Letter from Conor Cruise O'Brien to Joseph D. Brennan (Washington DC)
(Copy)

I should like to thank you first of all for your admirable review of the anti-Partition campaign in the United States of America dated – appropriately enough – 12th July.¹ Ambassador Hearne received his copy of this report somewhat later than we did here but he approved of it in toto and it has been of the greatest value to us here. By the way the Minister, who was sitting near the Ambassador at a dinner in Ambassador Taft’s² the other night, mentioned specially to him, with keen appreciation, another recent report of yours – that on Churchill’s visit.³

As you have asked for a prompt reply to your letter of July 21st⁴ about Congressman Fogarty, I shall try to give you what I can in this letter. Unfortunately I was away in the Six Counties when your letter arrived.

I think I cannot do better than to give you an indication of how things look to one working on the problem here at present. The following expresses a personal view which I have put forward to the Minister and to which he has shown himself sympathetic. At the same time no formal decisions have been taken and you will appreciate that in all that follows I am giving you a personal line of thought, in answer to your letter to me and not in any sense a Departmental directive.

I enclose a report, which I think will be of interest to you, on my visit to the Six Counties last week.⁵ From it you will observe that in the Six Counties itself the sort of attack to which the Stormont régime – and also I believe the British Government – is sensitive, is attack on the issue of discrimination. Attack on this point tends to have two very useful results; (a) to put a strain on the relations between the British Government and Stormont, and (b) to add to the existing strains and tensions within the Orange Order and the Unionist Party.

I personally am convinced that unless we can bring about division among our adversaries and, above all, dislocate the ‘Protestant solidarity’ on which the Stormont régime has been so firmly based, that no amount of pressure from outside can bring about what we desire. I cannot envisage any conceivable British Government, at the behest of the United States or otherwise, handing over the Six Counties to us against the will of a solid Protestant majority in the area concerned. Therefore the main field on which we must always keep our eye is the Six Counties area itself. I believe that a systematic propaganda which recognises the pivotal importance of public opinion inside the Six Counties and takes careful account of reactions there, can exploit the divisions among our adversaries to a point which will bring significant advance towards the end of Partition within the range of practical politics. Now the danger of all such efforts as the Fogarty one is that our adversaries can represent them as attempts to subjugate ‘Ulster’ by external force. This is a very effective rallying cry for the Orange Order and the Unionist Party. As against that such efforts do help to create a certain climate of nervousness and sensitivity to external public opinion which makes the Stormont Government willing to produce at least some gestures in the direction of putting its house in order. Each such gesture is – as you will see from the attached report – costly to them and helpful to our cause.

The problem then, as I see it, is to give such efforts the twist that will be most helpful in dividing our adversaries and least helpful in providing them with rallying cries.

This is not a particularly easy thing to do, particularly in relation to such an effort as the Fogarty resolution which has already taken a shape of its own. If, however, you feel that there is some force in these ideas you might see whether, without abandoning the old line, you could secure an increasing emphasis on the undemocratic practices and discriminatory behaviour of the authorities in the Six Counties. It is important not to exaggerate the extent of these practices – expressions like ‘Fascist tyranny’, ‘Iron curtain conditions’, are not I think particularly helpful but, at the same time it can be truly said that the practices of systematic disenfranchisement and discrimination which do exist in the Six Counties are destructive of good relations between Ireland and Britain, menace the endeavour to unify Ireland by friendly means, and are a danger to peace. The extent and systematic nature of these practices are revealed in the pamphlets ‘One Vote Equals Two’ and ‘Discrimination’ which you have. I realise that this kind of approach may not sound the most attractive as far as American public opinion is concerned, but I am convinced that it would be the most rewarding one in respect of results in the vital area, the Six Counties themselves. You will be the best judge of whether this angle had best be exploited in connection with the Fogarty resolution or apart from it. What I have tried to do is to give you the general ‘strategic’ picture as it looks from here and you can decide what tactics are best employed in the light of that.