Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Dublin Letter: Shrinking State of IrelandAuthor(s): Dennis KennedySource: Fortnight, No. 85 (Jun. 21, 1974), p. 9Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25545063 .

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FRIDAY 21st JUNE 1974/9 _

government and agencies can do. Community development j

I is what it says?the development of the community to the

point where people can intelligently indicate their needs, i

know what is available to meet these needs and gain the

expertise to help themselves. This could play a large part in

the bringing of peace to Northern Ireland if it is allowed to. No single peace group or organisation can bring peace. No

single politician can do it. All Have a part to play.

Community development to be effective needs a measure j

of independence. If the Minister and his department cannot

see this; if, having seen it, they will not admit it; if their own

image matters most to them; if they try to grab all the

credit?then a very valuable field in the whole concept of

community relations will be lost.

Dublin Letter | |

Shrinking State of Ireland

Dennis Kennedy I The crowds at Michael Gaug- r-1

j han's funeral, both at Dublin ^-\

I

J and in Ballina, and on the way /tT\ \ I

I through, were a trifle large for / Xg* J I comfort. Funerals are popular (__ fl

j in Ireland, none more so than

,q7 I

I those of hunger strikers from j_r\ \ /I

J British jails, and the flag of

_<mtffc\ \\ / I

J Terence MacSweeny helped. l^fflwSPiAb\A \ / I

J True too there were a great fl^fBy^\9^ \ uri$-\ I

I many looking on out of curios- fv^Qlf^ \ /| I ity rather than sympathy, and

) fV\kl 1/ /I I the Provisionals had put some / r^Hc^-V / j effort into ensuring the biggest 1 ^^^^ 5^^ I-1?I

crowd possible, many people reportedly travelling south

I from Northern Ireland. But the emotional appeal of nationalism is still there,

potentially a danger that the Government can never forget, I and one that Dr Conor Cruise O'Brien refers to constantly

in defending the ban on IRA interviews on RTE. However,

response to a particular moment or occasion is not j

j necessarily the same as support for the traditional aims and j I values of Irish nationalism.

A better guide to actual support for "Republicanism" in

the 26 Counties should be available by the time this is in

print, through the local Government elections. Out of 3,000

j candidates around the country, some 120 have been put up

by Sinn Fein (Kevin Street), the first time the organisation has exposed itself at the polls, though Aontacht Eireann,

j not far removed from it in the Republican spectrum, has

I contested the Dail with scant return. In addition to the Kevin Street candidates, official Sinn

Fein?which owns the name as it got in first?has 88

candidates running. Apart from the distinction between

I official and provisional Republicanism, official Sinn Fein

J has established something of its strong social action

J tradition in local government in the republic. Starting from

j housing action, through fish-ins, Gardiner Place Sinn Fein

j can hope to win votes on its social programme alone.

J Provisional Sinn Fein, as a party, has no such social or

I local tradition, and its support, therefore, could provide I some indication of general sympathy for militant

j Republicanism. That is in so far as local elections, with their

j notoriously small turn-outs and parochial quirks, give firm

j indication of anything. In the Republic they are, however,

j fought on party lines, and in the main this contest is a

contest between the Coalition and Fianna Fail for control.

One man who, despite the Gaughan funeral, sees

nationalism as less than rampant in the Republic is the

Taoiseach, Mr. Cosgrave. It is worth noting that the only real denunciations of Mr. Cosgrave for his assertion that violence in the North was killing the desire for unity have come from the only remaining nationalists in good standing,

Mr. Eddie McAteer, and members of the SDLP. In the Republic what Mr. Cosgrave was moving towards

was an attitude that has been very common among the

general public for at least two years now. That is a plague on

both your Northern houses, we want nothing to do with you. Mr. Cosgrave is perhaps the first politician to get somewhere near saying it in public.

Northern Loyalists, or Protestants or whatever who feel under the threat of Southern imperialistic ambitions might ponder what lies behind Mr. Cosgrave's near declaration of non-intent. Several years ago a senior Dublin cabinet

minister, immersed in the Northern conundrum, remarked,

privately of course, that "all the crack would be out of a

united Ireland by the time it arrived. It was the realisation that any sort of united country that might be possible,

would be so far removed from the ideal that motivated historic Irish nationalism that it would be unrecognisable.

At various points over the crisis period others have forced themselves to look realistically at what unity might mean, and not too many have been happy with the project. Now

finally the total?or apparently total?inability of Northern

people to reach some sort of settlement after five years of

destructive violence has allowed the Taoiseach to hint at a

loss of interest in the whole subject of unity. To whom were the remarks addressed? Obviously to the

IRA, though scarcely with much hope of working a

conversion. Also to the people of the Republic, and to the

politicians of the Republic in the hope of promoting a more

realistic debate on the North. Perhaps to Northern

Protestants to show that, never mind the Constitution, the

South is really in earnest when it says it has no desire to take over the Six Counties. Perhaps also to Mr. Wilson to show

that he is not the only person who can threaten to wash his

hands off the whole affair.

Possibly too, to those who shouted loudest, the SDLP.

The Irish dimension is shrinking.

Continued from Page 2 CALVIN MACNEE

support overboard.

He would have a few thousand words to swallow, as would

Harry West, but if Glengall Street's fears of Paisley's dominating influence in the Loyalist coalition are as strong as they appear, some union of hearts and minds should be

possible. Those who do cross the floor to the old mother of Unionism will be subjected, no doubt, to all manner of criticism. But at the end of the day, the crunch question for the Protestant pragmatist who seeks to exert real influence in the real seat of power is simple: he can join the Alliance

party, and try to swell the thinning ranks, or he can join the Protestant bloc, and try to prevent it selling out completely to Paisley & Co. One may be honourable, but the other could be more useful, in the end.

And at the end, when the votes are counted, the job of all

right-thinkers could be to scrub the idea of constructing a consensus Executive here, and concentrate minds on

making direct rule as palatable as possible, for as long as it is impossible to have shared government. That could be a

matter of years, until a new federation of the UK, or

decades, until a federation of Britain and Ireland. Hold

your horses, John and Gerry, and eventually we'll get it all

together.

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