By Catherine Brown
and Frank Noakes
"I have arranged ... to increase the animosity between the Orangemen and the United Irish. Upon that animosity depends the safety of the centre counties of the North." — British General Charles Edmund Knox, 1798.
"In embarking upon our peace strategy more than eight years ago, we in Sinn Fein set ourselves an ambitious objective: to resolve a conflict rooted in centuries of division and mistrust. None of us believed that it would be easy, but all of us knew that it was a task which had to be undertaken. Peace does not come in one great and all-encompassing move. It requires a process, it requires the building of trust, it requires imagination and courage. It requires that gestures of good will be responded to and built upon", Mitchell McLaughlin, Sinn Fein chair and Derry city councillor, told an audience in the US on April 29.
Twenty-five years after Britain deployed its troops onto the streets of the north of Ireland, the August 31 cease-fire announced by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has given the peace process a dramatic and powerful impetus.
Speaking to Green Left Weekly from Belfast after the announcement of the cease-fire, McLaughlin explained that Sinn Fein's strategy was carefully conceived and "reflects the longstanding desire of republicans to create the conditions of peace and democracy in Ireland, as opposed to the endemic conditions of conflict that we have all had to live with up to now".
The cease-fire is the latest initiative in a republican peace offensive that is putting the British government on the spot. Two years ago the IRA opened a secret communications channel, through intermediaries, with British Prime Minister John Major. Later negotiations between Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party leader, John Hume, resulted in the Hume-Adams Irish Peace Initiative of October 1993.
"For the first time ever an agreed initiative by northern nationalists became the catalyst for change and political movement. The peace process emerged from this", says McLaughlin. The British and Irish governments were forced to respond and did so on December 15 with the Downing Street Declaration.
Sinn Fein embarked on an extensive consultation process around the declaration with the local community, trade unions and republican prisoners on both sides of the border.
At his party's February conference, Adams commented on the governments' declaration: "On the positive side, Major says that Britain has no longer any 'selfish, economic or strategic interest' in staying in Ireland. In a general sense that may be true as a result of the ending of the Cold War and the unlikelihood of a war in the North Atlantic." But, he added, "He fails to say that they have no political interest. Indeed, he asserts that his interest is to uphold the union.
"The British government certainly has a political interest in remaining, at least for the present. They remain politically committed to the union. They may see the weakening of the union as the first stage in the disintegration of the United Kingdom. John Major has said that he does not wish to oversee the disintegration of the United Kingdom."
Speaking in Dublin on July 6, British Labour MP Ken Livingstone told his audience that the Downing Street Declaration holds the "all-time record for ambiguity" and was a sign that the British establishment had accepted that "the game is up" in Ireland.
After 25 years of confrontation, the British government has failed to defeat the IRA. Attempts to marginalise Sinn Fein in the north have fared no better; Sinn Fein's vote continues to increase in local government elections.
Interestingly, Britain's establishment media speak of peace in Ireland, rather than "Northern Ireland", that part of Ireland which the British government and the unionist community claim as part of Britain. Is this perhaps another sign of the tide turning in the long-troubled affairs of Ireland?
A special Sinn Fein conference at Letterkenny in July again noted the inadequacies of the Downing Street Declaration — the granting of a constitutional guarantee to the existing union, a loyalist veto and the lack of self-determination for the Irish people. But, Adams told delegates, "We are determined to build upon the progress that has been made and to bridge the gaps which still clearly exist".
Just when it seemed the peace process had stalled, the IRA declared its cease-fire . "It's All Over", exclaimed the Belfast Telegraph on September 1. Whilst this is premature, the Irish nationalists have once again seized the initiative for a just peace, forcing Major to look rather silly on the world stage, nitpicking over the absence in the IRA statement of the word "permanent". Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds and US President Bill Clinton have given their unequivocal support for the IRA's statement.
Loyalist politicians have failed to proffer a united response, with the hardliners warning of civil war and the so-called moderates following the lead of Major. But like Major they too, when pressed, concede a welcoming of the cease-fire.
The British government has insisted all along that any negotiations which include Sinn Fein must wait until three months after an IRA cease-fire to test its authenticity. While Major equivocates, much to the annoyance of Reynolds, others of his ministers are quoted as saying that the three months began on August 31.
Father Joseph McVeigh spoke to Green Left Weekly from the north of Ireland about the impact of the IRA cease-fire on the nationalist community. "People are hoping and praying that it's the first step towards a lasting and just peace. People don't see it as the end of anything — rather the beginning, and only maybe. It all depends on the generosity of the British government. If they're prepared to be generous, open and responsive, then things could move very quickly. We could be in a totally new situation. I think people are hoping that something like what happened in South Africa develops. However, we don't see that all the elements are in place yet.
"For lasting peace, it will have to be in the context of some form of united Ireland."
McVeigh, from County Fermanagh on the border, sees the "almost immediate return of British troops to their barracks" as crucial. "We haven't seen any less British troop levels on the streets here in nationalist areas. The British military points to the fact they now wear berets instead of helmets and they point their guns to the ground rather than at people as a big change. However, we are very cynical about that; it's not the kind of progress we are talking about."
Important issues yet to be dealt with include "the fortifications, the big towers which are causing havoc with people's health [due to radiation]. There are the many [border] roads closed, especially where I live; people can't freely travel", says McVeigh, a long-time activist in the campaign to open border roads. The campaign mobilises people to clear away the rubble and concrete used by British troops to prevent travel between north and south. Usually the British troops return within weeks to block them again.
"But people are cautiously optimistic that things will start to move." McVeigh commented on the level of support Sinn Fein has in the community. "People have a lot of faith and confidence in the leadership of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. People are also growing to respect John Hume's role in this and are confident that this combination can push both the Dublin and British governments to bring us in to a totally new situation acceptable to the unionists and all other parties."
Asked by the Irish Times why the IRA had called a cease-fire prior to any commitment by the British government to revoke the unionist veto or to withdraw from Ireland, Adams pointed out that the IRA "has a vested interest in facilitating and enhancing the peace process". The IRA announcement "has brought all of us to a very important and decisive point.
"What is important is that the British government has said they are interested in peace in Ireland — let them now deliver on that assertion ... there is an urgent need for [John Major] to respond speedily, to consolidate the peace and to match the enormity of the IRA initiative."
Adams stressed, "The change I want to see will involve the British government withdrawing from our country and leaving behind a peaceful and stable Ireland". Adams is demanding the disbanding of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the huge and highly paid police force which he described as the "armed wing of the unionists".
Asked by Green Left Weekly whether there were signs that the British government had changed its position on the north of Ireland, Mitchell McLaughlin said that the coming weeks would provide a definitive answer. But, he said, "In the current circumstances the failure of the British government to respond positively, I believe, is very distressing and also potentially very damaging to the peace process.
"To be fair, it is clear that John Major has made some moves that reflect a change from traditional Tory Party policy towards Ireland. We must also be realistic in view of the very real problems he has with a slim parliamentary majority and a very, very strong anti-nationalist rump within his own party. However, despite our patience and our understanding, there is an expectation that leadership and leaders will lead.
"We believe that if John Major seized the opportunity to go down in history as the British prime minister who participated in the development of agreement on democracy, that would itself substantially improve his political standing."
Not everybody in the nationalist community has welcomed the cease-fire and the prospect of negotiation with the British. Former Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette Devlin McAliskey said that the war is over and the good guys lost. "I'm not against the cease-fire, I'm just against dirty dealing, but this isn't my game, it's a dirty dishonest game."
McAliskey added, "If they [Sinn Fein and the IRA] really do believe they can put their faith in the social democratic system to deliver, they had better be right because if they are wrong they won't be leading this struggle for very long". McAliskey has refused to expand on her comments, including to Green Left Weekly. Others have mirrored McAliskey's comments.
McLaughlin believes these views are out of step with the very strong popular reaction to the development. "In terms of the political complexion of those who have engaged in the process, Sinn Fein for its part has very clearly defined policies which will guide us throughout this exercise. We have not changed our policies; we have formed our policies in open political discussion at our annual congress, and we are guided by very firm democratic socialist principles.
"But the issue of how ultimately the Irish people will exercise self-determination depends crucially on strategies that succeed in creating the opportunity for Irish people to exercise that right.
"I think the process has to be open, it has to be accountable and in the end it has to be endorsed by the Irish people. [Any formula] has to be submitted back to the Irish people, in our view, in the form of a national referendum, and if it is endorsed then it is binding on everyone.
"The non-negotiable position that has guided us throughout this process is that it is for the Irish people alone to control and decide their destiny. It is for the Irish people alone, without external interference of any kind, to decide on the political structures by which we will be governed.
"In our view, and history quite clearly demonstrates this, British interference in Irish affairs is a recipe for conflict. The constructive role that the British government is left to play must be guided by their experience in other colonial situations from which they have disengaged. What comes to mind is the rational contribution that the British government made to the democratic settlement in Zimbabwe.
"We are going for immediate steps, though we don't expect that to be overnight, for the total demilitarisation of the situation in the north. That includes the whole paraphernalia of the British war machine in the six counties, it includes the border checkpoints, it includes the watch towers in the middle of the towns, it includes the fortifications as well as the deployment on the ground of British army patrols. All of that is in the area of the contribution to maintaining the peace momentum that the British government must eventually make."
The US administration has thrown its considerable weight behind the peace initiatives. McLaughlin doesn't see the US having any special role to play other than as part of the broader international context. "We believe that the international community can provide the essential guarantor of democratic structures which will discriminate against no-one, which would victimise no-one, which will reassure not just nationalists but unionists that what is intended is the development and emergence of an equitable democratic structure. The test of a democracy is the degree to which minorities' views are protected and represented.
"The authorities in Australia can, we believe, play a useful and constructive role in reassuring and convincing the British government that there is now an historic opportunity which must be seized and which must be moved on with authority and confidence."