COWEN: Yes. I think the governments understand that this issue cannot be addressed by either overt or covert surrender. The priority of everyone in the North, including the unionists, is to have these weapons put beyond use–verifiably and in a way which maximizes public confidence.
For the British government there are security considerations which of course are part of the equation. Our firm view is that the way you ensure that dissidents have no prospects of becoming any sort of threat is to show that politics work. Demilitarization is part of that. It’s not the be-all and the end-all, but it’s part of it.
Our view here is not doctrinaire. The basic fact of the matter is–for reasons of history and identity and all that–that unfortunately we don’t have a police force in Northern Ireland that has the full allegiance and participation of everyone in the community. I’m sure there are many [in the RUC] who do their job conscientiously. That’s a basic fact of life here in Northern Ireland. What is envisaged here is a new beginning. The legislative outcome should be such that a nationalist could walk into a police station, fill out an application form and seek to become a policeman in the same way as a carpenter or an architect or an engineer.
There will always be people who one week say you’ve done too much for this side and the next week that you’ve done too much for that side. That’s why it’s important to understand that the agreement is a win-win situation and the normalization of society is in everyone’s interest. For our part, in terms of David Trimble, we very much commend the courage of those unionists who have been prepared to support the agreements they’ve [signed].
It’s quite a different situation. In Ireland, the people, all the people, North and South, were involved in the process in a way that the Palestinians and the Israelis and people of neighboring states have not been. The vote on the Good Friday Agreement gave us a popular base that is essential in terms of normalizing and democratizing society.
Bill Clinton, personally and as president, has been absolutely critical. He very ably showed to the unionist community, among other things, that there isn’t a stereotypical Irish-American nationalist vision, that the American vision on Northern Ireland can be inclusive. And the legacy that he has left in that respect has been such a powerful and effective one that his successor, whoever it may be, would do well to follow that example. Whether one will ever get someone with the same sense of personal conviction on this issue again remains to be seen.
I was at the White House for St. Patrick’s Day last March. He was clearly in the last year of his administration and on the last St. Patrick’s night of his administration. He spoke most eloquently about his hopes for the future for Ireland and his genuine empathy for the people of Ireland, and I felt in the crowd that night that there was a very genuine recognition by Irish-Americans and the Irish government that here we had a man who’s probably our best friend ever.
