>From MCELROY@zodiac.rutgers.edu Sun May 2 19:48:06 1993 Re-posted from Reg.Ireland It concerns a campaign pledge made by Pres. Clinton that he would appoint a special peace envoy for Northern Ireland. Topic 337 Des Wilson on Peace Envoy tlane reg.ireland 8:53 pm Apr 15, 1993 BELFAST PERSPECTIVE End To Arrogance? By: Fr. Des Wilson One of the most interesting aspects of the discussion about sending a "peace envoy" or a "fact-finder" to Ireland is that the United States government no longer accepts the version of Ireland given by British Information Services. If it did, why send a fact-finder? APPALLING ARROGANCE One of the most atrocious lies of British Information Services is that Irish Catholics and Protestants cannot live together in peace. To accuse any people of this is appalling arrogance! It is accusing a people of lacking one of the most elementary of human abilities--that of being able to live side-by-side with other human beings. HAWKED This lie has been hawked around the world by British Intelligence Services (or British Information Services, which is the same thing) and reinforced, unfortunately, by church officials who have told the same lie. In the north of Ireland, where between 20% and 30% of Catholics marry Protestants and others, the lie seems impossible to believe. The United States government believed it for decades, however, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. We have said it before, but it is worth saying again because this time, in the new climate of opinion in the United States, it may be listened to by those in government who so far have supported the British government at all costs. PUBLIC MISTRUST The first step towards defeating a tyranny is to know the truth about it. So, if the American government now publicly signals its mistrust of British Information Services, then we are on our way. If the government in Dublin would follow suit, we Irish democrats would be in a strong position indeed. DUBLIN There are rumors in Ireland that the Dublin government is pulling back from its opposition to Irish democrats at home or abroad. That remains to be seen. The embassy and consulates will have to prove their goodwill before it would be safe to believe any such rumor. There is as yet not the slightest scintilla of evidence to show that the Irish embassies or consulates abroad are anything but firmly opposed to those who in their quest for a modern democracy in Ireland have dared to oppose British government policy in Ireland. These embassies have facilitated a prolonged and sustained anti-Catholic persecution there. As far as the anti-Catholic persecution is concerned--a persecution sustained by the profoundly sectarian British government--John Major recently showed his contempt for all Catholics once again. HUMAN RIGHTS He said that the only human rights abuses in the north of Ireland are those committed by paramilitaries. The constant pogroms against Catholics are not abuses of human rights, because Catholics do not count any more than Jews did under the Nazis. The constant denial of the right to live in certain areas--Catholics are driven out of them by pogroms once every 12 years--does not count any more than it counted under the Nazis. The constant denial of employment and promotion to Catholics does not count. It exists, as even Major would have to concede, but it does not count. The deeply and irretrievably sectarian and anti-democratic government led by Major now makes clear the basic difficulty of creating a modern democracy in Ireland under British rule. You might as well have asked for democracy under Hitler or Stalin--because in the eyes of all of them, some citizens simply do not count. Why should the American people support or even countenance such a tyranny? Conf? Topic 338 Des Wilson on Peace Envoy #2 tlane reg.ireland 8:55 pm Apr 15, 1993 BELFAST PERSPECTIVE: OPPOSING THE ENVOY By: Father Des Wilson British opposition to President Clinton's sending of a peace envoy to Ireland has shown itself in a number of ways. The British press poured out venom against the Americans, telling them to "keep their fingers out of other people's affairs." Irish democrats reminded their friends abroad that you can do as much as you will for the British regime--even winning two world wars for them--but you will get no thanks for it. Conservative backbenchers added their fury to the shouts in the market place. How dare the Americans interfere? RELIGION Church leaders reflected the government's fear of any spotlight being turned on the British regime by democrats from America or elsewhere. When it was suggested that Mr. Foley be appointed, not as peace envoy, but as fact-finder for the President, British Unionists were enraged. Mr. Foley is friendly to the British government, and yet the British Unionists were furious over his possible appointment. Why? Because he is a Catholic. ANTI-CATHOLIC Individuals in the United States find it difficult to understand how racist and deeply anti-Catholic the British regime is. You can be as loyal to the regime as you wish; you can serve it, help it buy property in other people's countries, facilitate it in every way--but at the end of the day, if you are a Catholic, you are out. Very few Catholics want to be married in the Chapel in Westminster--but they cannot, whether they want it or not, no matter how loyal they are. And if a member of the British ruling family], the Windsors, marries a Catholic, he or she is at once barred from ever becoming monarch, no matter how near he or she may be in line for the throne. Or how far--a recently barred member of the family was 16th in line. So, Mr. Foley is unacceptable to the British Unionists because he is a Catholic and the regime has pursued a relentless anti-Catholic persecution for more than 70 years. CONVERT Even if Mr. Foley went so far as to give up being a Catholic and joined, say, the Church of England or the Church of Ireland, he would still be unacceptable because he had been a Catholic. A cabinet minister in the Stormont regime was politically destroyed when: 1) he offended Presbyterian churchmen, and 2) he was found to have had a Catholic grandmother. RESENTMENT The British government itself, although it must adopt a suitably humble attitude before the US government, resents even a fact-finding emissary coming from the United States. After all, the regime spends millions of dollars each year on its British Information Services, giving its version of what is happening in Ireland. Is this not enough? Is the President saying that the British Information Services are untruthful? Or unreliable? Irish democrats hope so, because the Services are unreliable and untruthful. Or is he4 saying that it is not enough to read back numbers of British Information Services brochures to find out what is happening in Ireland? For the first time, the BIS version of Ireland is being publicly questioned at a high level. UNTRUSTWORTHY BIS pamphlets and handouts--technically well produced but intellectually inept--go regularly to universities, libraries, embassies, consulates, church establishments, media, etc. They give an account of Irish affairs which is inaccurate and cynical. By even suggesting that an emissary be sent to Ireland on a fact-finding mission, one is saying clearly that this elaborate British network of propaganda is not to be trusted any longer by the White House. BREAKTHROUGH Perhaps this signals a significant breakthrough towards the truth and towards a new United States policy of helping Irish and British democrats to dismantle the last undemocratic, anti-Catholic, aristocratic regime in the European Community.