Lynch offers peace plan

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32846, 21 February 1972, Page 13

Lynch offers peace plan

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

DUBLIN, Feb. 20. The Prime Minister of Ireland (Mr J. Lynch) last night offered a three-point plan for bringing peace to Northern Ireland, the republic’s British-con-trolled neighbour. In a speech prepared for delivery to 5000 delegates at the annual conference here on Fianna Fail, the Government party, Mr Lynch proposed: Setting up in the North a “specificially Irish institution” structured to enable nationalist and Unionist communities to work together (the Roman Catholic nationalists are agitating for a greater share in running the Protestant-domin-ated province and the ideal of a united Ireland, while the Unionists stick by the present constitution of union with Britain). Talks between the Irish and British governments, with the assistance of elected representatives of the two Northern

communities, to agree on an administration which would be suitable to the North. An interim commission to administer Northern affairs while such talks took place.

Mr Lynch said that no proposals to end the violence in Northern Ireland would offer a lasting solution if they ignored the fundamental desire of the overwhelming majority of Irish people for unity. He said that he had called last August for the ending of the regime in Northern Ireland and for its replacement by a new form of administration in which power and decision making would be shared equally between Unionist and non-Unionist. Northern Ireland was no ordinary democracy. It was instead a carefully chosen enclave where one community held power permanently, he said.

“In creating a new form of administration, therefore, the first essential is that the monopoly of power now residing in one community because of the British system of Parliamentary democracy, should be replaced by a different kind of representative democracy in which power is

deliberately shared between the two communities,” said Mr Lynch. “The second essential is that the legitimate field for political action must include the individual’s right to advocate and work for a change in relations with London and Dublin without being debarred in any way from public responsibilities for so doing.

“My view is that until the day comes when an Irish Parliament and Government will look after the whole of Ireland, we would prefer to see functioning in the North a specifically Irish institution appropriately structured so as to enable the energies of the two communities to be used in a constructive way,” Mr Lynch said. “There should be talks between the Irish and British Governments, with the assistance of elected representatives of the two Northern communities, to arrive at the kind of administration which is suitable to the North. “It may be necessary, while such talks take place, to administer the affairs of the North through an interim commission. Such a commission would represent no threat to democracy since its period of existence would be

coterminous with the discussions in progress, the maximum length of which could be decided in advance." Mr Lynch said that the way should promptly be cleared for the political discussions which were the only alternative to a worsening of civil strife and economic distress. Mr Lynch said that as a necessary preliminary, obvious barriers would have to be lowered. The primary responsibility for this rested with the British Government and the time had come to discharge that responsibility.

He added: “Internment is the key, and the British Government will have to address themselves realistically to this matter.

“Furthermore, the British Army must cease their aggressive activities in denselypopulated Catholic areas. “The LR.A. (Irish Republican Army) must also cease their activities which, as I have said many times, apart from being morally wrong, impede progress towards Irish unity. “The elected representatives of the minority, given such a change in circumstances, would, I am confident, seriously consider their role.”