9.4.2006
Reports obtained from:
(1) Daily Ireland, (2) Sunday Business Post
Wednesday, 15 March, 2006
Sunday, 9 April, 2006
Ex-Congressman says plan B must start
By Jim Dee, Daily Ireland USA correspondent
Former US politician Bruce Morrison says the British and Irish governments must move things forward within the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and remove the DUP veto
In 1993 and 1994, former US Congressman Bruce Morrison made several trips to Ireland as head of an Irish-American delegation that was exploring ways to advance the cause of peace. In August 1994, when the IRA announced its historic ceasefire, he was sure that a new day had dawned. "I was euphoric because I thought that it was a great watershed. And I still think so today," said Morrison during an interview with Daily Ireland from his Maryland home.
A trained lawyer, Morrison served in the US House of Representatives between 1982 and 1991. He is often credited with having helped convince long-time friend Bill Clinton to get involved in the quest for peace in Ireland. Although no longer involved at the level he once was, Morrison still closely follows the peace process. He remains optimistic about the prospects for lasting peace but is frustrated at how some people have taken for granted the progress to date. "I'm disappointed with how things have ground to a halt in terms of the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement," said Morrison. "At various times, it has fallen to various players to do things. The most recent important things that have been done have been done by republicans, in terms of the standing down of the IRA. That, ostensibly, was a very important goal to people in the unionist community but it has been treated as if it were a non-event. "Everybody could have wished it might have come sooner. But it has happened, and that is very positive. That certainly should be enough, one would think, to resuscitate the assembly and the executive."
Morrison now heads the Morrison Public Affairs Group lobbying firm. He said he thought the British government had erred badly in suspending the assembly in 2002. He feels this gave the Democratic Unionist Party and other unionists an excuse not to engage in negotiations. "There's nothing new here. Paisley and the DUP were not for the Good Friday Agreement when it was concluded, and they're not for it now. And I doubt they'll ever be for it," Morrison said. "No one can force them to go into government, but they shouldn't be paid to be in a government they don't want to go into. I don't think there's any justification for having elected assembly people who won't meet - and get paid. That's ridiculous."
Morrison said it was now time for the British and Irish governments to move towards Plan B. "Plan B is to implement the Good Friday Agreement between the two governments, since the two governments are sovereign parties to an international agreement," he said. "If the political parties in Northern Ireland can't agree on a local government for Northern Ireland, so be it. And then all of the other matters - cross-border matters and matters within Northern Ireland itself - should be moved forward and implemented within the terms of the Good Friday agreement. "If that's okay with the DUP and its voters, if they're happy to have deals done over their heads by people from London and Dublin, then so be it. If they don't want that done, then they're going to have to change their position on devolution, but to leave them in a position where they have a veto power, no matter what others do, is to destroy the Good Friday Agreement. And they've made no secret of the fact that they don't support the Good Friday Agreement and they don't want it implemented."
Morrison said the peace process had suffered from a lack of full engagement by the Bush administration, which he said had placed Ireland "low on the radar" since occupying the White House. He said this has had led to misconceptions about how progress was achieved, and ham-fisted attempts at pressuring political parties into making moves they were not ready to make. He said a case in point was the effort to get Sinn Fein to sign up to the Policing Board. "It's not the nature of anybody in Northern Ireland to respond to pressure," Morrison said. "They respond to incentives and leverage and private diplomacy. But demanding that people do things in public runs against the character of the place and is not a good strategy. So, the strategy of the US telling Adams: 'Gerry, we're not going to let you fundraise until you go on the Policing Board' is like asking for the response: 'Well, if you think you can push me around, just try me.'"
Morrison told Daily Ireland that he also felt Mitchell Reiss' decision to place fundraising restrictions on Gerry Adams' entry visa - in November and this week - made no sense at all. "He was allowed to fundraise when the IRA was active!" said Morrison. "I told Mitchell Reiss himself that, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. "I think that that is the mistake here. I don't think this form of pressure is going to bear any fruit."
As for the mood in Washington this St Patrick's week, Morrison said he felt there would be no repeat this year of the events of last year - when a media feeding frenzy accompanied the visit of the McCartney sisters and Bridgeen Hagans. He said the IRA's move to stand down its units and complete decommissioning would make for a dramatically improved reception for Gerry Adams, even if he is not allowed to fundraise. Still, Morrison feels the IRA's moves were undervalued. "People have really missed the importance of what the IRA said in its order to its volunteers. It said that they were to cease various activities - including criminal activities," said Morrison. "And what they did, when they said that, is not to ensure that any IRA-related person would never do a bad thing - no one could deliver that - but what they said is that it would no longer be justified as a political act on behalf of Irish unity. In other words, they withdrew the sanction of the armed struggle which has been used to justify criminal activities and violent activities for a long time." He said relatives of the murdered Dubliner James Rafferty, who will attend a White House reception on St Patrick's Day, clearly deserved justice. However, he insisted that this quest for justice should not impact upon the peace process. "I don't know what the facts of the Rafferty case are but I think it's a case for the Garda and the courts of the Republic of Ireland. It's not a reason for a media spectacle in the United Sates. It's certainly not business for the United States Congress or the White House. It's ridiculous," said Morrison. "If this agreement means anything, if the stand-down of the IRA and what they said means anything, then the criminal law ought to be fairly and aggressively enforced in both North and South against people who break the law - regardless of whether they are republicans or loyalists or something in between."
As was the case in 1994, Morrison remains convinced that the IRA is serious about peace. "The day they decided on the ceasefire, they decided the IRA would stand down," he said. "The question was how long was it going to take. Because once they committed themselves fully to the political process and certainly by the time the signed up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, there weren't two tracks available. There was only one. And there was no going back."
Morrison said the Irish peace process remained "a lesson to the world that you can change the terms of engagement. So it is a success. It just has to be consolidated and completed. And, frankly, I think a more engaged White House and a more daring set of governments on the scene might have moved the ball faster than it's been moved," he said.
Copyright © 2006 Daily Ireland
Plan B for the North
By Pat Leahy, Sunday Business Post
Officials in Dublin, London and Belfast expect to develop plans for increased joint inter-governmental power over the North in the coming months. This will put flesh on the bones of the ‘Plan B’ indicated by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair in Armagh last week.
If the revived Northern Assembly cannot elect a power-sharing administration to take responsibility for the governance of Northern Ireland by November 24 (this is ‘Plan A’) the British and Irish governments will proceed with plans to implement those parts of the Good Friday Agreement they can without devolution, according to senior officials on both sides.
It is expected that the joint governmental efforts will centre around the areas of enhanced North-South cooperation, the human rights and equality agenda and the British-Irish dimension.
However, Irish and British government officials would not be drawn last week on timetables for meetings or agendas which would be discussed. Both sets of officials insisted that the focus was primarily on Plan A.
Nonetheless, political sources in Dublin emphasised that the proposals for the extension of cooperation over the North were real and the determination of the two governments to end the current political limbo in the North within at least the medium term was genuine.
It’s also finite - sources on both British and Irish sides also insisted that the November deadline wouldn’t slip into 2007.
‘‘It’s the first time that they’ve really put Plan B on the table,” said one Dublin source. ‘‘Previously it’s been Plan A, Plan A, Plan A. Now the important thing is that they have a Plan B and they want to put flesh on it.
‘‘The focus is on Plan A right now. But if people think there isn’t a Plan B, they’re making a big mistake.
“There will be a Plan B, and it will be ready to go,” said an Irish government source, who declined to be drawn on further details.
British sources confirmed the alternative framework. The aim is to make sure that direct rule is not cost-free to the DUP, said one reliable source.
It is believed that meetings between British and Irish officials will be stepped up and plans firmed up after the summer if the restoration of the institutions in the North looks unlikely.
It is hoped the threat of extension of Dublin’s influence and authority over the North, which is central to Plan B, will act as a spur - a threat, some might say - to Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party to form a Stormont administration with Sinn Fein.
The success of the final push announced by the government (though leaked in advance) last week depends heavily on whether Paisley and the DUP can bring themselves to the table with Sinn Fein.
While a repetition of something like the Northern Bank robbery or the Robert McCartney murder would again throw the process into reverse if IRA or Sinn Fein involvement could be established, it was noticeable last week that the killing of Denis Donaldson in Donegal did not derail the week’s agenda as it once might have. Even Michael McDowell restrained himself.
IRA decommissioning last summer has changed the automatic apportionment of blame, from some quarters at least.
The DUP’s reaction to the announcement was muted, indicating that it understands that the deadline of November 24 is directed primarily at Paisley and his party.
A speech by DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson in New York last Wednesday night - although lauded in some quarters for its closing aspiration that ‘‘the sons and daughters of the Planter and the Gael’’ could live together in peace - emphasised the DUP’s tough position throughout, and showed little evidence of willingness to move towards power-sharing.
‘‘The question is not ‘Will the DUP work with Sinn Fein, if it operates by exclusively democratic and peaceful means?’” Robinson said.
‘‘The question is whether Sinn Fein can ever attain that status.”
Nonetheless, it is widely believed that Robinson is among the wing of the DUP that believes that doing business with Sinn Fein is inevitable.
They may be expected to argue that doing so from a position of strength is preferable to entering government from a position of weakness.
The challenge for the DUP’s progressives - who want to sit in government, is not just to secure the assent of Paisley but how to get over the objections of their own people.
A large chunk of the unionist population still has to be convinced that it’s not a historic betrayal - a threat which has always loomed large in the unionist psyche - to enter government with Sinn Fein.
There is a reason, after all, why the DUP is the largest party in the North.
For the two governments, the sense of fatigue and impatience is everywhere. By the end of this year, Blair may well be gone or almost gone and Ahern will have the pressing matter of re-election to attend to in 2007. ‘‘They simply won’t have the time to do it any more after that,” said an Irish official.
These deadlines, as much as the internal dynamics of the process, are what is driving the push for November - and the appearance of a real Plan B.
Last week, Irish officials sounded keener than the British for the extension of joint authority, although Blair was firm in his insistence that post-November, the North will be into a new phase. ‘‘The DUP will know what’s coming [after November],” said a Dublin source.
It’s still a gamble, though.
‘‘Whether the threat of joint authority will be enough is anyone’s guess,” said one British source.
Copyright © 2006 Sunday Business Post
Finally, a possible end to the North’s political impasse
By Tom McGurk, Sunday Business Post
Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair must have the patience of Job. As the political Rubik’s cube that is the attempt to turn the North into a power-sharing democracy continues to revolve unsolved (entering a ninth year since the Good Friday Agreement), the week’s events in Armagh seemed like the flogging of a dead horse.
There was more than a note of exasperation as the Taoiseach reminded all those present that he had given some of the best years of his political life to this cause. Many, many people have given the best years of their lives to this process.
For the first time this week the notion of a ‘Plan B’ emerged. The joint communique from both governments carried the following significant paragraph: ‘‘If restoration of the Assembly and the Executive has to be deferred, the governments agree that this will have immediate implications for their joint stewardship of the process. We are beginning detailed work on British-Irish partnership arrangements that will be necessary in these circumstances to ensure that the Good Friday agreement, which is the indispensable framework for relations on and between these islands, is actively developed across its structures and functions.
“The work will be shaped by the commitment of both governments to a step-change in advancing North-South co-operation and action for the benefit of all.”
So does ‘‘joint stewardship’’ and ‘‘British-Irish partnership arrangements’’ - not to mention a wholly new concept first referred to here as ‘‘a step-change’’ - add up to joint authority if devolution flops again?
Imagine the midnight hours that the London and Dublin mandarins spent with their dictionaries to ensure this veiled warning to unionism didn’t provoke the boys in Ballybackwards.
Interestingly, the final sentence in this paragraph stresses ‘‘co-operation and action’’ which in itself is a meekish depiction of ‘‘joint authority’’ if that’s what’s intended. However, for all that, this is the first time Plan B has been allowed to show itself - and it’s no secret that for some time now the situation papers on Plan B have been typed up and ready to go in both London and Dublin.
The problem with Plan B is that is it is only concerned with North-South matters and as such will still have little impact on political and social matters within the North. It may well bring about a huge improvement in cross-border or even all-Ireland relations in certain matters, but it can hardly affect all that much the day-to-day bread and butter matters of local politics in the North. It’s hard to image where it could affect critical matters now emerging in the North to do with education, local government reform, health and the increasing possibility of water charges.
One does not have to be unionist or nationalist to recognise that the system of direct rule ministry in the North is less than satisfactory. The direct rule ministers rarely stay very long. Essentially they are the politically ambitious who are doing their stint in the ‘colonies’ over in Belfast until they can get back to London and resume Westminster politics. One would be hard pressed to think of one who has made any impact in recent years.
They have really no affiliation to, or interest in the place - it’s largely an outposting to be endured on their way up the ministerial ladder.
For example, recently Jeff Rooker, the minister in charge of planning matters, signalled the virtual ending of all one-off house-building in the Northern countryside.
It is an extraordinary piece of legislation, which is telling country people that if they want new houses they will have to go and live in villages or towns. Mr Rooker, in the process of justifying this extraordinary decision, then manifested his total ignorance of Irish geopolitics and traditional patterns of land ownership by decrying the numbers of one-off houses built in the North in comparison to England and Wales. Mr Rooker’s suburbanite English mentality only serves to point up the mediocrity and cultural unsuitability of direct rule ministers.
It is, of course, now within the political psyche of Ian Paisley to press the button for democratic, locally administered power-sharing. But one has only to watch the recent idiotic television performances of DUP spokesmen such as Edwin Poots to understand just how incapable these people are of dealing with their own phantoms.
By any standards, the DUP response to almost anything is more psychosis than politics. The party has painted itself into a corner with its own rhetoric and, in doing so, has trapped thousands of ordinary unionists who would like to exercise some political power again. Paisley heads up a community whose members are lost and politically sleepwalking.
Now - at last - both Blair and Ahern essentially have told them that their interminable squabble and bad faith with anything that originates more than 30 miles from Ballymena can no longer waste our time. Beyond is the real world, where people are getting on with their lives, and where there are actually many more important matters to be got on with.
They’re now in the last chance saloon and, come November, if they don’t use their political mandate, it will be used for them. And, of course, what makes the DUP position so unacceptable is the massive price their political failure is exacting on their own communities. The North’s economy is a basket case, indeed nowadays crossing the border into the Republic is, more and more, like leaving a third world country. The DUP’s political mandate comes from people who are among the lowest achievers, educationally or economically, in Europe. The six counties still seem frozen in time, with many large provincial towns dreary and poorly serviced.
And every year, huge numbers of middle-class Protestant children go to third-level education in Britain and do not return.
It’s part of a brain drain that has left the Northern Protestant community almost bereft of a new generation that might offer some hope for the future.
In the end, Ian Paisley did become king of the unionist castle. Now, every morning he can wake up, close one eye and be king.
Copyright © 2006 Sunday Business Post