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displeasure by initiating new ter–
roris t activi ty.
Charges of Treachery
The pragmatic M
r.
FitzGerald has
been willing to gamble for peace.
Sorne members of his main politi–
cal opposition, the Fi anna Fail
Party, accuse him of compromising
the Repu bl ic's const i tu ti o na l
claims to unity.
But it is Mrs. Thatcher who has
had to bear the brunt of the most
ou tspoken reaction. From the ma–
jority of Ulster's Protestants carne
charges of betrayal and treason,
even treachery.
Militan t Protestant politician
and minister Jan Paisley, leader of
the Democratic Un ionist Party,
pledged to destroy the agreement,
which he labeled a conspi racy. Ad–
dressing the biggest gathering in
Ulster's history, the fiery leader
boomed that " Mrs. Thatcher says
the Republic must have sorne say
in l he running of this province. We
say never, never, never!"
So what looked so reasonable
a nd log ic a l on paper lo M r.
Fi lzGerald and Mrs. Thatcher is in
danger o f being overwhelmed by
the forces of confl ictng nat ional–
isms.
Even moderate Protestants ex–
press doubts that the agreement
can stick, despite Mrs. Thatcher's
resolve. Despite assurances from
London and Dublin that Uls ter will
remain a parl of the Uniled King–
dom as long as the majority wishes,
Protestant citizens, said one ob–
server, "feel a little less British
today." Another drew analogy to
citizens of the United S tates bei ng
asked to accept direct Canadian or
Mexican consultative inpu t inlo
how lhe United States is ruled.
A British " Lebanon" ?
The Protestants in Northern l re–
land are not recent newcomers.
They trace their roots to Scottish
Presbyterians who settled in Ulster
in 1609-only two years after the
Engl ish established their first per–
ma n ent American colony at
J amestown.
T he Protestants express fierce
loyalty to the British crown. But
this loyalty is conditional, wrote
noted British political commenla–
tor Conor C ruise O'Brien, a former
March 1986
high-ranking Irish d iplomat. He
warned, not long ago, that the Ul–
ster Protestants would turn vio–
lent ly against the Bri t ish govern–
ment should they perceive the
government was in the process of
handing them over lo their " hered–
itary Catholic enemies."
The Ulster Proteslants, wrote
Mr. O' Brien, " mean to stay in Ul–
ster. " And their refusal to be incor–
porated in a Catholic-majority
lrish state, Mr. O ' Brien continued,
"is as stubborn as the refusal of the
Israelis to be incorporated in an
The meeting, according to
Plain
Truth
regional correspondent Stan
Bass, had been hai led for months as
a confrontation with Britain over the
issue of apartheid , South Africa's
policy of racial separation .
Before her arrival in the Ba–
hamas, Mrs. Thatcher had written
letters to severa! African states
outlining the British government's
opposition to the threat of Com–
monwealth trade sanctions against
South Africa, a Commonwealth
member until May 31, 1961.
Mrs. Thatcher has repeatedly
Prime Ministers Garret FitzGerald of Republic of lreland and Margaret Thatcher
of the U.K. exchange documents after signing agreement on Northern lreland.
Arab-majority Palestine."
Ulster Protestants would never
turn toward a united l reland, em–
phasized Mr . O ' Brien. Instead
"they would turn against Britain"
and declare, if necessary, "an
inde–
pendent
Northern 1reland ."
Then , concluded th is Iri s h
statesman , the real trouble would
begin:
"We sha/1 ha ve our
Lebanon ."
In other words, a civil
war within the very confines of the
United Kingdom!
Commonwealth l solation
But all this is not the end of the
story. For Britain, mounting trou–
bles at home are matched by grow–
ing challenges without.
One month before the signing of
the Anglo- Ir is h acco rd , Mrs.
Thatcher endured virtual solitary
confinement at the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Conference
held in the Bahamas.
voiced her opinion that the princi–
pie of sanctions is wrong. In the
case of South Africa, she has said,
sanctions would devastate the very
peoples they supposedly are geared
to help, and only play into the
hands of extremists as well as make
the Pretoria government more re–
sistant than ever to change.
Then too is the fact that Britain
is South Africa's largest foreign
investor and trade partner. Govern–
ment officials estímate a total boy–
cott would cost as many as 200,000
British jobs. With arrow-sharp
logic, M rs. Thatcher told her Com–
monwealth peers: " There is no
earthly use. in creating unemploy–
ment at borne in arder to create
unemployment there."
Brit ish officials also took excep–
tion to the irony of sorne Afr ican
governments calling for sanc–
tions- whil e privately admitting
they may have to circumvent the
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