George Mitchell, the architect of the Good Friday agreement, will put lessons learned in Northern Ireland to work in an effort to broker a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
U.S. reports on Mitchell’s appointments invariably referred to his work in the North.
“Mitchell is probably best known on the world stage for the Good Friday agreement he negotiated between Roman Catholics and Protestants that created a cease-fire in Northern Ireland in 1998.
“A year later, he returned to Northern Ireland to negotiate a power-sharing agreement between the warring factions that lead to the creation of a coalition government. In 1999, Mitchell published a book, ‘Making Peace,’ on the negotiations in Northern Ireland,” CNN reported.
Democrat Mitchell, a Maine native with Irish and Lebanese family roots, is a former Senate majority leader. He is expected to use the Northern Ireland peace process as a template for the Middle East, though, undoubtedly, the scale of the problems in the region is far greater than that which Mitchell faced in Northern Ireland more than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, while there has not been any movement towards naming a Barack administration envoy for Northern Ireland, there has been further speculation that Caroline Kennedy still may have a role in government, though not as a junior Senator from New York. And that role might be U.S. ambassador to Ireland.
Kennedy’s name again has emerged as a frontrunner for the post just vacated by Ambassador Thomas Foley.
The factors that possibly derailed Kennedy’s appointment to the U.S. Senate, including reported tax and nanny issues, could be sorted out by the time her appointment, should it come to fruition, entails a sit down before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Another possible candidate for the ambassador’s job, Carol Wheeler, was seen with other prominent Irish Americans at the Phoenix Park Hotel in Washington where the Irish American Democrats held an inaugural celebration. Wheeler has long been associated with Project Children and was point person on Ireland for the Obama Campaign last week.
Wheeler’s husband, Tom, is a top advisor to President Obama on technology and is the one who advocated that the administration delay the planned February digitizing of America’s television broadcasting.
Last week, the Wheelers appeared on the C-Span program, “Q&A” and discussed their early support for Barack Obama. The host of the program, Brian Lamb, asked Carol Wheeler if their work for the campaign meant they wanted positions in the administration.
She responded: “We are at a point in our lives where we want to pull back. And we didn’t go into it with a potential job in mind.”
Compared to working in Washington, being ambassador to Ireland could be viewed as just that. Meanwhile, another name being mentioned as a possibility for the Phoenix Park ambassador’s residence is Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney.