Peacerunner Read online

  Praise for

  PEACERUNNER

  “This gripping and wonderful story is personal for me. I was born and raised in Northern Ireland, and as I started my professional acting career in Belfast, the violence of the Troubles was raging. Bruce Morrison and the other heroes (unsung to my mind) of this terrific book accomplished the seemingly impossible and ultimately miraculous! The world needs more stories like this and more men like this. This is a must-read.”

  —Liam Neeson

  “Peacerunner is a riveting account of the nonviolent tactics used to bring peace to Northern Ireland. Bruce Morrison is a true humanitarian devoted to reconciliation. His commitment to justice and the highest use of political service is an inspiration to us all.”

  —John Lewis, US Representative

  “This important and wonderfully human story revolves around one extraordinary American’s determination to help end an ancient bloody conflict that people thought would never stop. The light it casts on the intricacies of the Irish Peace Process, especially the American role, is a genuine revelation. Penn Rhodeen’s fast-paced account is a joy, like a novel you’d devour for pure pleasure. His deep understanding of the politics and the astute strategies, dogged persistence and interactions grand and subtle between unforgettable characters—from leaders of nations and Nobel Prize winners to political activists and guerrilla fighters—make Peacerunner an exceptionally rewarding read. Fascinating and inspirational.”

  —J. J. Lee, historian and director of Glucksman

  Ireland House, New York University, author of Ireland

  1912–1985 Politics & Society and The Modernisation of

  Irish Society, 1848–1928, and coeditor of Making the

  Irish American

  “With clarity and insight, Penn Rhodeen’s Peacerunner illuminates Bruce Morrison’s largely unsung role on the arduous path to peace in Northern Ireland. In a sequence of novelistic revelations, the book depicts the true heroes of the story, among them Morrison, Bill Clinton, and George Mitchell, as well as offering dispassionate portraits of the many recalcitrants, from Ian Paisley to John Major, while Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams, despite his links to the IRA, emerges as a pragmatic politician more interested in the future than the past. The historic Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was not the end of the Troubles, but a critical turning point. How and why peace broke out in Northern Ireland, an important story most Americans don’t understand, is elucidated cogently and gracefully in Rhodeen’s Peacerunner. Terrific work.”

  —Katharine Weber, author of The Music Lesson,

  The Memory of All That, True Confections, and

  Triangle and editor at large of Kenyon Review

  “Peacerunner is a terrific new addition to the story of Irish America and the literature of the Irish Peace Process. The story of how Bruce Morrison and other brave and stalwart Irish Americans helped bring peace to Ireland has been told by Penn Rhodeen with remarkable insight and a marvelous cast of characters. And he has written it with such style and momentum that it’s great fun to read. All Irish Americans, no matter which side of the conflict our families were on, should read and remember this story—and pass it on with great pride to our children and grandchildren.”

  —Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chairman emeritus of

  American Ireland Fund

  “Here is an enthralling story of redemption, how one man, our former congressman, picked himself up after a crushing defeat and helped create an international triumph of peacemaking. What Bruce Morrison did in Northern Ireland should stand as a model for helping resolve conflicts all over the globe. You don’t have to be Irish to love reading Peacerunner.”

  —Rabbi Herbert N. Brockman, Congregation Mishkan Israel,

  Hamden, Connecticut

  “This is a great and important story, thrilling and beautifully written, about how the world gets better.”

  —Rebecca Moore, director of Google Earth

  PEACERUNNER

  PEACERUNNER

  THE TRUE STORY OF HOW AN

  EX-CONGRESSMAN HELPED END THE

  CENTURIES OF WAR IN IRELAND

  PENN RHODEEN

  BenBella Books, Inc.

  Dallas, Texas

  Copyright © 2016 by Penn Rhodeen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  BenBella Books, Inc.

  10300 N. Central Expressway

  Suite #530

  Dallas, TX 75231

  www.benbellabooks.com

  Send feedback to [email protected]

  First E-Book Edition: February 2016.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Rhodeen, Penn, author.

  Title: Peacerunner : the true story of how an ex-Congressman helped end the centuries of war in Ireland /

  Penn Rhodeen ; foreword by President Bill Clinton.

  Other titles: Peace runner

  Description: Dallas, Texas : BenBella Books, Inc., 2016.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015030747| ISBN 9781941631713 (trade cloth) | ISBN 9781941631720 (electronic)

  Subjects: LCSH: Morrison, Bruce A.—Travel—Northern Ireland. | Northern Ireland—Politics and government—1969-1994. | Peace-building—Northern Ireland—History—20th century. | Conflict management—Northern Ireland—History—20th century. | Politicians—United States—Biography. | Ex-legislators—United States—Biography. | Clinton, Bill, 1946- | United States—Relations—Northern Ireland. | Northern Ireland—Relations—United States. | BISAC: HISTORY / Europe / Ireland. | HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political. | POLITICAL SCIENCE / Peace. Classification: LCC DA990.U46 R49 2016 | DDC 941.60824—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015030747

  Editing by Oriana Leckert Text design by Publishers’ Design and Production

  Copyediting by Eric Wechter Services, Inc.

  Proofreading by James Fraleigh and Amy Zarkos Text composition by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.

  Indexing by WordCo Indexing Services, Inc. Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing

  Cover design by Sarah Dombrowsky

  Distributed by Perseus Distribution

  www.perseusdistribution.com

  To place orders through Perseus Distribution:

  Tel: (800) 343-4499

  Fax: (800) 351-5073

  E-mail: [email protected]

  Significant discounts for bulk sales are available.

  Please contact Aida Herrera at [email protected].

  Dedicated with love and gratitude to my wife

  Maria Hodermarska

  and to my sons and daughters

  Aaron Rhodeen

  Alexander Rhodeen

  Lily Rhodeen

  Annabel Rhodeen

  Gabriella Rhodeen

  and to Maria’s sons

  Ethan Jones

  Andrézj Jones

  CONTENTS

  Foreword by President Bill Clinton

  CHAPTER ONE

  First Journey to Ireland

  CHAPTER TWO

  Catastrophe: One Averted, One Total

  CHAPTER THREE

  Longshot

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Troubles: 800 Years in the Making

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Getting the Candidate on Board

  CHAPTER SIX

  When Clinton Wins, the Real Work Begins

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Unofficial Peacemakers in Northern Ireland

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  An American Nobody Meets the Elite in Cambridge

  CHAPTER NINE

  Helping the President Go Firs
t for Peace

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Road to Ceasefire: It Took Forever and Happened in a Flash

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The British Respond to the Ceasefire: Words, Words, Words

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Stalemate

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Bill Clinton Comes to the North

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  George Mitchell Offers a Way

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  After a Year and a Half, the IRA Loses Patience

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  All-Party Talks at Last, Good Friday Ahead

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Finishing Up, Holding It Together, and Starting Out

  Epilogue

  Cast of Characters

  Glossary

  Index

  Author’s Note and Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  FOREWORD

  During my campaign for president in 1992, I was invited to attend an Irish issues forum at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City convened by Assemblyman John Dearie to discuss a number of issues important to the Irish American community. The conflict in Northern Ireland wasn’t a big part of my foreign policy agenda at the time. But, I knew that I needed to demonstrate knowledge of the issues and to have a credible policy because of Northern Ireland’s importance to the Irish American community, especially in New York, where they would comprise a significant part of the electorate in New York’s Democratic primary.

  I had been interested in Irish politics since the start of the Troubles in 1968, when I was a graduate student at Oxford University. Since then, I had followed the ongoing struggle between nationalists and unionists with more than a passing degree of interest, but, as a long line of American policymakers before me had concluded, it wasn’t entirely clear how the United States, with its large and diverse Irish population, could get involved in Northern Ireland without jeopardizing our important relationship with Great Britain. However, the Irish Americans were playing an increasingly well-organized and vital role in our politics, thanks in part to legislation authored in 1990 by Representative Bruce Morrison, a friend of Hillary’s and mine from law school, that increased the number of visas available to Irish citizens.

  Bruce and other advocates of American involvement helped me prepare for the forum. By 1992 Bruce had accumulated considerable knowledge and experience as a member of Congress from Connecticut, through his membership in the Friends of Ireland and on the Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs and from his trips to Ireland and regular contacts with the people there.

  From the beginning of the meeting, it was clear that those who came wanted the United States to play a more active role in brokering a solution to the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland. In particular, the group pressed me, if elected, to become personally involved in the search, too, and to agree to appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland. As I said, I was well aware that doing so would present challenges in the relationship with the United Kingdom, which remained of fundamental importance to so much of what I hoped to accomplish in the world, but I thought it was a problem that could be managed.

  Over the next several months, Bruce and a few other supporters formed Irish-Americans for Clinton-Gore, a group that would do a great deal to help me win and to ensure that I stuck to my promise to help advance the new Irish agenda. The success of his Morrison visa program and the high regard in which he was held by Irish activists because of it made Bruce the natural leader of this group, and over the next six years, he would put the faith of the Irish to good use, becoming a valuable intermediary in the quest to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.

  Peacerunner is the remarkable story of how this came to be and how a private citizen became a trusted interlocutor on both sides of the Atlantic, constantly pushing all the parties to resolve their complicated differences.

  As I read Penn Rhodeen’s skillful account of Bruce’s role in the successful march toward the Good Friday Agreement, it wasn’t the ending—an historic peace accord that moved Northern Ireland from warfare to politics—but the remarkable efforts by all parties to secure it that kept me reading from start to finish.

  Thanks in no small measure to Bruce’s dogged commitment to peace and his willingness to devote years of his life to working with so many others to achieve it, what began as a hope became a central focus of my administration and one of my proudest achievements as president.

  I’ll always be grateful that after leaving Congress, Bruce found yet another way to serve as a private citizen and that he did it with such tremendous skill, sensitivity, and inspiration. I confess that when I read the book, I learned about a few things he did even I didn’t know about! But it was all to the good. I hope you enjoy the story of that remarkable journey by a remarkable man who helped to start it and pushed it along to the very end.

  —PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

  CHAPTER ONE

  First Journey to Ireland

  Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland

  August 1987

  One policeman studied the passport while two of the others aimed their assault rifles straight at the American standing no more than six feet away, facing them. His passport was the special type issued to members of Congress, but in this moment, there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. The congressman, Bruce Morrison of Connecticut, made matters worse when he pulled out his notepad and started writing down the identification number of the cop holding his passport. But Morrison couldn’t help himself: He’d been a legal aid lawyer, and collecting identification information was instinctive. The cop grabbed the pad and shouted, “What are you doing?”

  “I’m taking down your number.”

  “That’s an offense, collecting information about the security forces!”

  “I thought that’s what the numbers are for.”

  For Gerry O’Hara, Morrison’s host in Derry, being held at gunpoint wasn’t a new experience. He watched the exchange, guns on him, too, with a mixture of amusement and alarm that he knew to keep to himself. O’Hara was an official of the Irish political party Sinn Féin, invariably described as the political arm of the outlawed Irish Republican Army (IRA). Because the IRA had been waging a violent campaign for Irish unification since the early twentieth century, Sinn Féin had been classified as a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States.

  O’Hara, whose insistence that the police use his Irish name, Gearóid O hEára, annoyed them to no end, knew that his Sinn Féin involvement was the reason he and his guests were in this mess. He’d been through it hundreds of times, often facing several stops in a single day. Although he knew from past experience that the cops weren’t likely to open fire, he was still concerned that Morrison, glaringly inexperienced with police in Northern Ireland, might inadvertently escalate the situation.

  “I remember thinking, ‘You don’t know what you’re dealing with,’” O’Hara later recalled, adding with a bit of wistfulness that Morrison was “only doing what you would do in a normal society.”

  But in 1987, Northern Ireland was anything but a normal society. The British army had occupied it since the early years of the Troubles, the tense and violent time that began in the late 1960s, when increasingly assertive Catholics began demanding an end to the pervasive discrimination against them in all realms of life, including abuses by the Northern Ireland police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (known as the RUC). For more than two decades, the IRA had been engaged in guerilla warfare with the British army, the RUC, and various loyalist paramilitary organizations, all of which reciprocated in full, violent kind. In the July before Morrison’s arrival, there had been six killings. The toll for the year would reach nearly a hundred— thirty-nine of them civilians. In such a small country, the effect was profound and terrible: No one felt safe. Violent death could come at any moment.

  The RUC, known for its rough treatment of Northern Ireland’s Catholic minority, seemed more like an army than a local police force.
Its men aggressively patrolled the streets in armored Land Rovers and British Saracen personnel carriers, wielding British army weapons and often decked out in full riot gear.

  Morrison had never been to Ireland before, though he’d been in Chile on congressional human rights business and had witnessed how the notorious Pinochet dictatorship imposed its military and police presence on civilian life. In his travels through Northern Ireland, he found the military and police presence in everyday life to be even more oppressive than under Chile’s military dictator.

  Before the RUC stopped them, O’Hara was giving Morrison and Dennis Prebensen, an American supporter of Irish unification who had invited his congressman to Northern Ireland, a tour of his city.

  Because it was his town, O’Hara was at the wheel. He knew that a car with plates from the Republic of Ireland, driven by a local Sinn Féin official and carrying two strangers, could well provoke a police stop. He’d warned his passengers of that possibility and told them that if they did get stopped, they’d follow the standard protocol Sinn Féin had devised to avoid being detained and maybe sent seventy-five miles away to the Castlereagh Holding Centre in East Belfast. “We’d realized,” O’Hara later explained, “that the pretext for taking you off to some army barracks for three or four hours was that they needed to search the car. So we developed a tactic of saying, ‘Well, if you want to search the car, there’s the keys—let me know when you’re finished,’ and we would walk off.”

  For his part, Morrison assumed that O’Hara’s warnings about getting stopped were exaggerated. He told himself, “It’s Gerry’s job to tell the American congressman how awful it is. This isn’t going to happen.” So he was genuinely shocked when things turned bad.

  The men were driving on Queen’s Quay, a major street running alongside the River Foyle. They were headed through the warehouse district toward Guild Hall, an ornate Victorian symbol of the British Empire and therefore a constant provocation to the Irish. Suddenly it happened, all in a blur: armored Land Rovers, a Saracen troop carrier, O’Hara jamming on the brakes. Memories differ on the precise sequence of the events leading to the stop, but what happened next remains clear to all three: About a dozen heavily armed police piled out, shouting and gesturing angrily as they surrounded the car and rousted the men out. Some were dressed like conventional police, but others looked ready for combat, with helmets, bulletproof vests, and fatigue pants tucked into their boots. Assault rifles were fixed on the captives.