Opinion

Brian Feeney: Sinn Féin are right to go to the White House - a boycott would be crackers

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

Historian and political commentator Brian Feeney has been a columnist with The Irish News for three decades. He is a former SDLP councillor in Belfast and co-author of the award-winning book Lost Lives

Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald have predicted that Irish unity is moving closer
Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald are travelling to Washington for St Patrick's Day (Liam McBurney/PA)
By Brian Feeney

We’ve been here before: to boycott or not to boycott?

In April 2003 George W Bush flew in to meet Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle. They were there to discuss the ongoing illegal war in Iraq the pair of them had instigated the previous month.

Why the north? Well, the next day they were joined by Bertie Ahern because the object of the exercise was, you’ve guessed it, to get the assembly and executive up and running. Trimble had collapsed it in October 2002 because of an IRA spy plot at Stormont. As it turned out the main figure in the plot was a British agent, Denis Donaldson.

Then President George Bush, accompanied by Prime Minister Tony Blair, leaving Hillsborough Castle after talks
Then President George Bush, accompanied by Prime Minister Tony Blair, leaving Hillsborough Castle after talks

However, the question was, would Sinn Féin boycott the meetings with Bush and Blair, as their supporters were urging them to do?

Outside the castle, about 2,000 demonstrators from all over Ireland and some from England had gathered, held back far from the castle by an enormous security cordon. Sinn Féin decided to have their cake and eat it. Dozens of SF protestors clustered in the crowd waving flags and placards. Meanwhile, inside the castle Gerry Adams and a couple of senior SF figures met Bush and Blair.

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They had promised supporters to take the opportunity to give Bush and Blair a piece of their mind about Iraq. In the event, witnesses testified that they didn’t utter a cheep about Iraq then, or next day when Ahern arrived. SF’s main aim was to get Stormont up and running so they weren’t going to let a small matter like the Iraq war get in their way negotiating with Blair.

President George W Bush meeting the leaders of the Republic and Northern Ireland in the Oval Office on March 13 2002. From left to right Gerry Adams; John Reid; Bertie Ahern; President Bush; David Trimble; Mark Durkan and David Ford. Picture by Doug Mills, Associated Press
Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams pictured wth John Reid, Bertie Ahern, President George W Bush, David Trimble, Mark Durkan and David Ford in the Oval Office in Washington in 2002

There are some similarities this time. The American president is blindly supporting Israel as their army engages in widespread atrocities, filmed in real time, and breaches international law with impunity on a daily basis. Joe Biden supplies Israel with the shells and 1,000kg bombs to obliterate settlements in Gaza and slaughter their inhabitants. Many SF supporters north and south want them to boycott the White House jamboree in protest.

However, there are also differences this time.

Sinn Fein Ard Fheis 2023
Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill, Palestinian ambassador to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid and party leader Mary Lou McDonald at the party's ard fheis

SF is a major player in Irish politics, the biggest party in Ireland north and south, and in office in the north, not just a bit player at Stormont as in 2003.

The Irish government is going to express disapproval of Biden’s policy. Varadkar has already made a powerful speech in Boston attacking Israeli behaviour which received widespread coverage. He has said he intends to push the case for a ceasefire with Biden despite the US vetoing a ceasefire three times. More importantly, he will urge Biden to join ‘the push for peace’ in a substantive deal as Presidents Carter and Clinton did.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks to the media outside the Boston Harbor Hotel
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks to the media outside the Boston Harbor Hotel (Niall Carson/PA)

The Irish government’s critical line on Israel opens the way for SF leaders McDonald and O’Neill to criticise the US policy publicly too.

Nevertheless, as in 2003, it’s essential to keep the eye on the ball. The main reason for engaging in the US St Patrick’s Day festivities is to use the leverage of the Irish-American politico-business nexus to produce the $6 billion investment here that Biden promised last April. Already this week Conor Murphy has been doing that, at last maximising the dual market access that the DUP’s hopelessly stupid hole-in-the corner, ‘ourselves alone’ economic policy never did.

The alternative, to sit at home and issue the same statements which no-one in Washington would read because they don’t pay any attention to local media here, achieves nothing

There are 230 US companies in the north employing tens of thousands. Murphy and US Special Envoy Joe Kennedy have been working together all week to expand that number. Visiting different cities, meeting prospective investors, allows the north to be part of what Billy Cantwell, editor of Australia’s ‘Irish Echo’, calls Ireland’s ‘shamrock empire’.

The economy minister Conor Murphy, pictured in New York on Monday.
Economy minister Conor Murphy pictured in New York

The alternative, to sit at home and issue the same statements which no-one in Washington would read because they don’t pay any attention to local media here, achieves nothing. Nor is it the smartest way to encourage Irish-Americans to invest money here.

McDonald and O’Neill are right to go. Boycotting is crackers.