Meehan Honored in Ireland for Peace Efforts
Belfast
The Eagle-Tribune
Bryan McGonigle
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., journeyed to Belfast last week and promised to act as Northern Ireland’s peace envoy on Capitol Hill.
Meehan, in turn, was applauded for his commitment to peace in that long-suffering corner of Europe.
Meehan met with several Irish groups to observe and discuss the region’s plan for peace and economic development and was the keynote speaker at the annual Aisling Awards Person of the Year ceremony. The Andersonstown News Group, which organizes the awards ceremony, sponsored his trip.
“The timing of my visit couldn’t have been better, coming on the heels of the midterm elections,” Meehan said. “I think having Democrats in control of the House of Representatives and the Senate will bring a renewed sense in Washington that the United States needs to reexamine our foreign policy and become engaged and proactive again.”
Meehan is a member of the Congressional Friends of the Irish National Caucus – a congressional organization focusing on Ireland and Northern Ireland – and has been involved with the Northern Ireland peace process since first taking office in 1993, making many trips to the region, including a 2000 visit with President Clinton. Meehan also has pushed for free trade between the United States and Northern Ireland.
The Aisling Awards started 10 years ago as a grassroots effort to bring the feuding communities in Northern Ireland together. Past speakers at the event have included Irish presidents as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“It was the first major private-sector event that really pulled the people together over there,” said Art McCabe of Andover, a lawyer who joined Meehan on the trip last week and has been involved with the Northern Ireland peace process for nearly a decade.
In 1997, Meehan returned from a fact-finding mission in the region and asked McCabe to help with economic development there because McCabe had implemented some successful economic development programs in Lawrence.
“Economic development and prosperity is one of the keys to achieving a lasting peace,” Meehan said. “I took this trip to meet with and see first-hand the economic and community partnerships that are developing throughout Belfast.”
Northern Ireland has been ripped apart by violence in the past several decades. The Irish Republican Army organized a campaign in the 1960s to drive out the ruling British military and Protestant domination over Catholics. Sectarian violence ensued –with more than 3,100 killed by the mid-1990s – until a ceasefire between the Irish Republican Army and the Protestant Unionist paramilitary groups was declared in 1994.
In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast, marking an unofficial end to Northern Ireland’s civil war. The agreement established the Northern Ireland Assembly, a 108-member legislature, to ensure that all parties participate in government.
“The people over there are so resilient and determined to have a peaceful and stable society that it’s been rewarding for me to be involved in the peace process,” McCabe said. “Its pretty historic stuff over there, and it would be a good model for other parts of the world.”
Organizers of peace efforts in Ireland have used their methods to work for peace in other areas of the world, including Africa and the Middle East, McCabe said.
Meehan said that “while there is no doubt that the North of Ireland has undergone incredible changes since my last visit, it is my hope that the U.S. will work alongside the British and Irish governments to help continue the buildup of Northern Ireland’s economy.”
###
