Britain is asking the US administration and Irish-Americans to find a new way of engaging in the Northern Ireland peace process by reaching out to working-class Protestant communities, the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, said in Washington yesterday, writes Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent
He suggested that this would be important to balance the perception that US policy was more favourable to nationalist concerns.
Dr Reid, speaking to journalists at a breakfast in the British embassy, and who has spoken before of the North being in danger of being perceived by some loyalists a "cold place", said that if the peace process was to work, "both sides have to feel comfortable and have some sense of ownership" of it.
The "best persuaders", he said, would not be those in their own community but members of the other community, and this was a key challenge to all.
The Northern Secretary said he wanted to explore with the US administration and Irish-America what kind of formal or informal assistance they could give to developing the Protestant working-class community's involvement in politics.
Such a new role could be "hugely symbolic and important" given the US traditional role, he said, alluding to perceptions in the North of the US as a traditional friend of nationalism.
Dr Reid's remarks echo his own repeatedly expressed concerns about unionist alienation and comments by Mr Richard Haass, the administration's "point man" on Northern Ireland, last month in New York when the latter voiced similar fears.
Irish Embassy sources, however, express nervousness about their thrust, preferring to emphasise the need for an even-handed approach and "a warm house for all".
Dr Reid said there was a sense among some unionists, which he did not share, that their Britishness was not being valued or their rights protected. "All must feel they have parity of esteem and mutuality of respect," he said.
In discussions with Irish-Americans, he said, he had been struck by the warm reception such ideas had had and their sense that "it takes two to tango".
He refused to comment on claims by the three Irish men arrested in Colombia that they had been framed by the British and US, insisting that he would wait and see the outcome of the judicial process. During his visit Dr Reid has met the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, Mr Haass and the director of the FBI, Mr Richard Mueller.