Politics

Jimmy Carter’s Irish intervention facilitated the enormous involvement of his successors

Previous US presidents had not been prepared to risk relations with UK by involvement in Northern Ireland but Carter did not accept that position

Jimmy Carter (right) with Jack Lynch during a ceremony to welcome the then taoiseach to the White House on November 8th, 1979. Photograph: NBC NewsWire
Jimmy Carter (right) with Jack Lynch during a ceremony to welcome the then taoiseach to the White House on November 8th, 1979. Photograph: NBC NewsWire
Seán Donlon
Mon Dec 30 2024 - 15:24

Twenty-three of the 46 United States presidents have claimed, or have had claimed for them, a connection with Ireland. Jimmy Carter had no Irish roots and never visited Ireland before or during his presidency. Nevertheless, his intervention in Irish matters in 1977 was hugely significant and opened the door for the constructive involvement of subsequent presidents in working for peace and stability on the island of Ireland.

Even before independence, leaders of Irish nationalism unsuccessfully sought US support for the achievement of their objectives. Charles Stewart Parnell visited Washington in 1880 and became the first Irish leader to address the House of Representatives. Pádraig Pearse personally lobbied Washington in 1914 and Éamon de Valera spent much time in the US capital in 1919-21 seeking to persuade the US to support Irish independence.

After independence, US support was sought to end partition and hopes were high, particularly when John F Kennedy became president in 1961, that he would use his influence to help. The relationship that mattered to US politicians, however, was the special relationship between Washington and London. They were not prepared to risk this by any involvement in Irish affairs and, in particular, in Northern Ireland, a matter which London repeatedly asserted was an exclusively UK domestic matter.

Carter was not prepared to accept the traditional US position. Influenced by Speaker Tip O’Neill and Senator Ted Kennedy, who in turn were working closely with John Hume of the SDLP and Michael Lillis from the Irish Embassy, he took the view that the US had a special relationship with both Britain and Ireland and was therefore well positioned to help.

READ MORE

Despite British and US State Department opposition, he decided to intervene and in August 1977 he issued a statement, negotiated in detail by Lillis and Bob Hunter, Deputy National Security Advisor at the White House, calling for the establishment in Northern Ireland of a government which would command widespread acceptance and for an overall solution which would involve the support of the Irish government. In the event of such a settlement, the US would be prepared to see how job-creating investment could be encouraged, to the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland.

[ Jimmy Carter obituary: Former US president was unwavering champion of civil rights and a peace broker in the Middle East ]

The Carter initiative has proven to be of enduring and growing value. His successor, Ronald Reagan, discussed Northern Ireland in every meeting he had with UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher and he was an important influence in persuading her to sign and implement the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement.

The moment the Agreement was signed, he honoured the Carter promise by setting up and funding, with the EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the International Fund for Ireland. The resources committed to the Fund to date amount to almost a billion US dollars, supporting over 6,000 projects in Northern Ireland and border areas.

The precedent created by Carter has facilitated the enormous involvement in Ireland of his successors. The negotiation and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement would not have happened without president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. President Joe Biden, the best informed and committed US president on Irish matters, has been an active supporter of Irish causes since his election to the US Senate in 1973. As president he has, in recent years, provided important leverage in the conduct of Anglo-Irish relations in the gloomy Johnson and Truss years in the UK.

[ Jimmy Carter’s decision to bring US into North peace process ‘was enormous breakthrough’ ]

On a personal level, Carter invited the then taoiseach, Jack Lynch, on a full-scale official visit to the US in 1979. Even though the visit coincided with the taking of US hostages in Tehran, Carter insisted on adhering to the full programme, including a long meeting during which he displayed a remarkable knowledge of the detail of the situation in Northern Ireland. He hosted a state dinner for the taoiseach in the White House, provided accommodation in Blair House, the US guest house, and provided US aircraft to facilitate travel around the US. He even apologised to Lynch for the absence of Paddy whiskey – all alcohol was banned from the White House during the Carter years.

After he left office in 1981 he established the Carter Center to promote and expand human rights, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He paid a private visit to Ireland in 1995, went fishing in Kilkenny and, as a key figure in the non-profit housing organisation Habitat for Humanity, took the opportunity to indulge his woodworking skills by helping with the building of a house in the Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot.

Seán Donlon was Irish ambassador to the United States during the Carter and Reagan Administrations