Laboriously researched background to the International Fund for Ireland
BOOK OF THE DAY: SÉAN DONLONreviews A Fund of Goodwill – The Story of the International Fund for Irelandby Alf McCreary The International Fund for Ireland 184pp €25
IN AUGUST 1977, president Carter issued an important statement – the first such statement ever by a US president on Northern Ireland – in which he said that in the event of a peaceful settlement, “the US Government would be prepared to join with others to see how additional job- creating investment would be encouraged to the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland”. The key people who influenced the statement were speaker Tip O’Neill and Senator Ted Kennedy in the United States and, from Ireland, Garret FitzGerald, John Hume and the Irish diplomatic service, notably Michael Lillis, political counsellor at the Irish Embassy in Washington.