Sir, - I read Dr Garret FitzGerald's article (5th September) on the evolution in the US administration's policy on Ireland with much interest. I fully share his view that the recent visit here by President Clinton "crowned this process of increasingly positive American involvement in the Northern Ireland crisis". And I wholeheartedly endorse his recognition of the major role played by John Hume and the famous "Four Horsemen" - Ted Kennedy, Tip O'Neill, Pat Moynihan and Hugh Carey - in this development. Indeed, Hume and Kennedy are still crucial in the positive evolution of American policy towards Ireland to this day. There are, however, some references in Dr FitzGerald's article which I feel call for comment and clarification. The first concerns the statement that it was on his suggestion that Jack Lynch appointed Sean Donlon as Ambassador to the United States in 1978. On reflection, I hope he can accept that this is not a fair or accurate representation of the facts and is certainly not fair particularly to those who were actually involved in this key, and in many ways mould-breaking, appointment.
The fact is that since being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in July 1977, I had been very conscious that we needed to develop and deepen our range of relationships across the spectrum of opinion makers in the United States in the White House, on the Hill, in the Irish American Community, etc. I initiated a review of our diplomatic postings, in consultation with the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch. The outcome of this review, which included in particular taking on board the advice of the Secretary of the Department, the late Bob McDonagh, was that I proposed to the Government that Sean Donlon be appointed Ambassador to the United States. Mr Donlon, who at that time was Assistant Secretary in the Department with special responsibility for the Anglo-Irish Desk, was to be by a long distance the youngest ambassador in the Irish Diplomatic service. The Cabinet adopted my recommendation on December 9th, 1978.
Dr FitzGerald had, of course, himself been Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1973 to 1977 and it was of course open to him to persuade his own Government to make the appointment that he now claims was made by the Fianna Fail Government over a year later on his suggestion.
The second reference about which I am concerned is the implication that in some way the then Fianna Fail Government and I, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, were ambiguous about "the support which Congressman Biaggi's ad-hoc Committee on Irish affairs and Noraid were giving to violence". Nothing could be further from the truth. My message then and always has been clear and unambiguous. There was absolutely no place for violence in resolving the Northern conflict.
However, I also felt that there was a compelling need to wean the Irish-American community away from Noraid and to channel the energy of the Irish-American lobby groups, or at least some of their more thoughtful supporters, into productive support for the achievement of political progress and reconciliation in Ireland.
There was, in my view, little point in simply lecturing them or repudiating them unless I also conveyed a complementary message on how progress could be - and indeed was being - achieved. Accordingly, with the full backing of the Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, I used the occasion of my first visit as Foreign Minister to the UN in September 1977 to meet the key Irish-American figures in such organisations as the AOH, the Friendly Sons, the Longshoremen's Union and the New York GAA to remind them that our Government had just been given a very strong mandate from the people of Ireland - a mandate which included an obligation to work towards reconciliation and a coming together of all traditions in Ireland through agreed political structures.
In face-to-face consultations I made it clear that we were entitled to recruit their unequivocal support for these objectives and by definition that this meant no financial support from them for organisations such as Noraid, which were actively funding the IRA campaign at the time. The subsequent history of more positive Irish-American involvement would, I respectfully suggest, tend to endorse this approach. I did not, of course, succeed in persuading all of them, but the record will show that there was a significant fall-off in that funding from the late 1970s, though ironically and tragically the IRA subsequently switched to a campaign of armed robbery and bank raids at home.
Incidentally, the Carter initiative, which Dr FitzGerald had undoubtedly worked towards, was launched on August 30th, 1977, after full consultation with the Fianna Fail Government and almost two months after I succeeded him as Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I would like to pay tribute to Dr FitzGerald's important role in the evolution of American policy towards Ireland, but I would suggest that it is unnecessary for him to overstate that role or to denigrate the role of others who played our part to the best of our ability in the process also, even if our emphasis and tactics may have somewhat differed from his and his Government's from time to time. I have no doubt that we both remain passionately committed to peace and political progress in the North - and I am honoured to have been asked to continue to play my own small but distinctive part in this as Joint-Chairman of the British Irish Interparliamentary Body. - Yours, etc.,
Michael O'Kennedy,
TD,
SC,
Dail Eireann,
Dublin 2.