Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Economic War on Ordinary PeopleSource: Fortnight, No. 202 (Mar., 1984), p. 3Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25547409 .

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FORTNKHY ^[aNMOEPENPENT REVIEW FOR NORTHERN IRELANO

^[

ISSN 0141-7762

Issue No. 202 March 1984

CONTENTS: CURRENT AFFAIRS Columbanus Macnee 2

Bill Craig on the Official Unionists 4 Martin O'Hagan on loyalist-military Jinks

in North Armagh 5 Dublin Letter: Martyn Turner on

Southern morality 7 Kevin Toolis on the likely British response

to the New Ireland Forum 9 Adrian Guelke on Protestant attitudes 11

4Dog Collars' cartoon strip 12

Diary of Events 12 Letters 14 Sidelines (part 1) 15

Fortnight party photos 17

BOOKS AND ARTS Ken Maginnis reviews Michael Farrell's

'Arming the Protestants' 19

Ben Caraher on Sean Lemass 20

Brian McAvera on John Arden and the

Matter of Ireland 21

Andy Pollak on a history of Irish

newspapers 23

Booklets in Brief 24

Noel Russell's Bookends 24

Moving Hearts personal column 26

Paul Hadfield and Lynda Henderson on

Elvis Presley and Cider With Rosie 27

Anne Davey Orr on Colin Middleton 28

Judith Jennings on the Ulster Orchestra28

Another Ulster: Graham Reid on growing

up in the Donegall Road 29

Sidelines (part 2) 31

BACKISSUES

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EDITOR Andy Pollak EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Tom Hadden, Robert Johnstone,

Chris Moffat, Martyn Turner

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Cover photo by Clive Limpkin from The Battle of the Bogside' (Penguin); design by Jim Egner.

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ECONOMIC WAR ON ORDINARY PEOPLE Late on a Saturday night last month three armed and masked men held up the security man at the Bairnswear children's clothing factory in Armagh, planted incendiary bombs at strategic points around the plant, and burned it to the ground. In its statement

claiming responsibility the Provisional IRA claimed it was a 'com mercial target'.

That factory, one of only two large private employers in Arm

agh, gave a livelihood to 175 men and women and their families in an area of over 24% unemployment. It is not yet clear whether or

not the plant will be rebuilt, but from the comments of managers

following the attack and the track record of the English parent company, the Courtaulds conglomerate, in Northern Ireland, it seems unlikely.

Little wonder that the SDLP accuse Sinn Fein, the IRA's polit ical wing, of hypocrisy in their new-found concern about unem

ployment. Or that an economic consultant's report to the New

Ireland Forum last month forecast that unemployment could reach 31.5% and the British government's subvention to Northern

Ireland could double by the early 1990s. It is clearly in the interests of the IRA and Sinn Fein to keep

Northern Ireland unstable militarily, politically and economically; to keep new investment away by the bombing of the occasional

factory; to keep unemployment and the resulting alienation high both north and south of the border so that they can portray themselves as an attractive, 'uncorrupted' revolutionary alternat ive to the young, the poor and the frustrated.

It is equally in the interests of constitutional parties, and more

importantly, of ordinary working-class people, whether in the North or the South, Unionist or Nationalist, to bring work, and

therefore hope, to their communities.

Whatever the New Ireland Forum comes up with in the way of long-term constitutional options, it should also concentrate its

collective mind on what short-term measures can be put into effect to better the lot of the jobless, the poor, the economically power less and frustrated on both sides of the border, but particularly

-

because that's where any reconciling gestures will be most felt -

in the North.

There is plenty of evidence of goodwill abroad for any such

moves, with their inevitable spin-off for the stability and prosp erity of Europe's westernmost island. Last month, for example, saw a proposed ?110 million EEC development package for the border region, covering seven Northern district council areas and

five Southern counties. And the American ambassador in London

announced that the staff at the United States Consulate in Belfast would be increased to handle continuing United States investment

in Northern Ireland.

But why do Southern politicians have to rely on such European and American gestures of economic goodwill to the North? Here

is one suggestion for a concrete initiative which the New Ireland Forum itself could set in train. It could announce the establish ment of a Border Development Commission, which would invite

representatives from the Northern Ireland Office, the Stormont

Assembly and local authorities on both sides of the border to sit on it.

Such a commission would be in an ideal position to solicit funds from both the EEC and the US government. We would suggest that it should be funded initially by a special 'cross-border cooper ation tax' levied in the first instance on the citizens of the Repub lic, perhaps voluntarily, in order to test the good faith of their

expressed desire for moves towards unity. The raising of this tax would be another argument to bring first

to the British government, but also to Brussels, Washington and the international banks and lending agencies for additional em

ployment-giving investment in border black spots like Strabane,

Derry, Dungannon, Newry and Armagh and their Southern

counterparts.

Such an initiative would be a real opportunity for Southern Irish people to put their money where their republican mouths are to

help their beleaguered fellow Irishmen and Irishwomen in the North in a concrete, unselfish and patriotic way. And despite the admonitions of Unionist politicians, we cannot see ordinary Prot estant workers arguing that they should bite such a hand

- even

given its Southern origins - if it is the only one feeding them when

the rest of the world, and Britain in particular, seems to have

stopped caring.

Fortnight March 1984 3

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