The book, which is entitled “Our Plan For America,” goes into greater detail on the Democratic ticket’s proposed Irish policies than the party platform statement adopted at last week’s convention in Boston.
The platform statement was very brief and drew criticism from Irish Americans groups and activists.
The statement in the book, however, is a broader indication of what a Kerry White House might do to help move the troubled peace process to the next level.
“We are committed to the resumption of genuinely active, high-level participation in the Northern Ireland peace process,” the Irish statement in the book says.
The cover of the book, which is subtitled “Stronger At Home, Respected In The World,” presents both Senator Kerry and his vice presidential running mate Senator John Edwards, as joint authors.
The Irish section, which appears on page 35, states that Kerry and Edwards, by “pro-actively” supporting the leaders in Northern Ireland and the Irish and British governments, “will work to help achieve the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.”
Full implementation, the candidates say, will include “the restoration of the Assembly, the assurance of the permanence of the Democratic institutions, the demilitarization of Northern Ireland, an end to all paramilitarism, progress on equality and human rights, and a police service that fairly represents and is widely supported by the people of Northern Ireland.”
Kerry and Edwards also state that they are aware of Irish deportee cases and say they “will take a fresh look at them.”
Interestingly, the statement on Ireland also addresses the plight of undocumented immigrants.
“We support giving undocumented workers who have lived and worked here for five years, who pay taxes, and who are successfully screened for security purposes, a path to citizenship,” Kerry and Edwards state.
Current effort in Congress to reform immigration law are on those lines but are not specifically aimed at just the undocumented Irish.
The wording of the Irish passage in “Our Plan For America” would appear to point to a return to more direct White House participation in the North peace process should the Oval Office be occupied by John Kerry next January.
President Clinton’s Irish policies were directed from the office of the White House-based National Security Council. President Bush’s participation in the peace process has been centered in the State Department.
Bush’s two special envoys to the process, Ambassador Mitchell Reiss and his predecessor, Richard Haass, have both been widely praised for their diplomatic skills and sensitivity to the issues.
However, some Irish American activists have openly longed for a return to the more hands on style of President Clinton.
Prior to President Bush’s visit to Ireland in June, Kerry came out with a statement urging “presidential leadership” on Ireland.
Earlier, during the primary campaign, Kerry issued a comprehensive statement on Ireland, one that superseded a less detailed one released late last year.
But the Kerry statements were not matched in the Democratic platform adopted last week, a development that displeased not a few including the Irish American Unity Conference.
The group described the platform treatment of Ireland as an “inadequate and anemic mention of the Northern Ireland issue.”
“Irish America deserves and demands more than polite and meaningless words about Northern Ireland. We demand clear and straight forward answers from the American political parties and candidates as to how they are going to move the peace process in Northern Ireland,” said IAUC president Andrew Somers.
The Democrats, however, vowed to follow up on the less than expansive Irish platform statement with a more comprehensive, post-convention version in the Kerry/Edwards book.
The platform statement said simply that the Democrats were determined to help create a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, would support efforts by the Irish and British governments and the political parties to break the current impasse and achieve full implementation of the Good Friday agreement.
The book statement is an advance on this inasmuch as it points to the kind of presidential leadership on Ireland that Sen. Kerry claims has been absent during the almost four years of the Bush administration.
The wording of the Irish statement in the book will increase interest in the Republican Party Platform, to be unveiled at the GOP convention in New York at the end of this month.
The Republicans issued a far more detailed platform statement on Ireland in 1992 than their Democratic rivals.