New Ireland Forum

The New Ireland Forum was a forum in 1983–1984 at which Irish nationalist political parties discussed potential political developments that might alleviate the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Forum was established by Garret FitzGerald, then Taoiseach, under the influence of John Hume, for "consultations on the manner in which lasting peace and stability can be achieved in a new Ireland through the democratic process".[1][2] The Forum was initially dismissed, by Unionists, Sinn Féin, and others, as a nationalist talking-shop.[3] The Forum's report, published on 2 May 1984, listed three possible alternative structures: a unitary state, a federal/confederal state, and joint British/Irish authority. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, dismissed the three alternatives one by one at a press conference, each time saying, "that is out", in a response that became known as the "out, out, out" speech. However, Garret Fitzgerald, who described the Forum's report as "an agenda not a blueprint",[4] valued it as establishing a nationalist consensus from which the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement could be framed.

Background

In the aftermath of the 1981 hunger strikes, "physical force Irish republicanism" represented by Provisional Sinn Féin was gaining support in Northern Ireland at the expense of the "constitutional nationalism" represented by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Garret FitzGerald became Taoiseach after the Republic's 1981 general election and announced a "constitutional crusade", including a reframing of the state's attitude to Northern Ireland.[5] He lost power quickly but regained it in the November 1982 election. Before the previous month's election to the reconstituted Northern Ireland Assembly, John Hume had proposed a "Council for a New Ireland" in the SDLP manifesto.[6] Fitzgerald persuaded Hume to accept a Forum open to non-nationalist parties, though in the event only nationalist parties joined.[7] The SDLP's participation persuaded Fianna Fáil to join. The forum was open to "all democratic parties which reject violence and which have members elected or appointed to either House of the Oireachtas or the Northern Ireland Assembly". From the Assembly, only the SDLP participated; Sinn Féin were excluded, and the Alliance Party and Unionist parties stayed away.[8] From the Oireachtas, the three main parties —Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party— joined. Independent TDs and Senators were not eligible for membership. The SDLP was abstentionist in the Unionist-dominated Northern Ireland Assembly, which meant its representatives were able to devote more time to the Forum.[8]

The Workers' Party decided not to become members of the Forum. The Democratic Socialist Party was ineligible as its sole TD, Jim Kemmy, had lost his seat in the November 1982 election. These two parties organised a separate "alternative Forum" with the Alliance Party, the Irish Independence Party, and others.[9]

Members

There were 27 members and fourteen alternates.

Party Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Labour SDLP
Leader Charles Haughey Garret FitzGerald Dick Spring John Hume
Members
Alternates
Secretary Veronica Guerin[10] John Fanagan Diarmaid McGuinness Denis Haughey

Operation

Colm Ó hEocha was appointed chairman of the Forum. It had a secretariat staff of 17, seconded from the Irish Civil Service; the salary of the secretary of each of the four participating parties was also paid from the Department of the Taoiseach.[11]

The first session was held in Dublin Castle on 30 May 1983 and the final session on 9 February 1984. There were 11 public sessions, 28 private ones, and visits to Northern Ireland in September 1983 and Great Britain in January 1984.[12] The forum's steering group, comprising the chairman and the four party leaders, met 56 times in total.

Submissions

Submissions were invited in press advertisements; 317 were received, and 31 submitting groups and individuals were invited to make oral presentations to the forum.

Presenter Session Notes
Charles Carter 21 September 1983
Louden Ryan 21 September 1983Professor of industrial economics at Trinity College Dublin, executive at Bank of Ireland.[13]
Seán MacBride 4 October 1983
Brian Lennon 4 October 1983Jesuit priest based in Northern Ireland.[14]
David Harkness 4 October 1983Professor of history at Queen's University Belfast.[15]
Hugh Munro 4 October 1983Writer
Robin Glendinning5 October 1983Northern Irish playwright[16]
John Robb 5 October 1983Northern Irish surgeon, member of Seanad Éireann
Michael McKeown 5 October 1983Teacher, writer, and founder member of National Unity and the National Democratic Party.[17]
John Biggs-Davison 5 October 1983
Northern Ireland Cross-Community Professional Group6 October 1983
Desmond Fennell 6 October 1983
Roy Johnston 11 October 1983
Labhrás Ó Murchú 11 October 1983Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
Eoghan Ó Néill 11 October 1983Director of Comhdáil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, umbrella-group for Irish-language organisations.[18]
Micheál Ó Loingsigh 11 October 1983Irish Sovereignty Movement
Sydney Callaghan 20 October 1983Methodist Church in Ireland minister from Belfast
William T. McDowell 3 November 1983Synod of Dublin, Presbyterian Church in Ireland
Federalism and Peace Movement3 November 1983Michael O'Flanagan, Michael O'Mahony
Women's Law and Research Group17 November 1983Belfast feminist group campaigning for reform of divorce law.[19] Clare Clark and Eileen Evason.[20]
Samuel James Park 17 November 1983Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.[20]
Church of Ireland21 November 1983
Richard Kearney and Bernard Cullen8 December 1983Professors of philosophy.[21]
George Gordon Dallas 8 December 1983Belfast Presbyterian physician, representing an ecumenical bible study group.[22]
Irish Information Partnership8 December 1983London-based group collating statistics relating to the Troubles; David Roche and Brian Gallagher
Sylvia Meehan 19 January 1984Chair of the Republic's Employment Equality Agency[23]
Christopher McGimpsey and Michael McGimpsey19 January 1984Members of the Ulster Unionist Party
Clive Soley 19 January 1984British Labour Party MP
Anthony Orr 19 January 1984Spokesman for a Belfast group of unionist community workers,[24] which submitted papers through the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.[25]
Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference9 February 1984

Publications

Separately from its final report, the forum published three reports on the economic cost of Partition of Ireland since 1920, and of the Troubles since 1969; it also commissioned reports from external consultants and experts on the cost and logistics of a united Ireland.[26]

Report

The Forum published its report on 2 May 1984. Its historical treatment heavily criticised the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the alleged short-term thinking of successive British governments' policy on Northern Ireland. It estimated the high financial cost of the Troubles since 1968, while also acknowledging the high cost of implementing any new political arrangements. It outlined three possible alternative structures for a "new Ireland":

At Charles Haughey's insistence, the unitary state was presented as the most desirable option,[28][29] which Fitzgerald later rued as "ritual obeisance".[30]

Unionist historian Graham Walker writes, "The Forum Report did reflect a more considered appreciation of the Unionists' distinctiveness and their attachment to the Union, but it was also replete with time-worn assumptions and stereotypes, and a partisan historical narrative."[31]

Response

Before the Forum's report was issued, the Ulster Unionist Party presented a discussion paper of its own entitled Devolution and the Northern Ireland Assembly: The Way Forward (usually called The Way Forward). This described the Forum thus:[32]

The SDLP and those political parties in the Republic of Ireland presently participating in the New Ireland Forum have all publicly declared their support for the principle that there can be no change in the constitutional status of the territory of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom without the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland. ... British Governments give a formal written guarantee to this principle ... If constitutional nationalists accept the principle of consent, it is difficult to see, in logical terms, why some insist that the British Government should withdraw its guarantee of that self same principle. The answer to this apparent inconsistency lies in the long term political strategy of those who seek a United Ireland. ... Constitutional nationalists appear to behave upon the basis that every form of pressure, short of direct force, is valid to obtain unionist consent. .... The Forum for a New Ireland is an integral part of this strategy. Not only is it a component in the ongoing pressure for consent by producing a charter of republican reasonableness, it is also necessary for it to set up a blueprint for political structures that would, ostensibly, accommodate unionists in a way that the Republic has never been able to do in the past, and which would have been inconsistent with the State's ethos and existing constitution. It now appears at least probable that this entire strategy is about to fail.

The McGimpsey brothers, members of the Ulster Unionist Party, felt the Forum's report totally ignored their contribution.[33]

On 2 July 1984, Jim Prior, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland commented on the Forum's report in the House of Commons:[34]

Most people recognise that parts of it were disappointing and unacceptable to the British Government or British people. However, I recognise that there was positive value in its serious examination of nationalist aspirations, its emphasis on the importance of consent, its unequivocal condemnation of violence, its attempt to understand the Unionist identity and its openness to discuss other views.

In October 1984, in a Seanad debate on the Forum's report, Mary Robinson regretted that "the range of contributors invited to make oral presentations to the Forum was too narrow", and remarked that "witnessing the Catholic Bishops and their representatives being questioned by politicians at the Forum may have marked a modest beginning to a healthy separation of Church and State in Ireland."[35] She endorsed the view of political scientists Kevin Boyle and Tom Hadden, who stated:[36]

The Report of the New Ireland Forum has been widely welcomed as the most positive contribution to solving the Northern Ireland problem for some years. Yet, it is equally widely recognised that the Report's prescriptions are totally unrealistic and can only be pursued, if at all, in ways which are inconsistent with the principles it asserts.

Oliver MacDonagh identified in the report three new developments for Irish nationalism: an unequivocal rejection of not only violence but "even psychological coercion"; an argument for unity based on "basic common interests of North and South" rather than "the horrid rhetoric of rights and righteousness"; and an acknowledgement that "the Ulster Unionist identity was both fundamentally different and a permanent condition".[37]

On 19 November 1984, at a press conference at 12 Downing Street after a British–Irish summit in Chequers, UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher dismissed the report's proposals:[38]

I have made it quite clear ... that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out. That is a derogation from sovereignty. We made that quite clear when the Report was published. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. She is part of the United Kingdom because that is the wish of the majority of her citizens. The majority wish to stay part of the United Kingdom.

This became known as the "out, out, out" speech.[39][40]

Effects

Lord Kilbrandon established a committee that produced an unofficial report attempting to reconcile elements of the Forum report and The Way Forward. This report informed the British government's view leading up to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985.[41] Richard Sinnott suggests the Forum report gave Fitzgerald a mandate in the negotiations that produced the Agreement.[42]

Charles Haughey was criticised in the aftermath of the Forum Report's publication for appearing to put a more traditionalist interpretation of its conclusions than other parties. This eventually came to a head when Fianna Fáil, then in opposition party, opposed the 1985 Agreement as incompatible with the Forum's conclusions, while the other three Forum parties supported the Agreement.[43]

The SDLP's view of the "National Question" became the default position of Irish political parties from then and through the Northern Ireland peace process.[44] The SDLP's loss of ground to Sinn Féin in the 1985 local elections in Northern Ireland was attributed in part to the "out, out, out" response to the Forum it had championed.[45] Journalist Brian Feeney suggests that Sinn Féin's "active abstention", where those elected in the 1982 Assembly elections acted as local spokespeople in the media, was more effective than the SDLP's policy of sending its representatives to the Dublin forum.[46]

The Forum has been seen retrospectively as a first acknowledgement by the political parties in the Republic of the need to engage with Ulster unionism and "North-South relationships"[47] rather than ignoring them in favour of the "East-West" relationship with the British government in London. Dermot Keogh called it "one of the most important intellectual exercises in self-definition since the foundation of the state."[48] On the other hand, it has been seen to have led indirectly to a recognition by the British government of the need to include the Republic in the political process: Stephen Collins has said that Irish anger at Thatcher's "out, out, out" speech caused her to soften her tone in future negotiations, which made possible the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.[49]

The relatively non-partisan approach of the forum influenced the National Forum on Europe in 2001 to address Ireland and the European Union.[50]

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the key stage in the Northern Ireland peace process, provides for a united Ireland if a majority in Northern Ireland agree; it does not provide specifics of the process or settlement. Irish jurist Richard Humphreys in a 2009 book suggests that the New Ireland Forum would provide a model for "nationalist Ireland negotiating and agreeing, so far as possible, the kind of unity that would be put to the people in [...] a referendum".[51] After the 2016 UK vote to leave the EU renewed Irish politicians' consideration of a united Ireland, a 2017 Oireachtas committee report endorsed Humphreys' call for what it termed a "New Ireland Forum 2".[52][53]

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See also

References

Sources
  • Bloomfield, Ken (2007). A tragedy of errors: the government and misgovernment of Northern Ireland. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-064-5. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  • "New Ireland Forum". Ireland Today. Dublin: Department of Foreign Affairs. 1984. OL 17067685M.
  • Davy Kelleher McCarthy Ltd.; Gibson, Norman; McAleese, Dermot (1984). The macroeconomic consequences of integrated economic policy, planning and co-ordination in Ireland (PDF). Official publications. Pl.2359. Dublin: Stationery Office. OCLC 13122244.
  • New Ireland Forum (2 May 1984). "Report". Conflict Archive on the Internet.

Citations
  1. Davy Kelleher McCarthy Ltd (1984) p.3
  2. Fitzgerald, Garrrett (11 May 1983). "Questions. Oral Answers. - British Policy on Northern Ireland". Dáil Éireann debates. Oireachtas. pp. Vol.342 No.5 p.5 c.907. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  3. Mitchell, Thomas G. (2002). Indispensable traitors: liberal parties in settler conflicts. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-313-31774-3. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  4. "Toasts of the President and Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald of Ireland at a Dinner Honoring the President in Dublin". Ronald Reagan Library. 3 June 1984. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  5. Bew, Paul (2007). Ireland: the politics of enmity, 1789–2006. Oxford University Press. p. 534. ISBN 978-0-19-820555-5. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  6. Mitchell, George John (2000). Making Peace. University of California Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-520-22523-7. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  7. FitzGerald, Garrett (1993). "The origins and rationale of the 1985 agreement". In Keogh, Dermot; Haltzel, Michael H. (eds.). Northern Ireland and the politics of reconciliation. Cambridge University Press. pp. 194–5. ISBN 978-0-521-45933-4. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  8. Penniman, Howard Rae; Farrell, Brian; Research, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy (1 June 1987). Ireland at the polls, 1981, 1982, and 1987: a study of four general elections. Duke University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-8223-0786-0. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  9. Keatinge, Patrick (1985). "Ireland's Foreign Relations in 1984". Irish Studies in International Affairs. Royal Irish Academy. 2 (1): 163–179. JSTOR 30001739.
  10. Murdoch, Alan (27 June 1996). "Obituary: Veronica Guerin". The Independent. London. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
  11. "Questions. Oral Answers. - New Ireland Forum". Dáil Debates. 29 February 1984. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012.
  12. Wolff, Stefan (January 2004). Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict Settlement. Berghahn Books. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-57181-657-3. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  13. Ross, Shane (16 July 2006). "Professor Louden Ryan". Irish Independent. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  14. Lennon, Brian (22 June 2010). "Saville on Bloody Sunday: From the Past to the Future?". Thinking Faith. British Jesuits. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  15. "Doc. 11919: History teaching in conflict and post-conflict areas". Committee on Culture, Science and Education. Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. 25 May 2009. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  16. "Robin Glendinning". Irish Playography. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  17. "About Michael McKeown". Victims, Survivors and Commemoration. CAIN. 21 October 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  18. "New Ireland Forum", Ireland Today
  19. Connolly, Linda (Autumn 1999). "Feminist politics and the peace process". Capital & Class.
  20. "New Ireland Forum", Ireland Today, p.17
  21. "Professor Bernard Cullen". School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy. Queen's University Belfast. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  22. O'Halloran, Clare (1987). Partition and the limits of Irish nationalism: an ideology under stress. Humanities Press International. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-391-03502-7.
  23. "Speakers". SPARC/CAP Annual Conference 2010. Social Policy and Ageing Research Centre – Trinity College Dublin. 9 December 2010. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2011.
  24. Burgess, Michael (1986). Federalism and federation in Western Europe. Croom Helm. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-7099-3955-9.
  25. "New Ireland Forum", Ireland Today, p.70
  26. Davy Kelleher McCarthy Ltd (1984) p.6
  27. Kearney, Richard (1997). Postnationalist Ireland: politics, culture, philosophy. Psychology Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-415-11503-2. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  28. Bloomfield (2007), p.57
  29. Stevenson, Garth (2006). Parallel paths: the development of nationalism in Ireland and Quebec. McGill-Queen's Press – MQUP. p. 324. ISBN 978-0-7735-3029-4. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  30. Bloomfield (2007), p.147
  31. Walker, Graham (2004). A history of the Ulster Unionist Party: Protest, pragmatism and pessimism. Manchester University Press. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-7190-6109-7. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  32. Ulster Unionist Assembly Party's Report Committee (1984). "Devolution and the Northern Ireland Assembly, The Way Forward". CAIN. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  33. Mitchell, Thomas G. (2000). Native vs. settler: ethnic conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-313-31357-8. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  34. "New Ireland Forum". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 63. HC. 2 July 1984. col. 23–106.
  35. Seanad debates Vol.105 No.12 p.5 cc.1383–4
  36. Boyle, Kevin; Tom Hadden (October 1984). "How to Read the New Ireland Forum Report". The Political Quarterly. 44 (4): 402–417. doi:10.1111/j.1467-923X.1984.tb02618.x.
  37. MacDonagh, Oliver (1985). "What Was New in the New Ireland Forum?". The Crane Bag. Richard Kearney. 9 (2: Irish Ideologies): 166–170: 169–170. JSTOR 30059840.
  38. "Press Conference following Anglo-Irish Summit ("out ... out ... out")". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  39. Coogan, Tim Pat (5 January 2002). The troubles: Ireland's ordeal, 1966–1996, and the search for peace. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-312-29418-2. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  40. Bloomfield (2007), p.218
  41. Cochrane, Feargal (2001). Unionist politics and the politics of Unionism since the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Cork University Press. pp. 8–12. ISBN 978-1-85918-259-8. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  42. Sinnott, Richard (1995). Irish voters decide: voting behaviour in elections and referendums since 1918. Manchester University Press ND. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7190-4037-5. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  43. O'Donnell, Catherine (2007). Fianna Fáil, Irish republicanism and the Northern Ireland troubles, 1968–2005. Irish Academic Press. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-0-7165-3360-3. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  44. Hayward, Katy; O'Donnell, Catherine (30 November 2010). Political Discourse and Conflict Resolution. Taylor & Francis. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-415-56628-5. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  45. Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish political organizations: parties, groups and movements of the 20th century. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  46. Feeney, Brian (2002). Sinn Féin: A Hundred Turbulent Years. O'Brien Press. pp. 316–317. ISBN 978-0-86278-770-7.
  47. Hennessey, Thomas (26 June 2001). The Northern Ireland peace process: ending the troubles?. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 23–4. ISBN 978-0-312-23949-7. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  48. Keogh, Dermot (29 March 1989). "Catholicism and the formation of the modern Irish society". Irishness in a changing society. Princess Grace Irish Library. 2. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 171. ISBN 978-0-389-20857-0. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  49. Stephen Collins (9 April 2013). "Thatcher did more for Ireland than other UK leaders". Irish Times. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  50. Holmes, Michael (2005). Ireland and the European Union: Nice, enlargement and the future of Europe. Manchester University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-7190-7173-7. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  51. Humphreys, Richard (2009). Countdown to unity: debating Irish reunification. Irish Academic Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780716533474. (cited in Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement 2017 p.332)
  52. Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement (August 2017). "4.14 Road map: New Ireland Forum 2" (PDF). Brexit and the Future of Ireland Uniting Ireland & Its People in Peace & Prosperity. Oireachtas. pp. 331–333. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
  53. Young, Connla (2 August 2017). "Call for New Ireland Forum 2 to be set up". The Irish News. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
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