The Northern Ireland Peace
Process.
Saorstat Eireann, the Irish Free State was established 7/12/1921 after 700 years
of direct British rule. Therein, 86 years of peace negotiations with the British resulted in the devolution of the Northern Irish
Government to Stormont Buildings, near Belfast, 8th May 2007.
The main search for a political settlement in the North was initiated with the intention of including Sinn Fein (SF)
, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). The Peace Process starts with An Taoiseach Albert Reynolds and UK Prime Minister John Major in 1993. Fortunately, the essential people were in place, Martin Manseragh, his advisor on the North was in contact with Sinn Fein and the Irish Department of Foreign affairs (DFA). The Irish Embassy in Washington and London and the US Embassy in Dublin were crucial links. Sean O’hUiginn was head of the Anglo-Irish Division and Dermot Gallagher was the Irish Ambassador in Washington. Gallagher’s position in Washington was very important since there would have been no ceasefire or settlement without the Americans.
Adams (Sinn Fein) spoke to Hume (Social Democratic Labour Party, SDLP), who spoke to Ted Kennedy, who spoke to Bill Clinton. In Dublin, US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith Ted Kennedy’s sister, was a crucial conduit, gloriously antagonising her London counterpart by getting directly involved in Northern Ireland.
The US were always there as guarantors, between 1993 and 95 the US had to continuously force the British to take the process seriously. American involvement internationalised the situation which is why the British government and press hated them.
The US are a former British colony and saw the wider picture on Northern Ireland, they drove the Irish Peace process fully incensing the British. US Senators noted they had to change two governments – the Tories and the US Republicans. At the 1992 talks the Irish Government realised the Provisional IRA must be included in the process, coinciding with increased security force collusion with Loyalist paramilitaries and British Army harassment of Nationalists. In 1990, Sir Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, stated that Britain no longer had a ‘selfish, strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland.’ This phrase grew into the Hume-Adams agreement. December 1993, the Downing Street Declaration suggested the British would adopt a neutral position on Irish people working out their political future. The 1994 IRA ceasefire ensured US Ambassador, Jean Kennedy Smith was a key conduit for SF intentions.
The closed world of upper class Tories and military elites which Irish Nationalists identified as the true centre of British power was very real. The 1977 European Court of Human Rights judgement that Britain used ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ in Northern Ireland instead of torture, was a reverse for the Irish.
11.00hrs Wednesday, 31st August 1994, the IRA ceasefire was described by Seamus Mallon SDLP as 'Sunningdale for slow learners' (the IRA).
The subsequent North American investment in Northern Ireland was termed the McBride Principles, (after Sean McBride, son of executed 1916 Major McBride and Maud Gonne-McBride), with an attendant strict set of guidelines. John Hume and the Irish Government opposed these principles. Sean McBride, Irish Foreign Minister in 1948, a former IRA Chief-of-Staff won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Lenin Peace Prize (during the Cold War), thoroughly contradictory achievements. The British press savaged his memory.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement gave Ireland a consultative role in all aspects of Northern Irish life, economic, social, administrative and cultural and facilitated the later Good Friday settlement, including Sinn Fein.
‘Agreed Ireland’ meant United Ireland, ‘island as a whole’ meant United Ireland. This type of language converted the Unionists from a majority in Northern Ireland to a minority on the island of Ireland. Language co-opted them, they were seduced by the reasonableness of the Irish. Irish nationalism used diplomatic language to excellent effect. President Mary Robinson had a tremendous impact. Irish nationalism was an irresistible force.Less than 400 IRA volunteers were opposed by 28,000 British soldiers supported by 12,000 RUC Protestant (Police) and sectarian UDR (part time Protestant Police), resulting in 3,750 deaths over 40 years. This could have ended in 1974, with the Sunningdale Agreement, instead the UWC (Ulster Workers Council) strike exacerbated the sectarian fueding. In summary, Britain could no longer afford Northern Ireland, an intractable problem since partition in 1922. The economic backwardness of Northern Ireland compared to the progressive economy of the Republic of Ireland sealed the Good Friday Agreement, once SF was politically involved and the British Conservative government did not need the Unionists, Prime Minister Blair and An Taoiseach Ahern signed the Devolution Bill May 2007.