Irish-Americans are seriously concerned that the watering down of the Patten proposals by the British government will lead to a major crisis in the peace process, the founding publisher of the Irish Voice newspaper has said. Mr Niall O'Dowd said these concerns were shared at the highest level in the White House "where there are increasing questions about the British government attitude to the Patten policing proposals".
Mr O'Dowd was speaking last night at a conference in Thurles, Co Tipperary, hosted by the Tipperary Rural and Business Development Institute, where he gave the inaugural Millennium Emigrant lecture. He is the founder of the Irish American Peace Delegation which was involved in securing the first IRA ceasefire in August 1994.
He said there was "a concerted effort by the British government in the United States to sell a watered-down version of Patten to the American media, to senior politicians, to Irish-Americans and the White House.
"This does not bode well for the implementation of the Patten report as promised by the British government prior to the IRA confidence-building gesture on arms. I doubt that gesture would have occurred if their intentions to dilute Patten were known."
Mr O'Dowd said Irish-Americans believed the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, had a clear choice between implementing the recommendations of a distinguished international panel of policing experts, or risking a new and possibly disastrous crisis in the peace process.
It would be a "grave mistake" for the British government to try to implement a policy of trying to split Sinn Fein from the SDLP and the Irish Government on the issue, by offering concessions which fell short of the proposals contained in the Patten report.
"They appear to believe that policing can be dealt with by half measures," he said. "That is what they have been seeking to convince opinion-makers and politicians in the United State of." US opinion was, however, rock solid against any changes to the Patten recommendations, he added.
Mr O'Dowd said it was vital nationalist opinion in Ireland and the US stood united against any proposals which undermined the Patten report. "The British appear to believe that Sinn Fein is not ready to accept any new policing service, a charge that has been refuted by Gerry Adams. If they continue to believe that and seek to create a division among nationalists on this issue, they will be making a grave error."
Mr O'Dowd added that he was not confident, based on briefings by British officials in the US, that proposed amendments to the policing bill before the British parliament would be sufficient to win approval from nationalists.