Reiss Undermined

MITCHELL Reiss, the Bush administration’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, has clearly lost out to forces in the White House on the issues surrounding the Irish peace process.

Under Reiss and his predecessor Richard Haass, the White House response to the Irish issue was a highly nuanced one, with the Bush administration taking great care to never be seen as too far over on one side or the other.

This was the stance that had won spectacular success in the Clinton era when the then president played equally to both sides and made a huge contribution through men like George Mitchell to the peace process.

Reiss has done his best to keep the even-handed approach, but the fact that he is no longer based in the White House but at a college campus a few hours away has undoubtedly weakened his position.

Instead, the final say on Irish policy now appears to have reverted to the office of National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. There appears to be little if any sense of what the Irish issue is about over there, and there is no question that an anti-Sinn Fein mood has begun to prevail.

All of which is very regrettable, as key decisions on how best to help the Irish situation should be made by men like Reiss, who are acutely aware of the sensibilities involved. Instead we have a one size fits all approach by the National Security Council and the administration.

The coda seems to be that putting pressure on Sinn Fein by leaving White House St. Patrick’s Day invites to the party leaders to the last second, by withholding fundraising and by giving major access to the president to opponents of Sinn Fein is the way forward.

Funny, we thought those kind of tactics were tried for 30 years or so by the British government and, to a lesser extent, the Irish, and they led nowhere.

Reiss may be no George Mitchell, but he always impressed as a decent and thoughtful spokesman who was doing his best on Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, his own administration has now completely undermined him with the decision to bar Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams from fundraising here.

A Man Named Hillary

SO who are we to thank for the annual rush of blood to the head by the New York City St. Patrick’s Parade Committee in New York, which said that the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) would not march up Fifth Avenue to alert millions of Irish Americans to the desperate plight of the Irish undocumented?

Knowing that the committee never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, the finger of blame could well have been pointed at parade chairman John Dunleavy, who has shown the imagination of a turnip when it comes to making the parade more relevant.

But wait, it appears that John is not the person responsible this time. A little noticed nonentity called Hillary Beirne, whose only claim to fame appears to be that he is the nephew of the late parade Chairman Frankie Beirne, has emerged as the new power player.

Hillary — yes, that is his name — is apparently calling the shots and is set up to succeed Dunleavy when the great one finally packs it in and retires to Florida. Apparently it was the man called Hillary who argued most strongly against ILIR being allowed in the parade.

Alas, for those who thought the younger generation of Irish who were getting involved in the parade could make a significant difference, Hillary has proven you wrong! We probably have him to look forward to for the next generation or so, God help us.

Kerry in The North

SENATOR John Kerry — remember him? — was in Ireland last weekend accepting an award from the Tip O’Neill Chair of Peace Studies at the University of Ulster.

Kerry, who is setting up for another run at the White House in 2008, is obviously zeroing in on that Irish Catholic vote that he lost handily to Bush in 2004.

During his talk, Daily Ireland newspaper reports that Kerry acknowledged the Irish peace process as “an example of the overcoming of a turbulent history and the emergence into relative peace and stability.”

“History is replete with examples of conflicts that at times seemed endless and intractable, but history also teaches us that, if the desire for peace stays strong, it is always possible to prevail.

“There are lessons of perseverance and determination for peace to be learned from your experience here in Northern Ireland. You know better than anyone how long and arduous this process can be,” he said.

Kerry was visiting the campus at the invitation of Nobel laureate John Hume.

Workers Flood to Ireland

THE Irish Times reported on Saturday that 750,000 employment authorizations have been given out in Ireland to migrants from the 25 European Union states and to people from outside the EU over the past five years.

Those numbers are totally staggering if you accept that the population of Ireland is only four million and the total workforce from that is 1.72 million people.

That means that up to 12,000 workers a month are flooding into the Irish economy from other countries, an incredible number. While the economy is currently booming, obviously that is not a problem, but if there is ever a downturn, then it is certain to become an issue.

Even more baffling is the fact that the Irish Times reports that the computers of the four government departments monitoring the inflow are not compatible, so no one really knows what is happening.

For instance, of those 750,000 workers who got authorization, no one knows how many stayed, how many family members came with them, etc.