One positive outcome of September 11, 2001?
Brian Micklethwait on the latest development in Northern Ireland, and from where it may have stemmed:
What I have in mind is that following 9/11 the USA took its first truly serious look at IRA terrorism, voters as well as just terrorism experts, and all that sentimental and unthinking Oirish blarney support for the IRA, which had over the decades turned into real money and real weapons on a huge scale, no longer seemed like a harmless slice of electoral politics and suddenly looked like a seriously bad idea. (I recall thinking as soon as the Twin Towers came down that the IRA would not like this.)
For, no matter what concessions have been gouged out of the North Ireland Unionists, and even though nobody directly involved in this settlement would dream of saying it out loud for fear of upsetting the new applecart that has now been bodged together, this surely means that the IRA has lost. For the time being anyway. They wanted Northern Ireland to be detached from the UK and to become attached to the Republic of Ireland, but this has not happened.
Filed under: Life
My, my, we Americans are responsible for EVERYTHING these days, aren’t we? :o)
My personal belief is that although a decrease in monetary support for the IRA was a factor, the primary reason for the peace process is that both sides looked south and realized the boat of hand-over-fist economic growth had sailed without them. They might not want to be *politically* attached to the Republic, but boy, a cross-border share in all that dough? After all, what’s the British economy done for them lately?
Economic opportunity will trump terrorism any day. Not much in the way of jihadist violence happening in Dubai, is there?
Are you seriously suggesting that Unionists would consider being part of the Republic for economic reasons? I suppose it’s not completely impossible, but have you met any Unionists to back this theory up or are you just guessing?
> After all, what’s the British economy done for them lately?
Er, rather a lot? The big discussion now is of trying to build up the Northern Irish economy so that the rest of the UK can stop subsidising us — the British economy has been pouring money into Northern Ireland for decades.
I’m a committed enemy of pointless anti-Americanism, but this one issue is the one where the anti-Americanism is essentially correct. The IRA were certainly not caused by America, but both the funding and the political backing they received from the US was a huge help to them, and probably extended the Troubles by quite a few years.