Presbyterian Committee for Northern Ireland (PCNI) To Cease Operations
By the Rev. Dr. James G. Macdonell, PCNI Chair

After a full discussion at its reg ular fall meeting last September [2010], the Board of Directors of the PCNI concluded that after 20 years of serving Irish peacemaking initiatives in Northern Ireland, the PCNI has now fulfilled its mandate and accomplished the original goals established by its founders. They decided that the time has come for the PCNI to close down its mission in Northern Ireland and to go out of business.

The PCNI was founded in the late 1980’s by a small group of national PCUSA leaders who were concerned that zealous but misguided American Presbyterians were financially supporting paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. They formed the Northern Ireland Working Group to support Irish efforts to solve the Northern Ireland “Troubles” through peaceful means. The NIWG later was renamed the Presbyterian Committee for Northern Ireland.

In its early, formative years, PCNI leaders made it perfectly clear that it was not the task of American Presbyterian leaders to tell the peo ple of Northern Ireland how to deal with their sectarian problems. Our task was to support Irish efforts to solve their own problems, and to keep the PCUSA informed about what was happening in Northern Ireland.

For more than two decades, we have attempted to do this through initiating innovative, creative programs. At this time, we now believe that we have fulfilled the goals and objectives of our original mandate.

Peace did not come easily or quickly for the people of Northern Ireland. During the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, almost every family in Northern Ireland lost family members who were either killed or severely wounded. By the end of the 1990’s the winds of change were blowing fiercely across Northern Ireland. The Irish people were sick of the on-going conflict and violence, and were anxious for things to be different.

Finally, in early spring of 1998, George Mitchell, President Clinton’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, and head of the Mitchell Commission, appointed to bring all parties together to produce a peace agreement, announced Good Friday, April 6, 1998 as the deadline for an agreement to be approved.

Most N.I. political parties including the Loyalist Ulster Union Party, and the Nationalist SDLP and Sinn Fein parties supported the agreement. Only the DUP led by fiery fundamentalist preacher Rev. Ian Paisley refused to support the agreement, with Paisley ranting: “There will be no peace! There will only be war!”

Yet by referendum, 77% of the voters in Northern Ireland approved the Belfast Agreement, and in the Republic, the Agreement was approved by 94% of all voters. Clearly the Irish people wanted an end to the divisive sectarian violence of “The Troubles,” that had plagued their society for more for more than
40 years. In the immediate years following the approval of the Agreement, a period of more peaceful normalcy slowly began to take hold in Northern Ireland, accompanied by an economic up-turn in the business community, which produced a flourishing market place filled with happy shoppers.

In October of 2001, Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of the Independent Commission to Oversee the Decommissioning of Weapons, announced the exciting news that the IRA had decommissioned its vast arsenal of weapons. Within a short time, the major Loyalist paramilitaries also put their weapons out of commission. These actions represented an extraordinary victory for the peace process, and were greeted with some lingering skepticism, but mostly great relief by the citizens of Northern Ireland.
During the next few years, several attempts were made to establish a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, which would represent both the Loyalist Protestant and Nationalist Roman Catholic communities, but these proved to be unsuccessful.

Finally, in early 2007, a frustrated Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a stern warning to Northern Ireland political leaders, stating that Great Britain would resume control of N.I. affairs from Westminster and curtail financial support of essential N.I. programs, unless they immediately successfully formed a government representing both the Loyalist and Nationalist communities.
Blair’s “hard-ball” approach worked! On March 26, 2007, DUP leader Rev. Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams jointly announced Jim Macdonell and Ian Paisley that they had reached an agreement that would result in a power-sharing government “start-up” that would commence on May 8, 2007.

On that date, Ian Paisley of the DUP became First Minister, and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein became the Deputy First Minister, an extremely unusual pair to lead the government,
considering their checkered pasts! Fiery fundamentalist preacher Rev. Paisley was infamous for his 50 year history of vitriolic ranting, and anti-Catholic oratory, and McGuinness was known to have been an IRA brigade commander who had once targeted major Loyalist leaders, including Dr. Paisley!

But that all changed with the Paisley-Adams announcement! Suddenly after decades of opposing any kind of cooperation with the Catholic Nationalists, Paisley did an “about face,” and agreed to lead a united, power-sharing government with the Nationalists....something he had once vehemently vowed never to do!

And once Paisley and McGuinness assumed office together, something truly astonishing happened! The two polar-opposite politicians and former enemies actually established a smooth working relationship! In fact, they got along so famously, that shocked members of the press began referring to them as “The Chuckle Brothers!
This did not go over well with Dr. Paisley’s religious and political constituency, who for years had been weaned on his ugly anti-Catholic rhetoric! It is a political fact of life for political leaders, that “what goes around, often comes around again to haunt you,” and leaders do reap what they have sown in the past!

Eventually, both Paisley’s denomination and political party repudiated and abandoned him for getting “too cozy” with the Catholic leadership of Sinn Fein. Peter Robinson of the DUP succeeded Dr. Paisley as First Minister, and Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein continued to serve as Deputy First Minister.
It has now been more than a decade since the Agreement was approved, and there is no turning back. While there have been a few “glitches” in the power-sharing government process, overall it has been quite successful. The fact remains, that today, thirteen years after the approval of the Belfast Good Friday Peace Agreement, life in Northern Ireland remains calm and comparatively peaceful, with only sporadic outbreaks of violence occurring, initiated by small, unhappy dissident political factions.

Today, unemployment is down, and the economic business community is prospering, and the overwhelming feeling in Northern Ireland is that life is good and is improving for the citizens of Northern Ireland. People now have hope, and the dawn of a promising, peaceful future can clearly be seen on a not-too-distant horizon.

Today as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the PCNI, we can be justifiably proud of our role in the Irish peace process, and what we have accomplished in Northern Ireland over the past two decades.

We have observed the peace process develop and grow to where today, Northern Ireland is nearly free from its former violent past, which included being a nearly totally separated, divided society filled with strife and hatred. The PCNI can rejoice in having played a role in that process.