Jimmy Carter: After initial controversial comments on Northern Ireland, ex-US President went on to articulate Good Friday Agreement principles in 1977, unionists say
After initial controversial comments on Northern Ireland, ex-US President Jimmy Carter went on to articulate Good Friday Agreement principles in 1977, unionists have said.
Mr Carter, who served one term in the White House between 1977 and 1981, died on Sunday at 100 years of age. He spent his post-presidency years as a global humanitarian, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
It is understood he was of Ulster-Scots heritage, being descended from Antrim man Andrew Cowan (1763-1775) who emigrated to South Carolina.
The DUP said some of Mr Carter’s initial comments about NI were "unhelpful" but that his later statements “accurate”.
DUP MLA Trevor Clarke said: "President Carter took an interest when the terrorist campaign was at its height in Northern Ireland and whilst some statements about the constitutional situation were unhelpful, ultimately the statement that 'The only permanent solution will come from the people who live there. There are no solutions that outsiders can impose' was accurate.”
UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said that during the Troubles, unionists "looked with suspicion at American interventions in our affairs, too often with very good reason".
However he said that Carter’s 1977 statement on NI should be acknowledged as "a genuine attempt to transform relationships".
He added: "In it, he asked people here to renounce violence and commit to the peaceful pursuit of legitimate goals, while urging Americans to stop offering financial or other aid to terrorist organisations.
“The statement also recognised that the only tenable solution was an agreement by the parties within Northern Ireland itself. In many ways, it articulated the principles that informed the 1998 Agreement."
According to 'Northern Ireland, A Political Directory' the first headlines Carter made about NI stirred protests.
In the final stages of his presidential election campaign, in October 1976, he was widely reported as saying that there should be an international commission on human rights in NI; that his party was committed to the unification of Ireland; and that the US could not stand idle on the NI question.
His remarks prompted backing from Irish-Americans but there were protests from unionists, some MPs, and the Peace People.
He then sent a cable to Dr Garret FitzGerald, then Irish Foreign Minister, complaining that he had been misrepresented in some reports and stressing that he did not favour violence in NI.
Ten months later, in August 1977, Carter issued a formal statement opposing violence in Northern Ireland.
He called for a devolved, power sharing government, but said the solution must not be imposed by outsiders and that there would be economic help if a political settlement was reached.
SDLP Leader Claire Hanna said that at a time when violence was raging across Northern Ireland, Mr Carter ignored advice not to intervene and called for the US to become directly involved, which she said was due to persuasion by American politicians Tip O’Neill, Ted Kennedy and others, at the urging of John Hume.
She added: “Carter’s intervention was a significant one, he was serious about his commitment to advancing the cause of peace around the world and shared Hume’s vision that the only solution to the conflict here could be a peaceful one. His statement sent a clear message to the then-British government that they could no longer act with impunity when it came to Northern Ireland."