The Push - Shove Effect: what Good Friday Agreement has to do with it

"A Peace of Us" - the OU collection exploring what Good Friday Agreement means 25 yars on

This arcicle is part of "A Peace of Us", our special collection of resources exploring what the Good Friday Agreement brought to our lives in the 25 years since its signing.

The evolution of the American Irish influence

The Irish of America have agitated on behalf of Ireland since before the creation of the United States of America.

But it is only in recent years that the United States has responded in a manner that has soothed Irish America’s soul, and temper.

The centuries-old Irish American push has resulted in an American shove.

And the results have been startling, at least when compared to times when Irish American hopes and aspirations floundered once they reached the corridors of the Capitol, or the hallways of the White House.

The political power centers in Washington, Congress and the presidency, were long and well practiced in keeping Irish American sentiment at arm’s length.

Then along came John F. Kennedy, the 1960s, and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The arms of reluctance and indifference began to shorten.

The violence of the Troubles years unleashed varied and sometimes conflicting forces within Irish America. There was support for armed struggle, and there was support for peaceful political change.

For those who wanted to see progress in the political realm, merely condemning the violence could only take shared political aspirations so far.

The idea of condemnation, by the late 1970s, would be joined by a desire on the part of many Irish Americans for an intervention, a role for the United States of America bringing an end to conflict while creating political structures that could promote reconciliation, and facilitate significant change in Northern Ireland.

What had so evidently not happened in more than two centuries would now happen in roughly two decades.

Why?

What the Good Friday Agreement conversations meant for the Presidents

Well, grab the attention of a presidential candidate and your cause might have a chance.

Grab the attention of the President of the United States and your cause actually has a chance.

As the Troubles in Northern Ireland grew ever more violent in the 1970s, concerned Irish Americans began to look more and more towards the White House as a possible deal maker and deadlock breaker.

But while incumbent presidents might well have been aware of events in Ireland, there was one major blocking force against an intervention: the special relationship with Britain.

There was also a second obstacle, not so obvious perhaps, but very much there.

And that was the Irish government’s suspicion of Irish American sympathies and motivations.

If the White House wanted to check out the consequences of an action beyond words condemning violence, it only had to consult London and Dublin.

And the response from both would be roughly a match: thanks but no thanks, stay away, leave it to us.

Irish American activists who argued that Northern Ireland was more than just a security issue, more than just a black and white collision of good guys and bad guys, could readily muster sympathetic responses from locally elected politicians, and indeed some members of Congress.

But the White House, the American presidency, always seemed to be out of reach.

It seemed so because it was.

But that did not mean that Irish America would refrain from reaching out its hand – a hand that, at first, would be bitten.

As the Troubles grew darker and deeper, and as Irish Americans began to grow more active and agitated, it was inevitable that presidential politics would become more of a debating ground.

Richard Nixon was in office when the Troubles began to make world headlines.

Nixon had Irish Quaker roots but he wasn’t about to become entangled in the root causes of the growing violence in his part-ancestral homeland.

At one point, his Secretary of State, William Rogers, went so far as to describe as “outrageous” a suggestion by Senator Edward Kennedy that the U.S. could act as a mediator in Northern Ireland.

Had Kennedy suggested invading the North it would be hard to imagine Rogers reaching for a more critical and dismissive adjective.

A few years later, and as a candidate for the presidency, Jimmy Carter uttered words that were a clear sign of a possible new take on the North and its woes.

On October 26, 1976, in Pittsburgh, Carter responded thus to representations from the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Fr. Sean McManus of the Washington, D.C.-based Irish National Caucus: “It is a mistake for our country’s government to stand quiet on the struggle of the Irish for peace, for the respect of human rights, and for unifying Ireland.”

Not surprisingly, this statement caused uproar.

A later “Confidential” report from the British Embassy in Washington, which was sent in April, 1980 to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher among others, would refer to “Carter’s unfortunate remarks on Northern Ireland during the 1976 election campaign.”

Carter the president, as it turned out, would be more cautious than Carter the candidate when it came to the tangled Irish/British weave.

Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, had Irish roots rather more apparent than Richard Nixon's. But his commitment to the special relationship with Britain overwhelmed any emotional attachment to the Old Sod, and his extra special relationship with Margaret Thatcher precluded any significant independent U.S. action on Ireland.

Reagan was supportive of closer cooperation between Dublin and London. He supported the Anglo Irish Agreement. But when it came to the North he was content to keep his distance. Even before his election in 1980, when a few green-tinged words might have done him no harm with those Irish Americans voters increasingly concerned by events in Ireland, Reagan made his personal neutrality quite clear.

“I have no views on Irish unity,” he told the Irish Times in October, 1979.

The same could not be said about all those concerned Irish Americans.

And as the Reagan years passed and Troubles rolled on those views became stronger and required a new outlet.

Enter John Dearie, New York State Assemblyman, a Democrat, very tall and impossible to miss in a crowd, or a crowded room.

John Dearie and the Presidential Forums

Dearie would convene the first ever Irish American Presidential Forum in the election year of 1984.

But before that first forum, which would take place in June, the year made infamous in advance by George Orwell would get off, in Irish American eyes, to a very surprising start.

At the year’s opening, the man who many Democrats reckoned would carry the party’s standard in the November showdown with Reagan was Senator Gary Hart.

The Irish National Caucus had been busy again and the year was shiny and new when Hart responded to the INC with a statement. It was dated January 2.

In it, Hart stated that the complex and centuries-old socioeconomic divisions in the North of Ireland could not be healed overnight, nor could they be cured by force of arms, by violence, or by shortsighted neglect.

Said Hart in his statement: “Admittedly, the search for a solution often appears hopeless, but this is only because the wrong questions are being asked.

The debate should no longer center over who is responsible for this or that violence; condemning symptoms does nothing to cure the disease.

One must instead ask how it is possible to eliminate the very cause of the violence in order to secure a just and lasting solution to the conflict.

All electoral initiatives in the past have failed for one fundamental reason: they have not taken into account the democratic wishes of the people of Ireland as a whole.

The best way, and in fact, the only way to establish a lasting peace is within a democratic All-Ireland context. Regardless of long fostered socio-economic divisions, the fact must be recognized that Ireland is essentially one nation.

With the acceptance of this historical fact, the first step on the road to a long overdue peace in that troubled land will have been taken.

As Americans, we share rich cultural and political ties with the peoples of Britain and Ireland; we are therefore in an ideal position to encourage, as a common friend, a peaceful and just resolution. It is my sincere wish that in these years ahead the United States will seize upon this opportunity to play a noble role in ending this tragic conflict, and in creating a new spirit of cooperation between the great peoples of both islands.”

This was a remarkable statement, and many Irish Americans would take particular note of the “noble role” assertion, vague though it was.

Hart’s presidential dream, however, would meet an ignoble end. But in one of those interesting historical twists, Hart would, decades later, assume a noble role of his own as Secretary of State John Kerry’s representative to the Northern Ireland peace process.

As 1984 progressed and Gary Hart exited the presidential race, Jimmy Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, emerged as the likely Democratic candidate to take on Reagan in November.

In March, John Dearie would come up with the idea of Irish peace ribbons for marchers in the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

He then set out to organize an Irish American Political/Presidential Forum that would be open to all candidates, Democratic, Republican and Independent, in the run-up to the election.

Dearie would later say that organizing the forum was “impossibly difficult.” But he was dogged and had connections.

In June, he would secure the attendance of Vice President Walter Mondale at a forum that would take place in a most unlikely venue – a beach club in the Bronx.

The forum was attended by a handful of local political activists. Mondale endorsed the idea of a U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland, pinned on a peace ribbon, and went on to lose the election.

Still, the envoy idea was now out there in the political ether.

It would be out there again in 1988 when Democratic rivals, Governor Michael Dukakis and Senator Al Gore, spoke at forum number two in a Manhattan hotel – a somewhat chaotic general press event with an Irish angle to it - and said things that raised the hopes of Irish Americans for a future presidential intervention.

Rev. Jesse Jackson had promised to attend but had fallen sick. Dearie and others later met privately with him to discuss Ireland.

Though the forum was an open invitation, Republicans were still keeping their distance.

Nevertheless, 1988 would offer a glimmer of Republican Party interest, the George H.W. Bush campaign providing written answers to a series of questions posed by the New York-published Irish Echo newspaper.

This was interest, yes, but Bush was not offering anything close to direct U.S. intervention in Northern Ireland.

Such an offer would come in 1992 at forum number three, attended by Governors Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton, Democrats both.

The forum, with Mayor of Boston Ray Flynn as moderator, was nearly a non-starter but ended up taking place in a Manhattan hotel on a Sunday evening, two days before the New York Democratic primary.

And it would provide the long hoped-for breakthrough.

Under questioning from a three-member panel, both men pledged, should they be elected president, to send an envoy to Northern Ireland, to grant a U.S. visa to Gerry Adams, and to support MacBride Principles fair employment legislation.

Such was the great leap forward (the event was filmed and can be seen on C-Span’s archives under “1992 Irish American Presidential Forum”) that it took several days for the import of the uttered words to sink in with the organizers, and those who attended.

When Clinton won the New York primary his words not only sank in, they landed in the politicized Irish American consciousness with a loud thump.

And, ultimately, they would be words that Bill Clinton would honor.

Al Gore, as Clinton’s vice president, would attend the fourth forum in 1996, an event now being organized by members of both parties and that year held in another Manhattan hotel, one that occupied the site of what had once been the hospital where Eamon de Valera was born.

The Good Friday Agreement was still two years away, so the forum retained an air of urgency and importance.

Gore knew how to reassure.

He would display his talents again in 2000 at forum number five, the first in the post-Good Friday Agreement era.

Gore is the only politician to have attended three forum gatherings.

"Irish American Presidential Forum, 2000" was held at John Jay College in Midtown Manhattan.

The event was organized on a bipartisan basis by the now former Democratic Assemblyman Dearie, Republican congressman Peter King, and Democratic congressman, Joe Crowley.

The three, in a statement at the time, said the forum would provide an opportunity for presidential candidates of both parties to think seriously about America’s role and relationship to Ireland and Northern Ireland, and to respond to the issues paramount to the Irish-American community across the U.S.

"All candidates of both major parties, Republican and Democrat, are being invited, as well as candidates of the Reform Party, including Patrick Buchanan and Donald Trump," the three said in a statement.

"Since one of these candidates will be the post-President Clinton White House occupant, this forum will be the most critical since candidate Bill Clinton, in April 1992, at that year’s forum, committed himself to granting a visa to Gerry Adams and an active American participation in the Northern Ireland peace process,” the statement added.

That post-Clinton president would be George W. Bush, and he would continue with Clinton’s ground breaking Irish policies.

It was this bipartisan cooperation with regard to Ireland that was in large part responsible for the forum taking a hiatus in 2004, though the party tickets did issue statements.

Four years later, Irish American community leaders were seeking to rekindle the forum flame.

“There has to be a forum this year. This year is as important as any in the past that we have held one,” John Dearie said.

Organizers offered presidential candidates a flexible roster that could mean multiple forum gatherings in New York City, or indeed outside it.

Invitations duly went out to Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain.

Two of the three, Clinton and McCain, would make appearances, though on different dates, and in different locations in two states: New York in Clinton’s case, Pennsylvania in the case of Arizona’s McCain.

The Obama campaign, meanwhile, would later respond to a series of questions presented jointly by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Ladies AOH and the Irish American Unity Conference – this after Obama became his party’s presidential candidate.

2008 would be a standout year with the two forum gatherings, one in Manhattan attended by Hillary Clinton, the other in Scranton, Pennsylvania, attended by John McCain, the first Republican candidate to ever physically attend the event.

Clinton would not only attend a forum event, but would also hold a press conference specifically for Irish and Irish American journalists.

Her interest in Ireland was taken as a given. Her need for Irish American support was considered vital, not least because Irish America was riven.

Senator Edward Kennedy had declared his support for Clinton’s Democratic rival, Barack Obama.

John McCain’s arrival on the Irish stage did not have quite such a party division as a backdrop.

Somewhat similar to the 1988 forum, the Scranton gathering he attended would be a general election Republican Party rally coupled with a specific Irish wraparound.

McCain acknowledged his pioneering status to loud cheers in a theater that was once a Masonic temple in the hometown of future vice president and president Joe Biden.

And in a delivery that crossed from general election issues to Ireland and back again, McCain pledged to continue the presidential policy of appointing a special envoy to Northern Ireland.

McCain’s campaign rolled the Irish forum into a more general town hall meeting style exchange for those who were there to hear him speak about Ireland specifically, and those who were there to express broad support for the McCain/Palin ticket.

McCain was accompanied to the stage by fellow GOP senators, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Also on stage, and he was given a huge cheer by the crowd, was Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman from Connecticut.

The local daily newspaper, The Times-Tribune, reported on its front page - under a photo of McCain arriving the night before at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport - that McCain had arrived in the city “in advance of what is billed as an Irish American town hall meeting.”

During the forum, McCain, famed for his service and Vietnam War imprisonment, went straight for familiar ground.

The Irish, he said, had contributed “in literally every war this nation has fought, up to and including the present ones."

He described this record of service as being “remarkable” and a “great heritage.”

McCain noted that the Irish American Presidential Forum dated back to 1984 and since its inception there had indeed been “a lack of Republicans” in attendance.

“I’m proud to be the first Republican to appear,” he said.

“I am committed to America’s leadership role,” McCain said of Washington’s involvement in Northern Ireland.

“I need the Irish American vote,” the Arizona senator concluded, while describing himself as the underdog in the coming November general election.

McCain secured quite a few of those votes, but he would lose the election to Barack Obama.

As president, Obama would maintain the Irish policies given birth in the 1990s, though Washington’s tack by this stage was to observe the evolving peace process by encouraging all parties, this while maintaining distance from any overt intervention

For sure, the issues, by 2012, were not as sharply defined as they were back in the 1980s and early 1990s when the Troubles were wreaking havoc and Washington was still looking at them through a narrow prism.

Nevertheless, many Irish Americans still saw the exercise of staging a forum as being important, if only to assess the degree of U.S. interest and involvement in the peace process, to see how or if it had in any way changed, and to consider ways of improving and enhancing Washington’s role in what was still a fragile accommodation between the communities in Northern Ireland.

There was no forum gathering in 2012. President Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney in an election dominated by economic issues.

The 2016 election year, too, passed without a forum event. Not a few Irish Americans were uneasy about this.

The Republican Party platform for 2016 did contain a line, however: “We applaud the ongoing reconciliation in Northern Ireland and hope that its success might be replicated in Cyprus.”

It can safely be assumed that Irish America wished Cyprus all the very best but Ireland, specifically the North, remained its priority.

The 2016 Democratic platform seemed to forget this, and made no mention of Northern Ireland at all.

That said, Hillary Clinton, who has been her husband’s partner, as well as her own boss in years of interest in Ireland going back to the 1990s, recorded a video message that was played at an event in Belfast.

Ireland hadn’t gone from the presidential drama, though it had become more off stage than on. And whether forums were held or not, U.S. policy, as exemplified in particular by special envoys and oft stated support for what the Good Friday Agreement meant, was maintained. 

In 2020, a forum stage was being prepared once more, but Covid-19 put paid to a gathering. Given all the uncertainty that swirls around Northern Ireland post-Brexit, a 2024 forum would appear to be very much on the cards.

The push remains, the shove continues.

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