British and Irish Approve Accord on Northern Ireland

The British and Irish cabinets on Thursday approved an agreement aimed at restoring peace to Northern Ireland that for the first time will give the Irish government a role in the troubled British province.

Northern Ireland Protestant hard-liners immediately denounced the agreement, with several warning of the use of force to prevent it from going into effect.

The agreement came after a year of negotiations and was announced in Dublin after a Cabinet meeting. There was no official word from London, although the accord was discussed in Parliament. A British official close to the negotiations who insisted on anonymity confirmed London’s acceptance.

For security reasons, no time or place has been announced for a formal signing, but there was widespread speculation that it will be signed today, here in Belfast, at a hastily arranged meeting of Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Ireland’s Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald.

The agreement, if ratified as expected by both parliaments, will be the first between the two governments on Northern Ireland, or Ulster, since 1921, when Ireland won its independence and six northern counties remained part of the United Kingdom. It is regarded as a watershed in efforts to end the cycles of sectarian violence that have crippled Northern Ireland for most of its history.

After a five-hour meeting of the Irish Cabinet, the Dublin government issued a brief statement saying, “The government has considered the Anglo-Irish agreement and approved it.” The statement did not elaborate.

The most recent round of violence between minority Roman Catholics and majority Protestants in Ulster has lasted 16 years, claimed nearly 2,500 lives and severely slowed economic development.

The Reagan Administration and congressional leaders are considering plans for providing financial aid for Ulster’s economy in an effort to bolster acceptance of the Anglo-Irish agreement, according to reports from Washington.

The accord reportedly includes new police complaint procedures and changes in the security forces in an effort to reassure the Catholics and give them a stronger voice in the political process.

Joint Ministerial Council

It also reportedly offers the predominantly Catholic Irish government a consultative role in the affairs of Ulster, by means of a joint ministerial council and secretariat that would include representatives from both Dublin and London.

According to unofficial reports in London and Dublin, the council will work for closer cooperation in confronting the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which has engaged in a long campaign of bombings and killings to force union between Ireland and Ulster. The council will also press for industrial and agricultural development.

The agreement also reportedly would repeal the ban on flying the Irish flag in Northern Ireland, encourage Irish language studies, promote Irish sports and permit streets to be named after Irish historical figures.

The negotiations have been bitterly resisted by leaders of the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. They see the accord as a step toward a united Ireland, the end of their political supremacy and their way of life.

On Thursday, in heated House of Commons debate, Protestant leaders denounced the agreement as a sell-out, accused Thatcher of treachery and promised to oppose the accord by force if other measures fail.

Lawmaker Harold McCusker brandished a copy of the Irish Press and said it was “deplorable that members of this house, who have been systematically and deliberately kept in the dark about the outcome of these talks, should learn of their conclusions from a paper printed in Dublin.”

But little tension was visible in Belfast as reports of the two cabinets’ action and the impending Thatcher-FitzGerald summit circulated through the provincial capital. Nor was there any sign of an immediate and violent Protestant backlash, which is feared by both governments.

“Violence would do nothing at this point but destroy our own community,” said Andy Tyrie, head of the Ulster Defense Assn., the largest of several Protestant paramilitary groups. “I’ve told my people there is no role for them Friday.”

Tyrie said his organization will concentrate on a propaganda campaign against the agreement as a British betrayal of Ulster.

Frank Miller, general secretary of the largest Protestant party, the Official Unionists, and the man coordinating a joint Protestant political response to the agreement, also ruled out any immediate backlash.

Demand for Referendum

Miller outlined a campaign that includes demands for a referendum on the agreement, the possible resignation of the province’s 15 Protestant members of Parliament, and possibly civil disobedience including strikes and the refusal to pay income taxes.

Like other political leaders, Miller also issued a veiled warning that if these measures fail, violence could follow.

“We want to give political leadership because we’re political parties, but if the British don’t respond to pressure, then violence could be the result,” said Belfast City Councilman Sammy Wilson, a Protestant leader.

Twice in this century, strong Protestant reaction has scuttled an agreement that threatened their political supremacy here.

Not long after the turn of the century, a threat of civil war persuaded the British Parliament to give up any idea of granting independence to a united Ireland, and in 1974 a general strike by Protestants brought down a provincial government in which Catholics held a share of power.

Now, though, the Protestant majority faces a strong British government with a comfortable parliamentary majority and a determined leader in Prime Minister Thatcher.

The prospect of joint Anglo-Irish action against the IRA is especially attractive to Thatcher, herself a target of an IRA bomb attack 13 months ago.

Volatile Ulster Mood

Still, history has shown that the mood in Ulster can change quickly, and Protestant leaders have been quick to launch their counteroffensives.

The 15 Ulster Protestants in Parliament announced that they will refuse to meet with any minister of the Thatcher government, and they called for “an alternative summit” of Protestant leaders in Belfast to coincide with any Thatcher-FitzGerald meeting.

Ian Paisley, the Presbyterian cleric who personifies Protestant defiance, accused Thatcher of deceit in her assertion that the agreement will relinquish no sovereignty in Ulster to the Irish Republic.

Thatcher has said that under the agreement, Dublin’s role in Ulster will be consultative only.

Nonetheless, Paisley promised that “we will resist this agreement to the very death if necessary.”