User:Jnestorius/New Ireland Forum

The New Ireland Forum was a forum in 1983–4 at which Irish nationalist political parties discussed potential political developments which might alleviate the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The Forum was established by Garret FitzGerald, then Taoiseach, under the influence of John Hume. The Forum was initially dismissed, by Unionists, Republicans, and others, as a nationalist talking-shop. Its final recommendations were brusquely dismissed by Margaret Thatcher's "out, out, out" speech. However, Garret Fitzgerald, who described the Forum's report as "an agenda not a blueprint", valued it as establishing a nationalist consensus from which the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement could be framed.

Background
In the aftermath of the 1981 hunger strikes, "physical force Irish republicanism" represented by Provisional Sinn Féin was gaining support in Northern Ireland at the expense of the "constitutional nationalism" represented by the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Garret FitzGerald became Taoiseach after the Republic's 1981 general election and announced a "constitutional crusade", including a reframing of the state's attitude to Northern Ireland. He lost power quickly but regained it in the November 1982 election. Before the previous month's election to the reconstituted Northern Ireland Assembly, John Hume had proposed a "Council for a New Ireland" in the SDLP manifesto. Fitzgerald persuaded Hume to accept a Forum open to non-nationalist parties, though in the event only nationalist parties joined. The SDLP's participation persuaded Fianna Fáil to join. The forum was open to "all democratic parties which reject violence and which have members elected or appointed to either House of the Oireachtas or the Northern Ireland Assembly". From the Assembly, only the SDLP participated; Sinn Féin were excluded, and the Alliance Party and Unionist parties stayed away. From the Oireachtas, the three main parties —Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party— joined. The Workers' Party and the Democratic Socialist Party decided not to become members of the Forum, although they did make submissions. Independent TDs and Senators were not eligible for membership. The SDLP was abstentionist in the Unionist-dominated Northern Ireland Assembly, which meant its representatives were able to devote more time to the Forum.

Members
There were 27 members and fourteen alternates.

Fianna Fáil

 * David Andrews
 * Paudge Brennan (alternate)
 * Gerry Collins
 * Jackie Fahey (alternate)
 * Veronica Guerin (secretary)
 * Charles Haughey
 * Eileen Lemass
 * Brian Lenihan
 * Jimmy Leonard (alternate)
 * Ray MacSharry
 * Rory O'Hanlon
 * John O'Leary (alternate)
 * Jim Tunney
 * John Wilson

Fine Gael

 * Peter Barry
 * Myra Barry
 * James Dooge
 * John Fanagan (secretary)
 * Garret FitzGerald
 * Paddy Harte
 * John Kelly
 * Enda Kenny
 * Maurice Manning
 * David Molony (alternate)
 * Nora Owen (alternate)
 * Ivan Yates (alternate)

Labour Party

 * Eileen Desmond (alternate)
 * Frank Cluskey
 * Stephen McGonagle
 * Diarmaid McGuinness (secretary)
 * Frank Prendergast
 * Dick Spring
 * Mary Robinson (alternate)
 * Mervyn Taylor

Social Democratic and Labour Party

 * Austin Currie
 * Sean Farren (alternate)
 * Frank Feely (alternate)
 * Denis Haughey (secretary)
 * Joe Hendron
 * John Hume
 * Hugh Logue (alternate)
 * Eddie McGrady
 * Seamus Mallon
 * Paddy O'Donoghue (alternate)
 * Paschal O'Hare (alternate)

Work and publications
Colm Ó hEocha was appointed chairman of the Forum. It had a secretariat staff of 17, seconded from the Irish Civil Service; the salary of the secretary of each of the four participating parties was also paid from the Department of the Taoiseach.

The first session was held in Dublin Castle on 30 May 1983 and the final session on 9 February 1984. There were 11 public sessions, several private ones, and visits to Northern Ireland in September 1983 and Great Britain in January 1984. Submissions were received from a wide range of interested parties (including some Northern Irish Unionists) in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere. Over thirty people individuals and groups gave oral presentations to the Forum, amongst these were the Sean McBride, Irish Episcopal Conference, The Irish Sovereignty Movement, Democratic Socialist Party, Irish Information Partnership, Sen. John Robb on behalf of the New Ireland Group, representatives of the Church of Ireland, Synod of Dublin, Federalism and Peace Movement, Chris and Michael McGimpsey and the Belfast Group of Unionists.

The Forum published its report on 2 May 1984. Its historical treatment heavily criticised the Government of Ireland Act 1920, and the alleged short-term thinking of successive British governments' policy on Northern Ireland. It estimated the high financial cost of the Troubles since 1968, while also acknowledging the high cost of implementing any new political arrangements. It outlined three possible alternative structures for a "new Ireland":
 * a "unitary state", i.e. a 32-county Ireland
 * a "federal/confederal state" comprising the current states of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
 * or "joint authority" meaning that the British and Irish governments would have equal responsibility for the administration of Northern Ireland; advocated by Richard Kearney and Bernard Cullen.

At Charles Haughey's insistence, the unitary state was presented as the most desirable option, wihch Fitzgerald later rued as "ritual obeisance".

Unionist historian Graham Walker writes, "The Forum Report did reflect a more considered appreciation of the Unionists' distinctiveness and their attachment to the Union, but it was also replete with time-worn assumptions and stereotypes, and a partisan historical narrative."

Response
Before the Forum's report was issued, the Ulster Unionist Party presented a discussion paper of its own entitled Devolution and the Northern Ireland Assembly: The Way Forward (usually called The Way Forward). This described the Forum thus:
 * The SDLP and those political parties in the Republic of Ireland presently participating in the New Ireland Forum have all publicly declared their support for the principle that there can be no change in the constitutional status of the territory of Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom without the consent of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland. ... British Governments give a formal written guarantee to this principle ... If constitutional nationalists accept the principle of consent, it is difficult to see, in logical terms, why some insist that the British Government should withdraw its guarantee of that self same principle. The answer to this apparent inconsistency lies in the long term political strategy of those who seek a United Ireland.  ... Constitutional nationalists appear to behave upon the basis that every form of pressure, short of direct force, is valid in order to obtain unionist consent. .... The Forum for a New Ireland is an integral part of this strategy. Not only is it a component in the ongoing pressure for consent by producing a charter of republican reasonableness, it is also necessary for it to set up a blueprint for political structures that would, ostensibly, accommodate unionists in a way that the Republic has never been able to do in the past, and which would have been inconsistent with the State’s ethos and existing constitution. It now appears at least probable that this entire strategy is about to fail.

The McGimpsey brothers, members of the Ulster Unionist Party, felt the Forum's report totally ignored their contribution.

On 2 July 1984, Jim Prior, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland commented on the Forum's report in the House of Commons:
 * Most people recognise that parts of it were disappointing and unacceptable to the British Government or British people. However, I recognise that there was positive value in its serious examination of nationalist aspirations, its emphasis on the importance of consent, its unequivocal condemnation of violence, its attempt to understand the Unionist identity and its openness to discuss other views.

On 19 November 1984, at a press conference at 12 Downing Street after a British–Irish summit in Chequers, UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher dismissed the report's proposals:
 * I have made it quite clear ... that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out. That is a derogation from sovereignty. We made that quite clear when the Report was published. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. She is part of the United Kingdom because that is the wish of the majority of her citizens. The majority wish to stay part of the United Kingdom.

This became known as the "out, out, out" speech.

Effects
Lord Kilbrandon established a committee which produced an unofficial report attempting to reconcile elements of the Forum report and The Way Forward. This report informed the British government's view leading up to the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985. Richard Sinnott suggests the Forum report gave Fitzgerald a mandate in the negotiations that produced the Agreement.

Charles Haughey was criticised in the aftermath of the Forum Report's publication for appearing to put a more traditionalist interpretation of its conclusions than other parties. This eventually came to a head when Fianna Fáil, then in opposition party, opposed the 1985 Agreement as incompatible with the Forum's conclusions, while the other three Forum parties supported the Agreement.

The SDLP's view of the "National Question" became the default position of Irish political parties from then and through the Northern Ireland peace process. The SDLP's loss of ground to Sinn Féin in the 1985 local elections in Northern Ireland was attributed in part to the "out, out, out" response to the Forum it had championed.

The Forum has been seen retrospectively an a first acknowledgement by the political parties in the Republic of the need to engage with Ulster unionism and "North-South relationships" rather than ignoring them in favour of the "East-West" relationship with the British government in London. Dermot Keogh called it "one of the most important intellectual exercises in self-definition since the foundation of the state."

The relatively non-partisan approach of the forum influenced the National Forum on Europe in 2001 to address Ireland and the European Union.