28.11.1996

Chance to move forward in Ireland

Last weekend, British Northern Ireland minister Michael Ancram said Sinn Fein would be re-admitted to talks if the IRA resumed a “credible and dependable” ceasefire. Though Major later rejected the four-point plan put to him by John Hume, it is obvious that behind-the-scenes negotiations are continuing apace.

Irish prime minister John Bruton expressed the view that there was growing support among republicans for a new ceasefire. He told the Irish parliament that the republicans were re-assessing the “policy of violence” and increasingly realised it was “not a way of solving problems”. This is the kind of Sunday school rhetoric that the SDLP and British liberals also like to indulge in. Of course, the Irish state was founded as a result of a partly successful violent struggle against Britain, as is clear from the film Michael Collins.

Nonetheless, the republican movement has reached a political impasse, and even a relatively small British concession would probably be enough to make it renew the ceasefire.

The Irish Republican Socialist Party continues to display a more intransigent, ‘harder’ form of republicanism than Sinn Fein. At present it its influence is negligible, but that could certainly change in the event of a renewed ceasefire.

Just as Tony Blair is the best recruiting agent for the Socialist Labour Party, so Sinn Fein’s likely accommodation with the British state will produce its militant opposition.

This will throw up new dangers as well as new possibilities for the IRSP. Sinn Fein will not tolerate the existence of any organisation whose activities may put at risk a carefully nurtured ‘peace’ settlement.

John Craig