Slamming the Door

The week began on a note of wistful hope. Northern Ireland's 78-member Constitutional Convention was scheduled to resume formal talks at Belfast's Stormont Parliament building after a summer of private discussions. To optimistic observers, it appeared that Ulster's Protestant and Roman Catholic politicians might be on the verge of some pragmatic settlement. Even the continued tide of sectarian terror, which extended to England in a wave of recent bombings (TIME, Sept. 15), did not dim the hope. The very savagery of the killings, so the reasoning went, would pressure the politicians to reach agreement.

The hope proved hollow. Before the convention delegates could reassemble, the three principal parties of the Protestant United Ulster Unionist Coalition caucused at Stormont. Among the subjects discussed was the convention's mandate: that some formula be found for power sharing acceptable both to Ulster's 1 million Protestants and 500,000 Catholics. In the caucus debates, William ("King Billy") Craig, leader of the militant Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party, emerged in the unlikely role of moderate. Long a hardliner, Craig now was urging that Catholic moderates be considered for Cabinet posts, though only on a temporary, emergency basis.

Even this minimal suggestion was more than the intransigent Rev. Ian Paisley could swallow. Following Paisley's lead the caucus voted 37 to 1 to reject any power sharing with Catholics on the Cabinet level; Craig was the lone holdout.

Gloomy Convention. Angry in defeat, Craig resigned his leadership of the Vanguard Party's contingent, objecting that the caucus had "slammed the door" on the Catholics of the Social Democratic and Labor Party (S.D.L.P.). When the Constitutional Convention gathered gloomily later in the week, Catholic S.D.L.P. members did not attend, declaring that "there is nothing to be gained from further divisive debate."

Though a political miracle could conceivably save the convention, last week's disappointments probably doom Britain's latest attempt at a Northern Irish solution. They also make Merlyn Rees, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, even more vulnerable than before to attacks from Ulster's Unionists and British Conservatives. Their principal complaint: Rees' policy of holding suspects only on solid evidence and gradually releasing detainees has repopulated the countryside with alleged I.R.A. diehards. As an example of Rees' tolerance, Ian Paisley angrily charged --and the British army admitted--that Seamus Twomey, chief of staff of the I.R.A. Provisionals, was now off their wanted list, quite free to roam at will over embattled Ulster.

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