THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090611
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
The bombs and bullets of Northern Ireland may have been an ocean away, but they were never far from the thoughts of Irish ex-patriates living in Hampton Roads.
As Northern Ireland teeters on the edge of peace for the first time since the recent round of ``troubles'' began in 1969, locals with ties to Ireland say they are collectively holding their breath to see if a permanent peace is in the offing.
Some believe Northern Ireland should sever its ties to Britain. Others believe the tiny country should remain part of the United Kingdom. They all believe peace is long overdue.
It's closer now than ever.
Today, representatives of the British government will have their first face-to-face meeting with representatives of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army. The meeting is seen as a giant step toward a permanent settlement to the sectarian strife which has ravaged Northern Ireland for a generation.
The IRA declared a cease-fire in August, and Protestant paramilitaries joined them in November.
Sandra Malcor, who leaves her Virginia Beach home for at least three months each year to return to Northern Ireland's Londonderry, says if peace comes to her homeland it will be because the good people of Ireland's six counties are exhausted from war.
``We Irish like a good fight,'' says the Virginia Beach resident, who is a Protestant. ``But it's the killing that has gotten to everyone.''
``I think the regular, hard-working people of Northern Ireland are truly fed up with these handful of hooligans making life miserable for everyone else,'' she says.
Carmel Saucer, who was born in Dublin two years before the troubles began, agrees. Whenever the Portsmouth dairy lab supervisor calls her family in Ireland, she inquires about the progress of peace.
Saucer, who is a Catholic, says that although her home was in the peaceful Republic of Ireland, the violence of the North has tainted the world's perception of her country.
``When people know I'm from Ireland they often ask how I could have lived there, because of the war,'' she says in her fading Dublin accent. ``They don't understand that in the Republic we didn't really see the troubles much, although we felt them.
``We're all just hoping and praying for it to be over now.''
The Rev. P. Francis Quinn of the Church of the Ascension in Virginia Beach, says he believes peace is imminent and that Ireland eventually will be reunified. Ironically, the Roscommon County native says the peacewill be the result of the secularization of both communities.
``The Protestant churches in the North are seeing a decline in population and financial support,'' says Quinn, who emigrated in 1954. ``On the other hand, a very secular mindset is invading the Catholic Church in the Republic. Neither church is the robust center it was, and I think that will eventually lead to reunificiation of the 32 counties.''
The cleric seems resigned to the decline of the church in Ireland.
``Nothing happens that is not providentially oriented,'' he says.
Local observers agree that peace is being pushed along partly by economic factors.
``I think Britain is very motivated to seek peace right now because Northern Ireland has become an albatross round its neck,'' says Rose Sunderland, a Virginia Beach homemaker and Dublin native. ``Of course, it's an albatross of its own making.''
Londonderry's Sandra Malcor predicts that the money Britain infuses into Northern Ireland will ensure that the six counties will remain forever a part of the United Kingdom.
``I remember once going to a march in Londonderry,'' she says. ``And I spoke with this man who said he was so ashamed of the British that he threw away the medals he'd won fighting in the British Army in World War II.
``I told him I'd be prouder of him if he returned his government pension if he was so unhappy with the British,'' she says, laughing. ``He didn't show any inclination to give back the money.'' ILLUSTRATION: REUTERS FILE COLOR PHOTOS
Darren Baird mourns his mother, father and sister, who were killed
by an IRA bomb.
Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, at right with beard, helps
carry the coffin of an IRA member in October in Belfast.
Color photos
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
Photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Rose Sunderland, who grew up in Dublin and lives in Virginia Beach
says economic needs will eventually bring about peace in Northern
Ireland.
by CNB