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Irish-America in need of an update

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
sent by Simon McGuinness

June 29, 2007: The Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2007/0629/1183047342305.html

Peter and Martin's laugh-in 

Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson in the centre of political
Washington this week were a sight for sore eyes

by Fionnuala O'Connor

For those already desensitised by the simultaneous smiles of McGuinness
and Robinson's leader, the duo on the Capitol steps was an intriguing
novelty.

In public, the DUP's deputy leader does not smile easily. Having spent
his adult life in the shadow of Ian Paisley, he knows better than to
compete on personability. The general perception is of a chilly being
with legalistic skills, intent on making his party the lead player in
unionism and the new Stormont. The Robinson history suggests no zest for
risk-taking. He will hardly match McGuinness grin for grin in the US -
but who can? Turning up in America with Sinn F(c)in's deputy leader is
enough. Robinson did not need to add, as he did, that they had been
working together for nearly two months "and we haven't had a row". For
many just the sight of DUP and Sinn F(c)in together begins to relegate the
bad days and suggests the first hint of mutual trust. Put the two
against a US backdrop, and you have history refocused on the hoof. With
a flicker of leftover questions.

The Washington jaunt is designed partly to support the constant search
for investment, its showcase a display of touristic attraction at the
annual "folk tradition festival" in the august Smithsonian museum. The
sales pitch was launched on St Patrick's Day. In an elongated imitation
of Dublin's annual official exodus, almost half the total team of
Stormont Ministers - three DUP, two Sinn F(c)in, one SDLP and one Ulster
Unionist - are now whizzing in and out of the US inside a fortnight.
Back in Stormont, the Alliance Party said too many had gone travelling:
Alliance has no ministers.

The day after that Capitol sighting, DUP Enterprise Minister Nigel Dodds
- - given to voicing more unease at the party's new situation than
Robinson - swatted the "outdated rhetoric" of a New York congressman's
complaint at the Orange Order's Smithsonian display. Sensible people
would not allow elements in Irish America "drag us into the past", said
Dodds.

First Minister Ian Paisley might have been on the US tour if not for a
prior engagement, to commemorate the first World War carnage at the
Somme. His latterday "grand old man" style sits well with such
occasions, as with Westminster setpieces such as Wednesday's farewell to
Tony Blair. But he might have entertained a few qualms about Washington
alongside the Deputy First Minister, in spite of their jovial public
appearances at home.

In the company of American fundamentalists the DUP leader long ago
staked out one stretch of US territory, the Bible Belt. There were big
deterrents beyond that sphere.

The States have not been easy territory for unionism. For more than two
decades, John Hume was the Irish politician with most influence in the
US, and the wider world. It was one of the achievements that made him so
loathed, despite the moderation of his nationalism, by unionists and a
slice of Westminster. Hume preached a simple enough gospel. Don't send
money to the IRA, he said, do invest in Northern Ireland, and press
Britain to make the North a level playing field.

Not so long ago British governments and unionism were agreed - more
completely than on almost anything else - on the cheek of Americans who
dared criticise the Northern Ireland administration. It may be long
enough ago for some to have forgotten. Criticism from other parts of the
world was no more welcome but tempers rose fastest when the critics had
American accents and names that suggested Irish origins.

Belfast press conferences by senators and congressmen brandishing
statistics on employment brought snippy rejoinders about race riots and
trigger-happy cops in big American cities. The professed root of the
objection was that the IRA used outside criticism to justify their
violence, and that Irish-Americans had been big funders of the IRA -
this bit was true enough.

At bottom, though, the objection was that Northern Ireland was an
exclusively British concern, an internal matter. Therefore external
criticism could not be legitimate.

Official White House support for the nationalist-inspired peace process
only emerged when a determined Irish-American campaign recruited
candidate Bill Clinton. Following Clinton's lead, American envoys have
worked hard to demonstrate even-handedness. The Troubles were well
alight before Britain accepted the goodwill of Irish governments, and
their right to be interested. It took longer to recognise that
Irish-Americans might well be impartial.

The Stormont Ministers on the US trail follow successive waves of
Northern emissaries with new stories since 1993 and the lead-in to the
first IRA ceasefire. The buzz of those earliest conferences may have
gone, but the idea of Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness on Capitol
Hill together still has a ring to it.

(c) 2007 The Irish Times



       
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