A WELCOME INITIATIVE

...On the surface, it w~.s greeted rapturously though, perhaps, not as fulsomely as by Senator Edward Kennedy who called it "the most important and constructive initiative ever taken by an American President on the Irish issue...

...Jim Callaghan...

...They are due to meet at the end of September to discuss the Northern Ireland issue...

...In last week's televised hearings before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Lance salvaged much of his pride and some of his reputation with his tough, injured-innocence attack on his careless Senator-detractors...

...And we have the wizards of the 1976 presidential campaign apparently incapable of interpreting Comptroller John Heimann's first report, not even realizing a second report was on the way, and misinforming the President that his stray sheep was safe in the fold...

...And Dublin interpreted the reference to a form of government in Northern Ireland which both communities could support as an endorsement of "power-sharing," that is, the inclusion by right of representatives of the Catholic minority at Ministerial level in any new Northern Ireland administration...

...It isn't even a major scandal...

...I.t expressed support for a form of government which would command widespread acceptance throughout both parts of the community in Northern Ireland...

...That in itself was a great achievement...

...It leaves it where it has always been--with the two communities in Northern Ireland and with the Irish and British governments...

...It called for a just solution which protected human rights and guaranteed freedom from discrimination and which the people in Northern Ireland, as well as the governments of Great Britain and Ireland could support...

...While this satisfies no one, it appears to be the temporary solution which is least objectionable all round...

...President Carter's end-of-August statement on Northern Ireland elicited much the same response...

...Realistically, he will settle for a new bid to establish a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland and some form of recognition of the Irish government's role...

...these activities forced Hoover to conduct what was apparently the most far-flung burglary operation in American history, to interfere with the American political process and in other ways .to trample on the Constitution in order to save it...

...For it could provide the impetus to break the political logjam into which Northern Ireland politics have become increasingly locked...

...On a more serious level, however, it is unfortunate that neither the citizens, the press, nor anyone much in government is thinking at all about Euro-Communism because sooner or later that phenomenon is going to be incalculably important to Europe, to the United States and in world history...

...would maintain a policy of impartiality on the Northern Ireland issue: "there are no solutions that outsiders can impose...

...as the Home Counties or the Midlands...

...So temporary solutions---like the 1922 partition of Ireland--tend to become more and more permanent...

...Behind the Irish scenes, however, it was recognized that President Carter had his own reasons for his initiative...

...And its promise of massive U.S...

...On the other hand, when we haven't thought of Communism as chiefly an annoyance to Hoover, we thought of it as chiefly an opportunity for Richard "Killer" Helms and his gang of perpetual adolescents at the CIA to play schoolboy games all over the world and well into middle age and beyond...

...Because of the impossibility of reaching agreement on the new form of government to replace the powersharing Northern Ireland executive which collapsed in May, 1974, the British government has taken over direct rule of the province from Westminster...

...But no one will take a bet on that...

...recognition to what is known on this side of the Atlantic as "the Irish dimension...

...It is the fear that such a process of "creeping integration" may be setting in which has pushed Mr...

...and as the object of others' bad mistakes, the first of which was to select a man with his real financial and borderline ethical problems in the first place...

...Exactly the same reaction was aroused in the camps of nearly all the other interested parties---the British government and Opposition and most of the moderate politicians in both communities in Northern Ireland...

...read now about lots of last-minute hustling around between November 22 and December 2, 1976 to tidy-up the embarrassments in Lance's record--the Comptroller's "enforcement agreement" prohibiting Lance overdrafts and FBI criticism of Lance's "sloppy handling" of his campaign expenses--so there would be no "skunks at the garden party" and Carter could have the man he wanted...

...And we have Jody Powell, who should really be fired, planting a false news story to punish a critical senator...

...self-interest...

...The trouble with temporary solutions to apparently intractable problems is that no one wants to abandon them in case the alternative is even worse...

...What it did say, in brief, was that the U.S...

...The main reaction was one of relief that his statement could be interpreted to suit the government's policy...

...But Dublin was pleased because its role in finding a solution to the Northern Ireland problem was acknowledged, thus affording U.S...

...Like Hoover, Helms was forced by the dread Communists to commit burglary and murder against his fellow-Americans in order to save them, quite possibly to create the whole drug scene of the 1960s and at least to join it enthusiastically, to destroy, apparently beyond salvage, Commonweal: 613...

...Jack Lynch, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) into seeking an urgent meeting with his British counterpart, Mr...

...And this is where President 30 September 1977:612 Carter's statement may have some good results...

...The principal "NATO secret," of course, is an extremely open one, namely that that organization, not entirely inappropriately, has become the last refuge of Nixonism, a gift from one Nixon today, Gerald Ford, to another, A1 Haig, the military Sammy Glick...

...Where does this leave the Northern Ireland problem...

...But the question immediately suggested itself: if it pleased--or, at least, did not antagonize--groups with such irreconcilable aims, did it say anything at all...

...investment which could dramatically reduce Northern Ireland's unemploymentmin July 1977, the figure was 68,893 or 13 percent---could be the bait which brings the jobless in both communities together in a new bid to end the economic hardship which is the lower part of the Northern Ireland iceberg...

...WASHINGTON REPORT 1517 AND ALL THAT After a quick flurry of interest a few months ago, discussion, even casual conversation, about the phenomenon known as "Euro-Communism" has just vanished here...

...To understand that, however, first it is necessary to take Communism itself seriously, something it has always been difficult, if not impossible, for Americans to do...

...government would join with others in encouraging job-creating investment in Northern Ireland...

...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 FROM IRELAND A ELCO IE INITIATIVE It is a deeply-imbedded Irish trait to look very carefully in the mouth of gift horses of whatever provenance...

...Lance would not leave office in disgrace but as a man of limited vision who can see only "in retrospect" (after it has become public) an impropriety he should have seen as improper when it occurred...

...Lynch will undoubtedly press for a new British government initiative on Northern Ireland...

...generosity usually coincides with U.S...

...In one way that's not bad, since what discussion there had been was mostly on the level of Henry Kissinger's fears and forebodings about NATO and "NATO secrets" should a Communist politician get a cabinet seat in Italy or France...

...It called on Americans not to support the para-military organizations...

...Carter had proved all things to nearly all men...

...Historically, we have regarded Communism in one or both of two ways: first, we have thought of it as something invented and practiced by a bunch of crazy foreigners to annoy J. Edgar Hoover by supporting the Bill of Rights, opposing lynching, assisting in union organizing and engaging in similar subversive activities...

...This is no Watergate...

...Ideally, he is seeking a British statement of long-term intention to withdraw from Northern Ireland...

...President Carter's statement, which will certainly figure in the discussions, may provide the impetus which is needed for a new British move...

...Its emergence, if .that is what is now taking place, is comparable to the departure of the legions from Britain, the fall of Constantinople, the nailing of the 95 theses ,to the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg...

...And a permanent situation of direct rule of Northern Ireland from Westminster could have only one long-term outcome: the complete integration of Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom, making it as much a part of the U.K...

...Meantime, some Unionists in Belfast read the reference to the form of future government as support for a majority (i.e., Protestant/Unionist) administration, while other Unionists saw it as approving of moves towards the complete integration of Northern Ireland into the United Kingdom...

...American offers of the kind are not exempt...

...And, finally, it promised that in the event of a peaceful settlement, the U.S...

...Even when President John F. Kennedy visited his ancestral home in June 1963, the euphoria of his welcome was tinged with recognition of the vote-catching motive behind it...

...The Irish take the view that U.S...

...Since the statement had been cleared in draft with both British and Irish governments and was reportedly well "laundered" in the process, there was inevitably a blandness and vagueness about it...

...but he recaptured little of the professional and ethical prestige the Director of OMB must have to function well...

...DESMOND FISHER (Desmond Fisher is Commonweal's regular correspondent in Ireland...

...Certainly, it cannot be ignored...