THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603160001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Kerry Dougherty
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
One of the most interesting events Irish political writers get to cover each year is the Sinn Fein ard fheis, a convention in Dublin.
For one weekend, the peaceful capital of the Republic of Ireland is overrun with Northern nationalists. Getting journalist's credentials for the ard fheis is a complicated process, but worth it. Few organizations do a more thorough background check on writers.
When I lived in Dublin during the early 1980s, I attended several Sinn Fein conventions. There was an element of intrigue to them missing from most political gatherings.
The first of the two-day sessions was full of passionate speeches by men with curious Northern accents, poetically reminding the people of the Republic that their national constitution claims ownership of all 32 counties.
These calls annually fell on deaf ears. The Republic of Ireland long ago abandoned any real claim to the six counties of Northern Ireland. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting them, awash as they are with sectarian strife, unemployment, bloodshed and hate.
But it was always the curious second day of the ard fheis that most fascinated me. Unfortunately, journalists were not welcome. This was the closed session. The meeting at which the real business of Northern Ireland's republicans was undertaken. It was the annual meeting of the war council.
Strangely enough, the same delegates who walked through the doors and gave interviews at the political session ducked in this time, for the secret meeting.
When I was covering Irish politics more than a decade ago it was assumed that Gerry Adams, leader of the political wing of the IRA, was also the paramilitary organization's chief of staff.
He's denied that many times. But wouldn't you?
No one on the outside has a good picture of the chain of command of the IRA. The IRA has been outlawed for decades on both sides of the border. It operates on a secret cell structure and has a frightening motto: ``Once in, never out.''
Recently, kneecapping has given way to ``six-packing'' as the preferred punishment for traitors to the IRA. The victim is shot in six joints - knees, elbows and ankles now.
It's proved an effective deterrent for anyone contemplating a kiss-and-tell book about the IRA and has enabled the paramilitaries to maintain a wall of secrecy about where they get their training and their money and who is giving the orders.
Gerry Adams, a canny politician, has always been able to assume the dual stance of at once speaking for the IRA through Sinn Fein, but also feigning helplessness to stop the organization's violence.
In recent years the roles have served Mr. Adams well. The Clinton administration gave him a visa to visit the United States last year with an invitation to visit the White House for St. Patrick's Day.
That was not a mistake by the State Department. The United States had a double standard about admitting Irish activists for years. Ian Paisley, the unionists' leading exporter of hate and bigotry, has always regarded the United States as his second home. If he was welcome here, why not Adams?
After the IRA broke its 17-month cease-fire in February, Adams' visa seemed in peril. He got it, but it came this year without an invitation to visit Clinton. So Adams will have to be content with a St. Patrick's Day visit that looks a lot like a Clancy Brothers concert tour: with visits confined to East Coast and Midwestern cities with large Irish populations.
I have watched with interest for the past 15 years Gerry Adams' metamorphosis from fringe politician to a player on the international stage.
I may be naive, but in the past two years it seems Adams' efforts for peace have been genuine. Although Newsweek reports that Adams knew the cease-fire was off before the first bomb was detonated, it is doubtful he actually ordered the explosions. The IRA, while in some respects a disciplined outlaw group, is also a refuge for unemployed hooligans who populate the troubled province. Bringing these impatient gunslingers into line for 17 months was an accomplishment for which Adams should get credit. There were many signs in recent months that the IRA was getting impatient with Britain's lethargic approach to the peace process.
These days Adams is looking a lot like Yasser Arafat. Both are reformed terrorists who have had a taste of respectability and seem to like it. Both are titular leaders of rogue groups whose members have an appetite for blood.
Just as Arafat must walk a narrow line as he attempts to bring members of Hamas into line, so must Adams somehow command the respect of the IRA and insist that it lay down its weapons in the interest of peace.
The rest of us must put aside our personal distaste for the likes of Adams and Arafat and wish them well. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.Ms.
Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB