Issue 104, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (December, 1995)

              the voice of irish republicanism | flollaig sfibna dar leitheoirf uimh 104 nollaig — december 1995 50p usa 75c new stormont on the way british prevails high price of a presidential handshake republican sinn fein vice-president des long said that the current peace process is doomed to failure because it ignores the root cause of the conflict the british presence in ireland referring to a comment by british direct-ruler patrick mayhew that the provisionals cannot keep a foot in both camps to sign up as it were for democracy a la carte des long said we have to acknowledge that he is right once a party recognises the political power of theruling class there is no option but to take part in what they who hold power decide is democracy paddy mayhew is wrong however when he stated in the irish times of thursday november 23 that 25 wasted years have demonstrated convincingly enough that there is no other option today i have news for paddy there is another option it is simple let him his administration and his army and • des long all their tools of repression pack their bags and leave ireland forever referring to the word games that the provisionals had played in order to obtain visas to the us and to collect funds there he said according to the irish times november 24 the price of a presidential handshake has been high it isthe understanding of the white house that in return for a visa and a handshake ira arms would be handed over the provisional leadership have sold out everything and the prisoners have been abandoned he reiterated the republican position that peace could not be achieved without a british declaration of intent to withdraw and the release of political prisoners the irish people could then acting as a single unit decide the future of ireland des long was speaking at the 128th anniversary of the manchester martyrs on november 26 at mount st laurence cemetery in limerick • the bruton-mqjor communique marks the triumph of the british over the irish nationalist front \ cobbled together only nine hours before president bill clinton was dta4k^o s to arrive in london the bruton-major document of november 28 is one more attempt to buy time for the current process by engaging in another three months of talks about talks crucially it is based on the downing street declaration of december 1993 which explicitly gives 1 8 of the population of ireland an absolute veto over the other 82 the provisionals surrender of arms is to be postponed until the end of february while the unionist proposal for a new stormont is firmly established in paragraph 3 of the bruton-major document one respected commentator stated afterwards that the substantive negotiations will take place in an elected forum at stormont this amounts in fact to a third track alongside the twin-track of surrender of arms and all-party talks the british agenda had prevailed in all respects the washington 3 precondition that the provisionals surrender some arms before being admitted to talks remains in place and has been excluded at british insistence from the remit of the international body on the surrender of arms this body is advisory and not binding on the british government and is to report by mid january 1 996 the british can therefore insist on washington 3 after that date and before all-party talks begin by the end of next february the unionist veto reiterated in paragraph 3 of bruton-major allows them to be the judge of whether the provisionals have satisfied the washington 3 test by virtue of their artificial majority within the six counties the unionists can do as they like in the talks about talks period up to february and also in the event of all-party talks what can all this possibly achieve except another patched-up attempt at an internal solution in a new stormont the provisionals response to bruton-major looks like being a re-run of their play-acting with the downing street declaration — eight-and-a half-months of delay before actually accepting it by calling their complete cessation of military activity this was signalled by gerry adams when he said on november 29 that the provisionals would have a detailed response by christmas reject in fact if the provisionals do not reject the bruton-major document straight away then they are going along with it the difficulty for the provisionals is that president clinton rowed in with support for the british directly after the publication of the document at the end of november now instead of us pressure on the british to move towards talks the pressure is on the provisionals to accept what is a triumph for britain in his response to the document republican sinn fein president ruairi 6 bradaigh said that it was an attempt to buy time in the hope that it will erode the capacity of the people's struggle and end forever the dream or vision of a new ireland free of british rule more than ever it attempts to tie the national issue into a six-county context alone an all ireland election to a constituent assembly with britain committed to quit ireland is the way forward republican sinn fein will bring its eire nua proposals for a new four-province federation to such a body meanwhile john major's hard-line stance on the handover of arms shows real intent to humiliate the irish before the world v sean sabhat commemoration limerick sunday january 7 assemble 1pm bedford row