Northern Ireland: A Manageable Conflict?

NORTHERN IRELAND: ______ A MANAGEABLE CONFLICT? Padraig O'Malley [Author's Note/ Early in 1 992, initiative '92, a citizens group, directed by Robin Wilson, editor of Fortnight, and Simon Lee, professor of jurisprudence at Queen's University, Belfast, set up an independent commission of inquiry to which the people of Northern Irelana-and those beyond who were concerned about it-were invited to submit ideas on possible ways forward for the region. The chairperson of this Commhsion, the late Professor Torkel Opsahl, was professor of hw at the University of Oslo, chair of the Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. He carried out missions for the UN Secretary General in Iran, Iraq, and for the Norwegian Foreign Minister in the Baltic countries. At the time of his sudden death in September 1 993, he was a member ofthe UN commission investigating war crimes in the former Yugoshvia. Other members of the Commission included myself, Lady Faulkner of Downpatrick, former BBC governor for Northern Ireland and widow of the late Brian Faulkner, L·st Stormont prime minister and head of the 1974 power-sharing Executive; Dr. Ruth Lister, professor of applied social studies at the University of Bradford; Mr. Eamonn Gallagher, former EC Director General of Fisheries and special advisor to EC President Jacques Delors; Dr. Marianne Elliott, professor of history at the University of Liverpool; and Rev. Eric Gallagher, former president ofthe Methodist Church in lreL·^ and one of the church men who had discussions with PadraigO'Malley is editorofthe New EnglandJournal ofPublic Policyand a seniorfellow at the John W. McCormack Institute ofPublic Affairs, University ofMassachusetts at Boston. He is the author ofthree books on Northern Ireland: The Uncivil War: heL·^ Today; Bitingat the Grave: The Irish HungerStrikes and the Politics ofDespair, and Northern Ireland: Questions of Nuance. He is currendy at work on a book on die transition in South Africa that will be published in 1997. 61 62 SAIS Review WINTER-SPRING 1994 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (ira) in December 1974 that led to a temporary cease-fire. Throughout the summer and autumn of 1 992, speakers criss