Thatcher Secretary:
persuading. look set for another re-run of that adage.
It is fairly obvious why dealing.
Humphrey Atkins as Northern Ireland former Chiel itself, Whip, his talents lie in cajoling.
and wheeler- there demands had conti tor the most of that same period the reporters have had to encounter the deputy editorship of Terence O'Neill's writer, John Cole. His influence saw to it that editorially the Geardian whatever the current British was whether internment or power-sharing.
Cole has now gone to the and his partnership there with O'Brien has ensured him. that much of the copy filed by never sees the light of day. McQuade, It is not surprising that such direct and obvious censorship Although there politics in signs that cracks in the "wall of silence' are beginning possibility in the establishmente there little press of anytbing approaching reporting on Ireland. There is too much ar stake for the establishment.
Those looking for explanations of why this 15 so, and the real truth about Ireland, will look to fringe publications, of which these twe latest pamphlets are * Information on Ireland: The ian, and Ireland.
Price 50p, plus 15p pap. From 1 North End Road, Loadon Belfast Bulletin: Media middle Misreport N. Ireland. Price Broadway, Belfast 12. Or from way BUNKSHOE Irish "suspended"
payroil.
He's the prime candidate for a Mr Fix-it, and from Britair the South of thered have beenet have growing over the last few months that Britain tries one more political solution' in the North of Ireland.
Even a year ago such a "solution' might at least have chance of getting past the starting gate. 11 Koy Mason had not been so intent on his military solution if he had offered a devolved parliament, a Bill of Rights and minimal element of powersharing, he might bave started the politicians talking, he might have sown a few seeds of But now, whatever Atkins' ahility to arbitrate in smoke filled rooms at Westmoster, the odds are stacked against the One reason can be summed up in the figure of Johnny 1969, when inside the Unionist Party (now Official Unionist Party) he emerged as one of the most hysterical critics of the policies pursued by the then reforming Northern Ireland Prime Minister, Terence O"Neill.
McQuade represented every: thing Northern Ireland was supposed to be moving away from. As one of the few members of the working class ever to be selected as a Unionist MP, his politics were those of back street Loyalism: sectarfundamentalist, intransigent and scarcely coherent in polite company: won McQuade wouldn't last, the class commentators insisted. His traditionalism was Ulster's' past, not its future For a time that seesnied th things were moving. McQuade resigned from the all-powerful Unionist Party to form the Democratic Unionist Party with lan Paisley. His elimination from the Northern political scene was assured, said the experts In 1972 McQuade resigned his seat at Stormont. The parliament itself hac been by the Tory government at Westminster, but the MPs remained on the McQuade resigned in protest at the suspension, and because he said be didn't agree with being paid for doing notbing He was going back to work in the docks. And that was meant The the end of Jobn McQuade But last week he was elected MP for North defeating the Official Unionist by just under a thousand votes.
Despite the narrowness of hi: victory, and that of fellow DUF member Peter Robinson in Eas Belfast, this double success for Paisley's party is one of the most significant politica developments in the North of Ireland in the last couple of dismal prosthere of the Taken together with most moderate Unionist part - Alliance - it can oniy b concluded that Loyalism. and Protestant petty-bourgeoisie and working class generally, have moved significantly to the right; or at least that the coptinuing "estremist nature of Protestant politics has been confirmed.
On the anti-Unionist side, too, the 'extremists' fared none too badly, In Fermanach and South Tyrone, SDLP member Austin Currie made the refusal of sitting MP Frank Maguire te condemo the Provisionals his main platform. Magure was reclected with more than twice Currie's vote In North Antrim the recently trish Independence Party — the most intransigeor anti-partitionist constitutional party — won over 40 per cent of the anti-Unionist vote. It also anti-Unionist vote in Mid cent Ulster.
What all of this means is that there is no middle way in the North of Ireland. From each community the cry of *no surrender" drowns all ochers There is not the ghost of a chance that the Tories can erect a coalition of 'moderates" to oversee the governance of the Six Counties. The instability of the Northern state not only remains but deepens.
The crisis of British unperialise in Ireland promises to become sharper and sharper in the months ahead, and there is precious little Humphrey Atkins can do to avert it.
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BACK in the 19th century some wag once noted that the problem with the British government and Ireland is that it has always offered 'too little, too late'. We now