In 1979 Pope John Paul II visited Ireland, the first Pope to do so.
British authorities were annoyed and fearful for his safety in Northern Ireland so he spoke instead at Drogheda near the partition border. He pleaded for a peace based on justice, the basic principles of brotherhood, the respect due to each person and against the evil of violence.
“The moral law,” stated the Pontiff, “could not be set aside by the State not even for the cause of security or threats to law and order.”
His Holiness humbled Communist rule in Poland but seriously underestimated British imperial arrogance and pride. Emergency laws like internment were used to intimidate, part-time police (B-Specials) delivered beatings and MI-5 double agents were deployed to monitor, agitate and kill as instructed.
As if to mock the Pope’s concerns, the British added jury-less show trials, false imprisonments and orchestrated arms "thefts" for their loyalist bigoted allies. Her Majesty’s government created the only non-rotating unit of the British Army, the Ulster Defense Regiment (UDR), which included members of the Ulster Defense Association and Orange Order, a virtual cornucopia of trained sectarian killers.
The UDR had the highest number of members convicted of crimes of any other Army regiment.
Britain’s deep State operators at Whitehall used their "Merchant of Menace" Rupert Murdoch to label civil rights protestors as criminals and terrorists, to smear victims as traitors and to print government lies as Holy Writ.
The Pope appealed especially to those who held political office in Northern Ireland to prove that the work of peace can secure justice. His plea fell on deaf ears. By 1982 Prime Minister Thatcher added a sinister element to Britain’s Irish policy by removing Coroner’s powers related to cause of death - but only in Northern Ireland.
Pope and now Saint John Paul II.
To this day, nearly 1000 civilian killings, including dozens of members of the political party Sinn Fein, remain uninvestigated in violation of British and EU Human Rights laws. Information requests of the Ministry of Defense relating to security services killings going back four decades are denied using the cloak of National Security. Personal Immunity Certificates (PIC) are liberally issued as "Get Out of Jail Free” cards.
Over the subsequent 25 years (1998-2023) Britain would unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly to stall or distract. The stall strategy included long disputes over language in five negotiated agreements and the delay or ignoring of pact obligations.
The Stormont House Agreement was shut down when the Police Ombudsman and the Historical Enquiries Team found that loyalist gunmen colluded with police and Army personnel in the murdering of unarmed civilians, mostly Catholics. Former London Police Commissioner Lord John Stevens, who conducted three major Northern Ireland investigations, noted “…I was deliberately misled. I was criminally obstructed by Royal Ulster Constabulary and military for doing my job whilst MI-5 failed to disclose information.”
Britain even secured CIA approval to break the South Africa arms embargo so their loyalist double agent, Brian Nelson, could purchase weapons. Those same weapons were subsequently used in 226 killings in Northern Ireland. With the ink on the GFA barely dry, the British deep-state operatives, resentful of America’s role, counter-attacked to discredit the peacemakers.
In August, 1998, the police, Army and MI-5 were all aware of a bomb threat to Omagh three days before it was detonated by opponents of the peace process killing 29. To be sure America got the Omagh message, less than a year later the prominent civil rights attorney Rosemary Nelson, long the target of loyalists and police death threats, accepted the invitation of Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) Chairman of the Helsinki Commission in Congress, to testify to police harassment.
Within a year, the mother of three was victim of a car bomb assassination.
Britain, long presumed to be an American ally in the defense of democracy and the rule of law, lost control of their Northern Ireland narrative. The official label of a "State sponsor of terrorism” loomed. On World Peace Day Pope Leo observed that “…the protection of human rights must prevail over the ambitions of belligerence.”
If returned to power, Britain’s Conservative Leader promised to repeal the Human Rights Act of Northern Ireland, a key provision of the GFA. Leo’s remarks did not mention Northern Ireland but he asserted “…pride is always at the root of every conflict.”
It was the pride of British Conservatives that crafted Ireland’s partition in 1920. President Roosevelt weighed Ireland’s plea to end partition against the wounded pride of England as the Empire crumbled.
Thankfully, America’s indifference to the Irish conflict ended with the Good Friday Agreement. But pride propelled Parliament to cover-up crimes with the CHIS/SPYCOP (2021) and the NORTHERN IRELAND LEGACY ACT (2023). Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn promptly proclaimed it will be another 30 years before Britain takes up an Irish re-unification referendum.
Such imperial hubris is expected from the slow learning British. But if America were to support Ireland’s reunification, or if any UK re-entry to the EU would be conditioned upon the six counties return to the Republic, that may substitute humility in lieu of pride and belligerence.
That and removing the damn Churchill bust from the Oval Office to the British Embassy where it belongs.
Michael J. Cummings, a native of Springfield, Mass. is a graduate of St. Anselm’s College (B. A., 1968) and New York University (MPA., 1970) . He co-founded the American Brexit Committee in 2016 and served as Secretary from 2016-March, 2023. He is a former member of the National Boards of the Irish American Unity Conference (1996-2013), the Ancient Order of Hibernians (2001-2008), and the Irish Northern Aid Committee (1988-1996). He also served as Chairman of the Capital District Irish National Caucus (1979-1982). He worked for the State of New York for 36 years in various capacities including as Assistant Deputy State Comptroller and Director of the Justice Court Fund. He served on the Peace and Justice Commission of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.
