[War] United Kingdom: "Irritating Issues Involving Irate Irishmen"

[Michael Downey]

"Irritating Issues Involving Irate Irishmen"
Prime Minister Owen Eckley
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
20 September 2006
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Number 10's service staff could put on quite the show. A century of
entertaining politicians, businessmen, generals, foreign dignitaries
and the like had infused a high level of professionalism and pride
into them.

As Eckley pushed around the food on his dinner plate he found his
appetite taken by thoughts of problems not too far removed from the
old wooden walls of the opulent dining hall. At the other end of the
table, Ruth Wyndom-Eckley looked up from her meal at him.

"Something's eating at you," she stated. Years of being business and
later political partners had given her the ability to acutely read her
senior sibling. It was an ability Eckley was all too aware of and he
could not help but give her a slight smile.

"November is coming. And with it the final deadline for the Northern
Ireland Assembly to get their heads together. If they don't, the
deadline set by the Blair government will expire and the body will be
dissolved."

The Northern Ireland Assembly, the provincial legislature established
as part of the Good Friday Agreement, had reached a political deadlock
after it was revealed several republican parties had been supposedly
spying for the IRA. Matters were further complicated when it was later
revealed a Sinn Fein politician had been an agent for MI-5. Said
politician was later murdered.

As a result neither the unionist or republican parties were willing to
cooperate with one another. Because of that, rule and administration
had reverted back to London and the Stormont Assembly, as the body was
often called, was stuck in a political deadlock. To complicate matters
more, they we're operating under a deadline. If the Stormont Assembly
didn't reach a compromise by the 24th of November, the body would be
dissolved.

Permanently.


"You've stated that you plan to go through with the deadline just as
Blair did," said Ruth. "If either side knows what is good for them,
they'll haul their heads out of their asses."

Eckley sighed and gave the table a light, if not highly frustrated,
bang with his open palm. "Nearly half a century of murder and
terrorism that could be considered a low-level civil war cannot be
healed overnight. The Good Friday Agreement was not some magic treaty
that could cure Northern Ireland's woes in one swoop and it was never
intended to be so." He looked up from his quickly-cooling meal and
over at Ruth.

"The Good Friday Agreement is the best possible hope for lasting peace
in North Ireland and the Stormont Assembly is key. I /refuse/ to let
all our efforts be set back because a few politicians want to be
pig-headed."

"Are you pushing back the deadline?" Eckley shook his head.

"No, then they'd just continue to squabble. For Good Friday to work,
the Assembly has to work."

"Well it's not like we can force them to work at gunpoint," remarked
Ruth slyly, but the sour expression on the PM's face made her worry
she had given Eckley a bad idea.

"I want the Northern Ireland Assembly to work. We, as a nation, need
it to work. And I am going to make damn sure it does. I'm going to
visit Belfast personally, and I'm going to ask the Prime Minister of
the Republic of Ireland to go with me. Together we're going to sit
down with the Assembly and hammer out a compromise that will get the
Agreement back on track."

"But how?" asked Ruth. "After this spy debacle, both sides have a
pathological distrust of one another. The DUP regards the Sin Fein as
a bunch of IRA frontmen, and the Sin Fein regards the DUP and other
Ulster members as lapdogs for us."

"I'll get around all of that," said Eckley with such conviction that
Ruth almost thought he could do it with strength of will alone.
"Dublin wants this to work as much as we do, and if both the British
and Irish PM are putting all our political weight on them, they'll see
the light. The Assembly's only other option is to NOT democratically
govern their own province and let London continue to run their
affairs. Neither side, republican or unionist, wants that.

"I'll speak with Secretary Haigh in the morning, and then call the
Irish Prime Minister. If I have to move heaven and Earth, the Northern
Ireland Assembly will sit at Stormont before November 24th."
---

Sources:
1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4987424.stm

Actions:
1) Prime Minister Eckley will go to Northern Ireland in person to
settle the dispute among the Northern Ireland Assembly
2) Call the PM of the Republic of Ireland and request he too visit
Northern Ireland to help force a settlement
3) London will reaffirm its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement
and the Northern Ireland Assembly