Mitchell book details Irish peace mission

MAKING PEACE, by George Mitchell, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1999. Hardback, 188 pages, $24.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell of Maine will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House today, fittingly, St. Patrick’s Day. The award, the highest civilian honor in the United States, is in appreciation for Mitchell’s leadership role in the Good Friday peace accord, signed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, just last year.

In his book to be released early next month, detailing the arduous process of “Making Peace,” Mitchell talks about the 3 1/2 years of his life that Northern Ireland consumed. He uses simple, clear language to describe a situation that is anything but simple and clear.

Mitchell covers the complexity of Irish history in just a few pages, but he conveys the problem accurately. He also had to take a crash course in who is who in Northern Ireland. Both the governments of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland have a long-standing interest in Ulster (the traditional name of Northern Ireland). In addition there are eight political parties vying for power. Behind the political parties are paramilitary organizations, both Protestant and Catholic, that have waged cruelties on one another for decades.

No one gives up power willingly, including paramilitary groups that have held a country in thrall to terror. Peace threatens that stranglehold. Mitchell shows in his book the barbaric violent acts that were used, trying to bring the peace process to a close. The hope of those doing the bombing, shooting and maiming was to so morally offend the opposition that it would lead to another round of tit-for-tat terrorism.

The most horrific incident happened this past August, just six months after the peace accord was signed. A bomb was set off in Omagh. Twenty-nine men, women and children were killed. Countless others were injured. The horror inspired by this act of terrorism led those factions that had opposed the peace accord to announce a cessation of violence.

In “Making Peace,” Mitchell details the frustrating problem of trying to undo the distrust and hatred that has fueled generations of strife. At one point, he wanted to just walk out and “leave these contentious people to their feud.” But he decided to stay because he didn’t want to be a quitter.

The tantalizing goal of peace kept him in Northern Ireland even amid personal tragedies, when he desperately wanted to be at home. His wife miscarried. His brother died.

There was also joy when his wife gave birth to son Andrew. On the day of Andrew’s birth, Mitchell asked his staff in Northern Ireland to find out how many babies had been born in Northern Ireland the same day. The answer was 61, and Mitchell decided he wanted to give those 61 babies the safest possible world. The book, indeed, is dedicated to his wife, Heather, his son, Andrew, and the 61 babies born on that special day in Northern Ireland.

Mitchell also decided that the debate among the various factions could go on forever; therefore, he chose a symbolic deadline: Good Friday 1998 (an echo of the Easter Uprising of 1916 that led to the division of the island of Ireland into the Republic and Northern Ireland). Either the participants would sign the accord or they wouldn’t, but Mitchell decided he would have done his best and that he could leave with a good conscience.

The Good Friday peace accord has been touted as the last great hope for bringing lasting peace to Northern Ireland (or the North of Ireland, depending on your political affiliation) after 30 years of sectarian strife.

Commonly referred to as “The Troubles,” the past 30 years in Northern Ireland have been marked by sectarian brutality and violence. To people outside of Ireland, the conflict has been simplified as terrorist warfare between Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups. But, as Mitchell points out in “Making Peace,” nothing is ever that simple.

Mitchell’s involvement in Northern Ireland began as he decided to end his U.S. Senate career. Mitchell announced his intention to leave the Senate in March 1994, catching Washington insiders, as well as the White House, off guard.

In the somewhat confessional tone of the book, Mitchell notes that he had set his own term limit on his Senate career, deciding that two elected terms were enough. His seven-day-a-week schedule of 12- to 14-hour days brought an end to his first marriage and curtailed his interests outside the Senate.

“The evening before his public announcement, Mitchell met with President Clinton. After the president failed to talk Mitchell into reconsidering, he got Mitchell to agree to help out if any special situations came up. Little did Mitchell know what he was getting into.

Mitchell formally left office Jan. 2, 1995. The White House asked if he would be willing to help put together a conference on trade and economic initiatives for Northern Ireland. Mitchell agreed, and so began his 3 1/2-year commitment to Northern Ireland.

The Clinton administration thought that the key to solving the disputes in Northern Ireland lay in economic development. But, as Mitchell was to find out, economics is only one part of the problem.

Religion seems to be the true dividing line, but that, too, is only partially correct. Religion is based on ethnicity. And, a person’s religion and ethnicity have a lot to do with determining social and economic class.

Mitchell learned, too, that the 30 years of The Troubles represented only the tip of the iceberg. He discovered that the people in Northern Ireland have a “highly developed sense of grievance.” The roots of the problem go back much further than the late 1960s. Some see the problem as arising in 1921-22 when Ireland was partitioned into the Republic of Ireland (the southern 26 counties) and the six counties of Northern Ireland, which remained tied to Great Britain. But, in order to understand the partitioning of Ireland, one has to look even further back in history.

In the early 1600s, just as Great Britain was colonizing the American continents, it set up a plantation in northern Ireland. The Protestant British government cleared Catholic landowners from the land, giving them two choices: to hell or Connacht (the western, treeless, poorly soiled area of Ireland).

Protestant British and Scottish settlers were given the cleared lands of Ulster, a fertile area of Ireland. From that beginning in the early 17th century, come today’s Troubles. The quarreling, quibbling and leaking of sound bites that Mitchell details have centuries of hatred and mistrust behind them.

The book reads like a thriller — will they or won’t they sign? The whole world seemed to take notice. In fact, two of the participants in the peace accord process received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 — John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (composed primarily of Catholics), and David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (composed primarily of Protestants).

And the debates go on: How should paramilitary groups be decommissioned? How will weapons be turned in? Will they be turned in? How will the new cooperative government work? Will it work? The process continues, but at least everyone is talking.

George Mitchell will be in Maine promoting his new book, “Making Peace,” and talking about the situation in Northern Ireland. He will appear at noon Monday, April 19, at Borders Books and Music in Bangor, and at Mr. Paperback in Waterville at 4 p.m. the same day. On April 20, he will be at the First Parish Church in Portland at noon.