The Irish mess
Sir: Your November et issue carrie. an article, 'Ireland on the Poto. mac,' by Aram Bakshian, Jr, diatribe on a rather low 'eve against Senator Edward Kenned/ which I did not expect to see I The Spectator because of its poor taste whatever your views on tho Irish situation. However, there ar some things it may be wort pointing out from this side of th Atlantic which your Potomac cor respondent left unsaid.
(1) According to the latest ceo. sus more than 13 million Americanr, claim 'Irish ' as their national origin, which means at the ver)' least that what happens in Ireland concerns them. The raiding of Iris homes by English soldiers, th torturing of prisoners, the shootinl of men, women and children in the streets, whether by accident in the, course of searching out 'snipers or by design, are matters abollt which they feel quite strongly ano they could even become a "burn log issue" (Mr Bakshian's phrase) not in 1984 but in 1972 if the1 continue.
(2) Senator Kennedy is nor alone. Senator Abraham Ribicoff 0 Connecticut has spoken out too Likewise Senator Harrison Wil' Hams of New Jersey and Senate, Fred Harris of Oklahoma. Indeed the latter has said: "The mistakes of a friend are always hardest t criticise. Britain is a friend, and for this reason many would prefer to remain silent. But events will ne permit this . . . It is impossible for the world to ignore the Iris)) cause."
(3) A British Commission hoS, denied allegations of widespreso, brutality, but did find evidence 0 mistreatment of political prisoners The extracts that I have read froll) the report would seem to back iii the brutality charges, but no done that was politically a dangeroe conclusion and so we had el exercise in semantics. However, iO 1920, an American private comM15) sion of legislators, intellectualO), clergymen and the like examine' the question of torture and terror in Ireland and arrived at sort1! rather startling conclusions. SO the Manchester Guardian in rr° editorial when the report vtra, published in March of 1921: "OW can only read the report with kind of helpless rage . . . A fej men like Sir Hamar Greenwo0 [Chief Secretary in Ireland' has4 landed us in the dock, without defence, before the conscience
mankind." Now it is not inconce' able that unless Britain detrl! straight with her Irish questiv
that such an independent conun.SS) sion could be set UD here ags1114
calling witnesses from Irelan,', putting Whitehall in the 0100 again, "without a defence, before the conscience of mankind."
(4) It might be as well to state clearly what Ribicoff, Kennedy and Congressman Hugh Carey of Brooklyn propose — this time minus the crudities of Mr Bakshian's attempted witticisms: (a) Termination of the current Internment policy and the release of all persons detained.
(b) Full respect for the civil rights of all the people of Northern Ireland and the termination of all Political, social, economic, and religious discrimination.
(c) Implementation of the reforms promised by the British government since 1958, in housing, Jobs, voting and legal rights.
(d) Dissolution of the Stormont parliament.
(e) Withdrawal of all British forces and the institution of law erforcement and criminal justice under local control acceptable to all parties. (1) Lonvening of all interested parties for the purpose of accomplishing the unification of Ireland.
(5) Since Mr Bakshian makes reference to the Fenian tradition among Irish-Americans it might be Worth pointing out that some powerful men in the economic, cultural and political life of the United States are part of that same tradition. They include Senator Mike Mansfield, the Majority leader; George Meany, head of the AFL-CIO; Thomas J. Gleason, head of the powerful dockers' union and Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. Each of these men believes in a united Ireland and none belongs to the New Left.
Sean Cronin 231 West 15th Street, New York
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