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Editorial Dangerous rift

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Unionists, in derogatory tones, referred to it as the pan-nationalist front. For Irish Americans, the photograph of Albert Reynolds, Gerry Adams and John Hume joining hands was the realization of a dream, one that would help propel long-troubled Northern Ireland toward a just and lasting settlement.

In time, that settlement took firmer shape in the form of the Good Friday peace agreement of April 1998. The agreement wasn’t to everybody’s absolute liking, but, for a short time at least, it seemed to pull together all the parties involved in the quest for the elusive final settlement. Certainly, Irish America — most of it, at any rate — was on board, as was the Clinton administration, the Irish and British governments, the political parties in Ireland and, in time, the great majority of voters on the island.

As the weeks and months passed, however, fractures began to appear. Those between Sinn Féin and Unionism were the most apparent. No surprise really. It would take a lot more than just a document and a referendum to fill the chasm between both. Still, it was widely felt that a steady hand jointly presented by Dublin, London and Washington could keep things mostly on track.

Irish America played its part. Once the problems over a Gerry Adams visa had been set aside, the U.S. turned into something of a happy hunting ground, not just for Sinn Féin, but for all the parties signed on to the accord. Even before the Good Friday breakthrough, U.S. soil was seen to have something of a soothing effect on even the most frayed political nerves, Northern and Southern. This St. Patrick’s Day, however, the tensions building back in Ireland became more evident on this side of the Atlantic. David Trimble, the North’s leader-in-waiting, came across as being particularly on edge. Still, there yet remained enough apparent unity of purpose to reassure nervous onlookers, not least those Irish Americans who have had an input into the peace process from the start.

The Hillsborough Declaration, issued less than two weeks ago by the Irish and British governments, as reasonable as it seems to someone late arrived to the fray, appears, however, to have negated some of the more optimistic feelings held by Irish Americans who have applied time and energy to the peace process. Worse, the declaration has exposed a fissure between those same Irish Americans — at least those who would broadly support Sinn Féin — and the Irish government led by Bertie Ahern. That Reynolds/Adams/Hume photo is suddenly looking a bit faded at the edges.

It is safe to say that most Irish Americans still agree that decommissioning, as per the Good Friday accord, is desirable, indeed imperative. Certainly, a good number of members of Congress appear to feel that way. Sixty-three of them, including the co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs and the chairman of the Friends of Ireland committee released a statement this week calling for implementation of the accord as soon as possible "without preconditions." That would seem to suggest that the view on Capitol Hill too is not quite that from Hillsborough.

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Before the fissure becomes a dangerous rupture, those who take the broadest view of the way ahead must work to heal current divisions, real or imagined. The growing partnership of recent years between Irish America and successive Irish governments must be reaffirmed and nurtured anew. Without it, the Clinton administration could not be faulted if it became increasingly wary of involvement in a process that still offers the best chance of meaningful peace and cooperation in Northern Ireland since partition.

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