Holding out for hope Our intrepid correspondent looks at Saint Patrick's Day festivities in New York and Washington, and their impact on the Irish peace process
Kelly, Mary Pat
Mary Vat Kelly HOLDIHG OUT FOR HOPE Clinton's Irish policy An unusually quiet Saint Patrick's week in the United States allowed the fragile Irish peace talks to gain ground on American soil....
...The Unionist leader, David Trimble, attended the American-Ireland dinner in Washington on March 14, something unthinkable a few years ago when most Northern Protestants assumed that Irish-Americans back the IRA...
...In this country, pundits ask in this election year about the role of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass...
...The sense from all quarters is that Irish-Americans must speak with one voice in urging peace...
...Indeed, some on the Northern Ireland scene had seemed almost relieved at the end of the cease-fire in February...
...In the heart of the nationalist Falls Road, a crowd that confronted Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, also cheered a woman who said, "If the politicians don't want to stand and talk to each other about peace, don't give them your votes...
...John Hume is his book, A New Ireland (Roberts Rinehart), argues, "The real task of politics is to recognize our diversity and our differences and then find ways to respect and accommodate difference...
...Or they miss Clinton's point: "The truth is no one knows whether human nature craves dominance and division over peace and hope, but we all believe we know, and in the believing we can make a new reality....If we believe we are children of God, then what is important is what we are, not what we are not...
...president to focus the power of his office on finding a solution for "the troubles...
...They use their leverage in trying to wring concessions from him on Northern Ireland...
...Voices on the other side said, "See, after seventeen months of peace, the British still have not moved, the Unionists still refuse to talk...
...He said that his concern about "the troubles" began in his days as a student in England...
...Elections for representatives to the talks will be held in late May in Northern Ireland...
...Heaney's line, "The moment where hope and history rhyme," was virtually the theme of the trip...
...But the people turned out in huge peace demonstrations in Belfast and Dublin...
...In the intervening years he had not attended to the conflict...
...The alternative to persevering in this journey is clear- a return to violence and division...
...The faces that had smiled at Clinton in December, now looked stricken...
...in Clinton's Ireland policy...
...And, once again, each of us must do our part to safeguard the promise, the precious promise of peace...
...June 9 is the feast of Saint Colmcille, or Columba, the princely monk for whom both the main Catholic and Protestant churches in Derry are named...
...Clinton said that he began seriously to confront Ireland's ancient quarrel three years ago...
...Such ideas make political commentators on both sides of the Atlantic nervous...
...Perhaps he, like so many Americans, found the multitude of parties confusing and the periodic eruption of violence inexplicable...
...But the president found the right words to turn despair into determination...
...The enthusiastic receptions by friendly crowds in Dublin and Belfast seem to inspire a heartfelt eloquence in the president...
...But the date seems auspicious...
...The first sitting chief executive ever to visit Northern Ireland, his interests seem to transcend any domestic political advantage...
...He cited the motto on America's smallest coin, the penny, E Pluribus Unum, as the only political philosophy possible in a diverse society...
...It is easier to talk about political deals: the Unionists with their nine parliamentary votes can manipulate British Prime Minister John Major because in the last parliamentary challenge to his government his hold on power depended on only one vote...
...In the meantime, in an attempt to work for another ceasefire, the British and Irish governments have announced that all-party talks will begin on June 10...
...The political analysis and philosophy of John Hume, whom he calls, "my friend," and the writings of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney were the vehicles that drew him beyond the media's surface presentation...
...Maneuvering on the ground rules for these elections is now going on...
...Clinton said that America's gift to Ireland is "unity in diversity...
...Clinton has already done more than any U.S...
...As an American acutely aware of his Irish roots, I was deeply interested in it and troubled by it...
...At the New York dinner, Clinton called Hume "Ireland's most eloquent spokesman of peace," and challenged Irish-Americans to consider the "journey of the soul" made by both Hume and Heaney-a journey that is "a fight against cynicism and giving up, a fight against the anger and anguish that comes from feeling impotent in the face of larger events...
...His December visit to Ireland made this understanding tangible...
...And that is the gift that Irish-Americans must give Ireland in our lifetime...
...But perhaps the pundits miss the point...
...Among Unionist politicians the sentiment seemed to be, "See, we told you you can't trust the IRA...
...Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, John Hume, and Gerry Adams (a private guest) were also there...
...The February 9 bombing in London that ended the IRA cease-fire was expected to dampen annual Saint Patrick's Day festivities...
...We all know," he said, "that we come tonight in a celebration that is not as unambiguous as we might have hoped....Tonight, in the land of our ancestors, the future once again is at a crossroads...
...Unity in diversity-let's hope...
...Receiving the Irish-American of the Year Award in New York on March 11, President Bill Clinton described his December trip to Ireland as "the best days of my life...
Vol. 123 • April 1996 • No. 7
