Irish Protestants Exchange Barbs

Bad blood and belligerence have marked the first three days of peace talks in Northern Ireland - and supporters of the IRA haven’t even been admitted to the negotiations.

The British and Irish governments Wednesday won their fight to keep the talks alive with U.S. envoy George Mitchell at the helm. But the stage was set for more battles after Protestant hard-liners walked out, before finally returning.

“That was just the first round,” warned a red-eyed David Trimble, leader of the largest Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists.

Sinn Fein, the second-largest party on the Catholic side, is barred from negotiations until the Irish Republican Army calls a cease-fire. A previous truce ended Feb. 9 with a truck bomb that killed two men in London.

Negotiations are scheduled to continue Monday.

Trimble’s party, which is committed to preserving Northern Ireland’s union with Britain, approved a midnight compromise accepting Mitchell as chairman. Protestants have accused the Clinton administration of being pro-Catholic.

The talks are aimed at finding a way to govern Northern Ireland that is acceptable to the province’s pro-British Protestant majority and its Irish Catholic minority - and end violence that has killed 3,200 people since 1969.

So far, however, the fiercest arguments have been within the Protestant camp.

The Rev. Ian Paisley and other hard-line Protestant politicians condemned Trimble for returning to the talks.

“You have lied to the people of Ulster, but the people have not been fooled,” said a member of Paisley’s party, the Rev. William McCrea.

Trimble, a quick-tempered lawyer, momentarily grabbed McCrea by the shoulders, then let go. The two traded barbs all the way to the door.

Many Protestants fear that U.S. involvement will mean pressure to grant concessions to the IRA-Sinn Fein movement, which wants to end British rule and unite Northern Ireland with the predominantly Catholic Republic of Ireland.