Mr...
...Cosgrave had revealed that the Northern troubles had cost the Republic £250 million in lost tourism and foreign investment as well as £80 million in security bills...
...His firm refusal to negotiate with the two IRA break-away kidnappers of Dutch in dustrialist, Dr...
...We do not bargain at the point of a gun," was the Premier's constant reaction...
...Green flag-waving from Fianna Fail in Dublin could be a provocation for Orange intransigence in Belfast...
...Fianna Fail's swing to a hard-line policy is considered by many Dublin commentators to be "singularly inap-propriate," coming at a time when the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention was submitting its report to Westminster on the form of a possible future government for the North...
...Cosgrave could go ahead with putting through the Dail (Parlia-ment) a Criminal Law Jurisdictioon Bill, similar to a Bill already approved by the Westminster Parliament in Britain...
...His adherence to principle was soon re-warded when his Fine Gael Party, the senior partner in the government, won a crucial by-election in West Mayo against the Fianna Fail Party of Mr...
...If the report is returned, then the Social and Democratic Labor Party (SDLP) could reinvigorate its attempt to persuade the majority United Ulster Unionist Coalition to accept some form of power-sharing between die Catholic and Prot-estant communities in Northern Ireland...
...The release of Dr...
...Cosgrove had maintained that Ms, government would not bargain on the demands for a release of Republican prisoners, the English revolutionary aristocrat, Dr...
...The West Mayo victory meant that Mr...
...Rees, Mr...
...Both Bills will enable Irish and British courts to try persons accused of terrorist-type offenses com-mitted in the other country, thus avoiding lengthy ex-tradition proceedings...
...Jack Lynch...
...The by-election indicated that the Republic is in no mood for the pursuit of an irredentist policy...
...Throughout the kidnapping incident Mr...
...Cosgrave and the Convention members can pursue a less flamboyant but more fruitful policy...
...Tiede Herrema, resulted in the eventual surrender of the kidnappers and the industrialist's safe return...
...It is to be hoped Mr...
...Victory for the Republic's anted forces meant a boost in their confidence as the image of both wings of the IRA reached an all-time low...
...Rose Dugdale (Gal-lagher's lover) and leading IRA hawk Kevin Mallon (Goyle's boyfriend...
...Jack Lynch, who since 1969 as Prime Minister and then as Opposition leader has taken a moderate line on Northern Ireland, will be replaced as party chief by militant Republican, Charles Haughey...
...In the end, however, police and army tactics of adopt-ing a wait-and-see approach during the siege of a council house in Monasterevin, Co...
Vol. 103 • February 1976 • No. 4
