[CptSternn]

16 March 2005
McCartney family land in US to heroines' welcome
The Independent


During every Saint Patrick's period, the US media is galvanised to
report on the Irish story of the week. The rest of the year, frankly
they could care less. After all, Michael Jackson's pyjamas are much
more compelling.

This year it is no contest for the sultans of soundbite who run the
media. The story of the McCartney sisters bears all the hallmarks of
what they are seeking. There are brave women, bad terrorists and a
story line that reaches all the way from Belfast to the White House.
Hey, even Jo Schmo in Kansas can figure it out.

The McCartney women are in and Gerry Adams is out, out of the White
House, out of Ted Kennedy's office and if we are to believe the
reports, also out with many ordinary Irish-Americans, except nobody
has really bothered to ask them.

Little matter that the media caravan will trundle out of town the
second Saint Patrick's Day is over. For now, it is McCartneys all the
time. The women have excellent media presence, have suffered a
grievous wrong and their story deserves to be told.

Yet by Friday morning, the McCartneys will be very old news. The
attention-deficit disorder that inflicts about 95 per cent of the
American media will become evident. If it's Friday it must be Martha
Stewart, or Michael Jackson or those midget twins on the flying
trapeze. Where's the next grist for our mill?

Activist Irish-Americans believe they see through this. They know
that the McCartney story is important but the fate of the peace
process is far more so in the long run. They believe that the same,
maligned Gerry Adams is the only one capable of putting it back on
track.

To do so, Adams must get the Irish Republican Army to disband. That
is the message that the Sinn Fein leader has received this week from
almost every leading Irish-American. There is no other way and Sinn
Fein cannot continue to straddle both horses.

The condemnations of Adams and the IRA have been filling the airwaves
here, especially in the context of the McCartney sisters. If
condemnations could bring peace there would have been no Troubles to
begin with. Equally if the acts of two or more drunken psychopaths in
a Belfast bar brings down the peace process it is an incredible
tragedy.

It is a gargantuan task for Adams to get the IRA to see the only
realistic future but it is not beyond him. He and Martin McGuinness
pulled off the IRA ceasefire in 1994, which was a remarkable act, and
they have continued to advance the process, often in an agonisingly
slow manner for the past decade or so. Now Sinn Fein hase lost the
initiative and needs to win it back if the process is to be saved.
After numerous meetings this week, Irish-Americans are more convinced
than ever that Gerry Adams can bring this about. That is the real
story this Saint Patrick's Day. Not very sexy for news headlines;
those boring old Irish Troubles rarely are.

Niall O'Dowd is the publisher of 'The Irish Voice' in New York