06.11.1997

‘British’ candidate wins Irish election

Another small step in the imperialist-sponsored ‘peace process’ was taken last week with the election of Mary McAleese as president of the Republic of Ireland.

McAleese, the Fianna Fail candidate, is a Six Counties law professor and supporter of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. Her impeccable ‘British’ qualifications include her post as pro-vice-chancellor of Belfast’s Queen’s University and her directorship of Channel 4 TV. Northern residents are UK citizens and therefore not qualified to vote in 26 Counties elections, but there is nothing to stop them standing as candidates south of the border.

McAleese has been involved in high-level contacts among the contending political groups in the Six Counties, including with Sinn Fein - a fact which led her opponents to dub her a supporter of Gerry Adams, which she hotly denied. Nevertheless, the Sinn Fein president publicly backed her campaign. As a result the Daily Telegraph labelled the outcome “a victory for Adams” (editorial, November 1).

In fact her background leaves McAleese ideally placed to further British imperialist interests. Following in the footsteps of Mary Robinson, who resigned the presidency in September to take up the post of United Nations commissioner for human rights, McAleese, in common with the other four candidates, tried to put across her predecessor’s ‘caring, sharing’ image during the campaign. In line with this is her backing of the simplistic call for peace - based necessarily on a version of the status quo.

Of course Irish political leaders, including the new president, will call for constitutional changes - changes which Blair too is seeking - but it is certain that any agreed settlement arising from the ‘peace process’ will be based on the interests of capital.

However, there was one irritant for the establishment on election day - the Continuity Army Council attempted to let off two bombs in Derry and Armagh. Neither device exploded. The CAC called for the release of all political prisoners and for unconditional British withdrawal. Condemning the IRA ceasefire, it said that there would be no peace until those conditions were met.

That is certainly correct - especially in the long term. But the CAC at present only has a potential mass base, though no one should dismiss the possibility of it gaining a big following among the nationalist population. In practice its forces can manage little more than token gestures of resistance. Claims by the Ulster Unionist Party that the group has the tacit consent of the IRA are blatantly false. Such claims are made only to bolster demands for Sinn Fein’s exclusion from the Stormont talks - part of the UUP’s charade of posing as uncompromising opponents of SF, adopted to cover its participation in the talks alongside Gerry Adams and its fear of being outflanked by Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party.

However, the CAC is viewed as an irritating obstacle to progress by SF/IRA just as much as by the British state. While its cadre base is very small and its capacity to launch any meaningful military action almost non-existent, its effect in terms of anti-republican propaganda, at a time when SF is doing all in its power to promote the idea of achieving a settlement through exclusively peaceful means, is much greater. Leading CAC members have previously been kidnapped and threatened with a single bullet by the IRA. No one would be surprised if that threat was carried out - while the state looked the other way. No doubt the death of two or three leaders would be put down to a ‘republican feud’.

Meanwhile the Loyalist Volunteer Force, the only paramilitary grouping on the unionist side not abiding by the ceasefire, issued a death threat against senior Irish civil servants working in Belfast. The LVF may believe that southern bureaucrats are the enemy, but Blair knows that they - and establishment politicians such as McAleese - have a crucial role to play in achieving an imperialist settlement. While the IRA is more than capable of taking care of the CAC, the state itself, through its numerous shadowy contacts among loyalist paramilitaries, could, if necessary, deal in a more direct fashion with the LVF.

Jim Blackstock