jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (10/08/84)
T. C. Wheeler says, > So, from what I read, Joe, I suppose your solution to the > lady's problem is to send some more money over to Ireland > with instructions to the IRA to go out and kill 8 RUC > members to exact revenge? T.C., you must have been reading someone else's article or you engage in reading between the lines to an excessive degree. Ann Devaney's immediate problem is to stay alive by not going back to Northern Ireland. In order to accomplish that she needs support from enough congressmen to be allowed to stay in the United States. Ann states that her lawyer is providing legal services for free, so she doesn't need or ask for contributions. She does need political support thru congress. That will satisfy her needs to avoid assassination. Beyond that the British government has a problem because they persistantly claim to be a democracy while only 26% of British citizens think that British troops should remain in Northern Ireland. The big question for them is "How much longer can they maintain the false facade of democracy?" They should immediately begin a phased withdrawal from Northern Ireland by reviving the border commission which was supposed to accomplish this in the first place and conducting a plebiscite on the question of sovereignty to be implemented on a county-by-county basis. If properly supervised by an international body and given that everyone over the age of 21 will be allowed to vote, this will result in 4 or 5 counties of the 6 counties of Northern Ireland being immediately reunited with the Republic of Ireland. They can then allow a period of some years (probably 10 or less) for the incorporation of the remaining territory while loyalists adjust their lives in an appropriate manner. What I mean by that is ending discrimination in employment and education, emigrating if that is desired or working out the details of how their government would work under a somewhat autonomous provincial government system which has been offered to assure the rights of all the citizens of a United Ireland. By this means they could legislate any laws necessary to deal with the questions of divorce and abortion in their provincial government. This is only one of four plans offered to the loyalists by the government of the Republic of Ireland. Ian Paisley who heads a large contingent of the loyalist people has already stated to newspapers in the Republic of Ireland that when reunification comes about he will stay on to represent his people in the councils of government. bonnie!jmm J. M. McGhee "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson