politalX Politics Store - Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland
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List Price: £20.00
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Manufacturer: The Bodley Head Ltd
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9781847920324
ISBN: 1847920322
Label: The Bodley Head Ltd
Manufacturer: The Bodley Head Ltd
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-03-20
Publisher: The Bodley Head Ltd
Studio: The Bodley Head Ltd
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Lightweight review of the Irish Peace Process 1997-2007.
Comment: Jonathan Powell was an advisor to Tony Blair, working particularly on Northern Ireland.
He is a younger brother of Charles Powell, who was an advisor to Margaret Thatcher. So you might think Powell is a dyed in the wool mandarin, establishment to the core. In fact, as younger brother, I suspect he was seeking to break the mould rather than conform. As such he suited Tony Blair's Irish policy, which while seeking to continue peace process, was continually emphasizing that it would not be locked into the security-dominated thinking of the past.
Its disingenuous to quibble with success, and Blairs efforts, aided by many people, brought about the first functioning political agreement in Northern Ireland for thirty years. However, quibble I will. Powell's seems star-struck by Martin McGuinness, and to a lesser extent Gerry Adams, of Sinn Fein ; he seems critical of almost all the other politicians he meets along the way - Tony Blair excepted, of course.
He describes the tensions in his relationship with each successive Northern Ireland secretary - Mo Mowlam marginalised, too close to Sinn Fein; Peter Mandelson too arrogant, too close to Unionists; John Reid `capable of starting a fight in an empty room'.
The fact that Powell was shuttling over and back between Downing Street and Sinn Fein thereby creating a `back-channel' which might isolate the secretaries of state, does not seem to have occurred to him.
Powell seems to have believed from early on that McGuiness was firmly anti-violence; and that Adams would never return to war. He buys their view that both McGuinness and Adams had to persuade hardliners, and therefore must get concessions.
He is quite clear about their paramilitary past, and even takes some solace in the fact that a significant number of the IRA army council show up at Stormont for the inauguration of the Paisley/McGuiness power sharing administration. However the process of getting to that June 2007 meeting is agonising. The book becomes a series of meetings about concessions, interspersed with brutality both paramilitary and interpersonal. Powell claims that Blair tried to support David Trimble for the longest time possible, though I think its pretty clear from the text, that Trimble was supported as long as he was useful and pretty coldly dumped when Sinn Fein needed more concessions.
I get the impression that it is not a fear of the return to violence that motivated Blair/Powell, it was more the prospect of succeeding where five previous Prime Minister's had failed. To do so they adapted pragmatic `if it works in practice, to hell with the theory approach', this raises very difficult questions about whether Sinn Fein were able to gain ground by using the threat of a return to violence, and whether the British government were complicit in this. Curiously, Sinn Fein itself is criticized in Republican circles for unprincipled pragmatism too. Powell's experience here has led him to claim that the west should start talking with Al-Queda.
The other impression I get from this book is that the Irish Government side of this process needs to be published as soon as possible. Powell is very complimentary, and rightly so, of Bertie Ahern's skill, commitment; but his views on the Irish Civil servants and the overall Irish positions are off-beam. Powell's view that the referendum to change Articles 2 and 3 of our constitution (removing the claim to the territory of Northern Ireland) as a trade off for the Belfast agreement, would be a tough sell, is, in my view, unrealistic. His description of the Irish position as invariably Nationalist, and sometimes overly Republican, is too simplistic. In my view the Irish government moved from being pro-SDLP, to supporting Sinn Fein, to being almost pro-DUP in the course of the years covered by this book, how and why they did so still need a comprehensive analysis.
I found even the title of the book irritating, it's a Yeats quotation, and seemed to me to just a speech writers convention - when talking about Ireland, get either a Yeats or a Heaney quote. From the text, it doesn't appear to me that Powell reads much poetry.
There is one anecdote from Powell's brother - Thatcher's advisor - that is too good to leave out. After a particularly tough EC summit, Thatcher had a meeting with Garret Fitzgerald, the Irish prime minister at the time. Fitzgerald went through his points but noticed that Thatcher had fallen asleep. Charles Powell was with Thatcher, and advised Fitzgerald to keep going, and that he, Powell, would keep note and issue the appropriate press release later. It's a tribute to Charles Powell and Fitzgeralds diplomatic skills that the story was not published for twenty years.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting Insight into the Peace Process
Comment: This is a very simple book, a narrative history from 1997 to 2007 of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland as seen from the perspective of the British goverment and specifically Powell as Blair's Chief of Staff and chief organiser. The book rattles along covering events more or less as they occur. It's full of last minute meetings, late night telephone calls and exasperation at the changing demands of the parties.
The one problem is that it is so close to the events there is not enough chance for measured reflection. Most of the participants are still involved in politics and I sense that Powell is careful in his comments about people, never daring to be too critical. Infact there is all too little reflection generally, with Powell just narrating events as they happen. It misses periodic pauses to reflect and assess progress and issues. Although he touches on parallels with other conflicts it would have been interesting to develop this more and it would have been interesting to discuss whether the peace process has finally been concluded or whether there are still potential pitfalls to come.
Despite these drawbacks it's an interesting read, and Powell keeps up the pace nicely. He gives a great sense of what these negoiations are and what an exhausting and frustrating process it is. It's well worth a read.
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Summary: Clear and present diplomacy
Comment: I don't think I would have bought this book but when it was given to me as a present (!) I peeked into it, thinking I'd probably take as long to read it as did the eventual outcome of the peace process.
Not at all. Although the actual process is tedious, the author manages to provide a very readable account of the long and laborious road that seems of necessity to be the only way of settling an horrendous problem.
Recommended if you want to learn a lot at very little cost to your temperament!
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Summary: Behind the Curtain
Comment: The settlement of Northern Ireland's grinding conflict owes a lot to demographics; the old protagonists on both sides were tired and looking for a way out before the new generation took over. However it did take a new approach from the British and Irish governments to shift the logjam. Powell's book is well-written and drags laboriously through meeting after meeting that ended in failure as promises made in private were repudiated in public. He leaves many questions unanswered such as the secret information he was getting from inside the IRA that must have helped him evaluate what he was hearing from Adams and McGuinness. The different styles of the blunt but obdurate Unionists and ambiguous, articulate Republicans is fascinating. Powell drops frequent hints that he would like to take his undoubted skills to other areas of conflict but it was his innate understanding of the psychology of the British tribes that made him so effective as a negotiator. Human conflicts can only be resolved by understanding that the enemy is fundamentally acting in good faith. This is a very good book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very comprehensive, without being heavy going
Comment: As someone who bought this book to learn more about the diplomacy behind the northern ireland agreement, I found it both comprehensive and easy to understand. Jonathan Powell delievers a very unbiased account, with some interesting insights into what a massive uphill struggle conflict resolution is. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in british or irish politics, whether you are an academic or a layman like me!!
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