jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (12/11/84)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The following articles deal with the Anglo-Irish summit conference held near London during the weekend of November 17, 1984. The purpose of the conference was to come to grips with the problem of Northern Ireland and bring an end to the eight hundred and fifteen year struggle over the sovereignty of Ireland. Months before that conference, a group of political leaders from Ireland, both north and south, had come together under the name the New Ireland Forum and had wrestled with the problems for many months before issuing their final report. The press had touted the Forum as the best alternative to the armed struggle. During the London summit conference, Margaret Thatcher, completely rejected all three alternative plans worked out by the Forum. The following articles express the views of the New York Times on the London summit. editorial, November 24, 1984 The Ins and Outs of Ireland In diplomatic reports, "full and frank" talks are those that fail to reach an agreement. Britain's Prime Minister Thatcher went even further in describing her recent meeting with Ireland's Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald. "That is out" is how she dealt with his Government's three ideas for ending the agony of Northern Ireland. Mrs. Thatcher may be in no mood for concessions to Irish nationalism so soon after she was nearly killed by the bomb of its violent fringe. But if Britain persists in rejecting every peaceful change, the hit squads of the Irish Republican Army will be the beneficiaries. This is doubly true if Britain also fails to address the legitimate grievances about criminal justice in Northern Ireland. Britain bears a heavy responsibility for its Irish troubles. It partitioned the island in 1922, granting independance to the south while turning the north into a sectarian stockade under its own flag. It then tied its hands by granting Northern Ireland's one million Protestants a veto over any changes in sovereignty. This veto has been misused to block concessions to the North's half-million Catholics. In bitter despair, a minority of this minority has turned to violence. Prime Minister FitzGerald voiced the hopes of the nonviolent majorities, North and South. His Irish Forum report broke new ground by proposing not only North-South union or confederation but acknowledging Protestant claims to British identity. It offered a third choice compromise of "joint authority" - letting both Britain's and Ireland's flags fly in Northern Ireland. If Mrs. Thatcher sweeps that aside, she reinforces the inflexibility of her most highhanded citizens. No one doubts her courage in opposing the demonic fanaticism of the IRA. But she has yet to show the same resolve in dealing with Northern Ireland's Protestants, who refuse to share power or even symbols with an oppressed minority. That oppression is shamefully evident in the criminal justice system. Ninety-five percent of Northern Ireland's police are Protestant and a single judge can convict without jury. And nowhere else in Great Britain do the police aim plastic bullets against demonstrators. Eliminating these anomalies requires no change in flags. Doing at least that would dispel the futility that results from Mrs. Thatcher's annual meetings with Ireland's leader. clyde!bonnie!jmm J. M. McGhee