Documents, talks and noises
Last week saw the beginning of a public debate on the analyses
exchanged by Sinn Fein and the SDLP during their series of talks.
It also saw an attempt by the Irish political establishment to,
in the words of Progressive Democrats leader Des O' Malley,
``seize back the initiative from the men of violence'', in the form
of a re-launch of the invitation to unionists to talk to the
Dublin government.
The Sinn Fein/SDLP talks have changed the Irish political
landscape quite perceptibly by moving the issue of Irish
self-determination back towards the top of the agenda as well as
drawing the public's attention, especially in the South, to the
fact that republicans have articulated an analysis of the
situation which they are willing to debate with any and everyone.
As Mary Holland noted in her Irish Times column last week: ``What
Provisional Sinn Fein says will be condemned publicly by most
politicians North and South. That goes almost without saying.
Nonetheless the documents will be studied minutely by officials
and politicians in London, Dublin and Belfast''. Republicans, she
added, must be part of the solution as ``the fierce loyalty which
the Provos now command in whole areas of the North is such that
any political settlement which excluded Sinn Fein would be seen
to outlaw a considerable section of the Catholic community.''
Phoblacht 15 September 1988
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)