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_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Northern
Ireland____________
Leaders struggle to salvage peace plan
Minister resigns; deaths resume
After a final joint effort by the British and Irish prime ministers failed to revive peace talks, the head of the government in Northern Ireland resigned on July 1, leaving the future of the region highly uncertain. Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern met on June 28 in a last-minute effort to head off the resignation of David Trimble. But Trimble, a leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, went through with his threat to step down as First Minister unless the Irish Republican Army agreed to surrender its arsenal—a move the IRA leadership refused to make. The resignation of the First Minister could lead to the collapse of the government tentatively set up by the Good Friday accords of 1998, which had promised to end a generation of violence in Northern Ireland.
The unhappy results of the breakdown in the peace process were evident on July 3, when Protestant extremists claimed responsibility for the drive-by murder of a Catholic teen, apparently as a reaction to obstruction of a parade by the Protestant Orange Order.
The government Parades Commission had delayed a final ruling on whether the Orangemen could march on the following Sunday through Catholic neighborhoods in Portadown. Every year, the marchers parade (or attempt to parade) down the Garvaghy Road in celebration of “Orangemen’s Day,” July 12. The parades have frequently led to violent clashes.
In the first random act of violence of this year’s “marching season,” an outlawed group called the Red Defenders claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Ciaran Cummings in the nearby town of Antrim. Cummings was reportedly shot by two men on a motorcycle as he waited on a sidewalk for a ride to work.
Review on abortion rule
Suit would extend English law
The Belfast High Court has granted permission for pro-abortion groups to challenge the laws in Northern Ireland in an attempt to give women in the province the same right to procure an abortion that is now observed in other parts of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Justice Kerr concluded that the Family Planning Association (FPA) had an arguable case, and granted permission for a full hearing, probably in the autumn. The association claims that the Northern Ireland department of health is under an obligation to issue guidelines specifying when an abortion would be lawful. Lord Lester, attorney for the association, said that Northern Ireland was in a unique situation in not having a detailed statutory regime relating to abortion. He said, “It is a tradition where the law that regulates this area is 19th century criminal law, statute law, and common law.”
Betty Gibson, Northern Ireland organizer of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, argued that most residents of Northern Ireland, whether they support the Unionist or Republican side in the region’s main political struggle, would unite in opposition to the legalization of abortion.
Back to Catholic World Report August/September 2001 Table of Contents