Getting the Irish Up
Kirby, Peadar
power in El Salvador. The death squads and what they repre- sent ideologically are not elements outside the government, against which the "forces of democracy," as the administra- tion has termed...
...Reagan would attend...
...No one undergoes such a procedure unless the alternative is worse...
...It has, however, offered openings for negotiating the in-stitutionalized guarantees that might allow the insurgent forces to compete for power in the normal political ways...
...Women from all over Europe planned to set up ~ major peace camp for the duration of the visit...
...Anti-Reagan groups were organized in the small towns throughout the province of Munster in which Ballyporeen is situated, and public meetings attracted large audiences...
...In Ballyporeen itself, hermetically sealed off on the day of the visit, most of the townspeople attended a showing of an anti- nuclear film in the parish hall and many expressed sympathy for the protests...
...Reagan's visit was a non-starter...
...Although there was never any question that Mr...
...They are entrenched within the government, the military, and the ruling class...
...The campaign argued that this would contravene the pro-life amendment added to the Irish constitution after a contentious referendum last September...
...Reagan was given his doctorate, is the diocese of Bishop Eamon Casey, an outspoken critic of U.S...
...foreign policy, and the party leader, Mr...
...Reagan's great-grandfather emigrated in the late 1840s and where hectic preparations for the president's two-hour visit were underway...
...The larger of these, the Irish-Campaign against Reagan's Foreign Policy, was made up of leading trade unions, church groups, third-world groups, some political parties, and the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament...
...Reagan's support for the governments of El Salvador and the Philippines and at his siting of new nuclear weapons in Western Europe...
...Instead of subdued excitement at the immi- nent honor, the ten- and eleven-year-olds expressed grave concern at Mr...
...Their badges and stickers for the visit made a play on a song which became the theme tune for Pope John Paul during his visit in 1979...
...Whether President Duarte gets this or that much American aid may not be as significant as whether the U.S...
...Dick Spring, who is also deputy prime minister.The youth section of the prime minister's party, Young Fine Gael, also declared its opposition...
...Most embarrassing for the government was seeing parliamentary members of both the parties who make it up, Fine Gael and Labor, opposing its motion to invite the president to address a joint session and pledging to stay away from Mr...
...No special publications appeared to welcome Mr...
...The academic world, for instance, was shaken by the extent and nature of opposition to the decision of the National Uni- versity of Ireland to confer an honorary degree of law on Mr...
...PEADAR KIRBY (Peadar Kirby writes regularly from Ireland for Com-monweal...
...In response to a mass petition of university graduates, a special meeting of convocation -- the democratic decision- making body which all graduates have the right to attend --was called to condemn the university's decision...
...These included the chairman of the Labor party, Senator Michael D.Higgins, an ardent critic of U.S...
...It revealed just how widespread is such opposition, and it showed just how much Ireland's traditional outlook on the world is changing...
...Reagan's visit...
...it does not enjoy the national unity that the Sandinistas rallied against Somoza...
...Reagan's talk...
...Seldom before has Ireland witnessed such a widespread movement of protest...
...administraCommonweal: 358 tion did not change its foreign policy...
...Sometime soon, probably just after that election, the European Community (which includes the Parliament) will have to agree on a budget or face bankruptcy...
...The tone of the poems can be judged from such titles as "Calypso for Gre- nada," "Hey Gringo," "Preparations for Survival," and "Last Puff-Puff to Ballyporeen...
...Perhaps most striking for commentators of the Irish scene was the widespread grassroots feeling against Mr...
...Reagan to be presented with a petition carrying at least 40,000 signa- tures, "one for every person killed in El Salvador...
...Joe Duffy, wanted Mr...
...Reagan...
...He once stunned public opinion here by calling on the government to break off diplomatic relations with Washington if the U.S...
...The past three European summits --in Stuttgart last June, in Athens in December, and in Brussels in March --have stalled on this increasingly bitter question...
...support in El Salvador, are pitted...
...Their view did not triumph in court, needless to say...
...But on this occasion the parliamentarians were responding to a remarkable ground swell of public opinion...
...From the point of view of U.S...
...A sad reminder of the days when the Regan family of Ballyporeen were forced (through the unjust policies of a foreign power), to leave their home and motherland...
...Posters, badges, and car stickers widely seen around Dublin proclaimed: "Reagan's foreign policy: Behind the smile is a killer...
...Ireland's students' union, previously radical but much more moderate in recent years, also pledged to disrupt Mr...
...The caption to a photograph of a group of Salvadoran refugees filing past an army patrol reads: "A family moves out as the military move in...
...Numerous priests and sisters were active in the campaign...
...could have been presumed by governments in both Dublin and Washington up to now, Mr...
...If warm public attitudes towards the U.S...
...Reagan was to visit, including Dublin, have been declared nuclear-free zones by their governing councils, ar- gued Irish CND...
...Reelection of the European Parliament may focus discon- tent about the drift of the idea of European unity which today 15 June 1984:359...
...Reagan...
...Ironically, Galway, the city in which Mr...
...Reagan...
...Many European leaders fear the issue has permanently soured relations between Britain and the continental members...
...Among the groups affiliated to it were the Conference of Major Religious Superiors, representing all religious orders in Ire- land, which opposed the visit...
...This is also unprecedented...
...Reagan bringing to Ireland the brief- case containing the button to launch a nuclear attack...
...Vainly ministers and leaders of industry warned of the damage that could be done to U.S...
...These show photographs from Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom bombing in 1945, and others from El Salvador and the Philippines...
...The Council of Ministers is a Community institution...
...In mid-June, the Euro- pean Parliament will hold direct elections for the second time to select 434 representatives from the ten member coun- tries for a five-year term...
...The whole world in his hands, extermina- tion in the briefcase," it reads...
...Such arguments were quickly countered by opponents who pointed out that Ireland is already too dependent on American multinationals and who asked whether morality should be silenced for the sake of money...
...Two of the country's three teachers' unions, not known for radical politics, came out against the visit, one of them passing a unanimous motion to this effect at their anuual convention...
...will devise a policy that frees itself from ultimate dependence on the Sal- vadoran military-oligarchical establishment...
...Report from Ireland GETTING THE IRISH UP THE OTHER SIDE OF REAGAN'S VISIT lUST THREE WEEKS before President Reagan was due to arrive in Ireland a popular radio program went to speak to the children of Ballyporeen, the village from where Mr...
...the European Council is not...
...investments in Ireland or to tourist prospects...
...The main thrust of the opposition was organized by two different campaigns...
...The visit also prompted numerous publications...
...They wondered whether the visit was motivated more by his reelection campaign than by any sudden interest in discovering his ancestral roots...
...Among the postcards issued to commemorate the visit was a set of six issued by the third-world group, Action from Ireland...
...interest in counteracting Irish opposition to aspects of its foreign policy, Mr...
...Letters to the national media on the issue ran at five to one in favor of the protests...
...The Irish Campaign against Reagan's Foreign P.olicy was able to organize a "primary" to test public opinion about the visit in every town in the country, the first time such a wide- spread mobilization of opinion on any protest issue has hap- pened...
...Reagan's visit has shown that such is no longer the case...
...Such conflicts are decided not in the European Parliament but in the Council of Ministers which represents the national governments within the Community...
...Reagan, most of them focused on his foreign policy...
...Expecting these forces to elimi- nate repression and corruption and to become democratically accountable through the distribution of power is expecting a form of self-amputation...
...It shares the philosophy of the Sandinistas...
...It will only be when the U.S...
...Another group, the Reagan Reception Campaign, was made up largely of left-wing par- ties...
...Unfortunately, even as American illusions about the Sal- vadoran establishment are dissipated by better information, our knowledge of the guerrilla opposition remains hazy...
...European elections DRIFT & RIFT THE FALTERING OF EUROPEAN UNITY E UROPE IS FACING two major threats in its quest for unity, one scheduled and the other not...
...Such opposition is rare in Irish politics where party mem- bers almost always follow the party line, particularly when in government...
...policy in Central America and the Philippines, both of which he has visited...
...The Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, of which various government ministers are members, sought a court injunction to prevent Mr...
...office since the triumphant visit by John F. Kennedy in June 1963...
...Bishop Casey gave permission for a peace vigil in his cathedral before the presi- dential visit...
...Senior politicians and commentators were taken by surprise at the strength and nature of the protests against Mr...
...A group of leading Irish poets published an anthology entitled After the War Is Over to mark the president's visit...
...Furthermore, most of the places which Mr...
...The death squads and what they repre- sent ideologically are not elements outside the government, against which the "forces of democracy," as the administra- tion has termed the recipients of U.S...
...When the Council of Ministers cannot agree, discussions move to the European Council, the formal name for the summits of heads of govern- ment who normally meet three times a year as the supreme political overseers of the European Community...
...Margaret Thatcher wants both a partial rebate of the 1983 British contribution and a formula which Will permanently reduce its share...
...firmly concludes that we do not have to keep an anti-Communist government in power, no matter what, in El Salvador, that the genuine forces of democracy will have the leverage they need to pursue a livable future...
...The budget conflict involves Britain's insistence that it pays a disproportionate share of the European Community's costs...
...Reagan's visit would stir some of the hoopla normal for such events, the extraordinary development was the depth and breadth of pre-visit opposition...
...The union's leader, Mr...
...Far from representing a left-wing minority, as suggested by some politicians, this wave of protest came from a wide range of groups and individuals...
...And though he would have been expected, as a member of the college's governing board, to attend the degree-granting ceremony, Bishop Casey discovered that a confirmation would prevent his attending any ceremony Mr...
...What Irish radio discovered in Ballyporeen was no hotbed of child radicals but rather the typical attitudes which domi- nated preparations for the visit, the first by a U. S.president in Abigail McCarthy has been traveling outside the coun- try...
...Her column will appear in the next issue...
Vol. 111 • June 1984 • No. 12
