How US politicians viewed the Northern Ireland peace process following the September 11 attacks in 2001 was a matter of concern for Irish officials, according to a new file released under the State Papers.
On 12 September, a day after the attacks by al-Qaeda, a government official prepared a document to advise on how the events may impact the outlook of George W Bush's administration on the peace process.
While the official noted that it was still "very early days" to assess the full consequences of the attacks on US foreign policy, a detailed briefing was prepared, which has been released as part of the annual State Papers.
The official said that the US would be unable to enter a prolonged period of introspection where internal security matters and dealing with terrorism would dominate its agenda for a "long time to come".
The peace process would now have to compete for space on the US government’s policy agenda, the official warned.
The briefing said that the war on terror could cause US politicians to make a more "exacting approach" when it came to republicans in the North, due to the "whiff of cordite".
The official advised that this be kept in mind when any plans for engagements in reviewing the Good Friday Agreement are made, as well as the timing of visits to Washington.
Comments by president Bush that his administration would make "no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them" as a potential "precursor of this zero-tolerance approach to terrorism which may now drive US foreign and defence policy" are noted by the official.
US foreign policy in the wake of the 9/11 attacks would now be "largely driven by the imperative of the war against international terrorism", the official said, adding that security-focused policy advice which could come from the FBI, the US Department of Justice and intelligence agencies would "completely out-trump any more sophisticated or nuanced analysis of conflict resolution situations" from the State Department or National Security Council.
The official wrote: "It is likely, therefore, that defeating terrorism will become a central organising principle for US policy for some time to come.
"In this regard, US policy makers may not be inclined to make fine distinctions between different varieties of 'terrorist’ organisation; between their various stages of transition from paramilitaries to politicians; or between the political and military wings of insurrectionary movements."
The official said that while those who carried out the attacks on 11 September had "Middle East/Islamic elements" this would not "insulate the republican movement from much more rigorous and critical scrutiny in an environment which increasingly lumps together, as the enemy, all shades of ‘terrorism’".
If action on the disarmament process was not taken quicker - which did begin shortly after the attacks - republicans may therefore experience a "more hostile" and "very chilly" environment within the US.
It also predicted that the republican movement would have to clarify its position when it came to FARC, a Colombian guerilla group.
The document stated: "The republican movement's attempts to prevent itself from being so branded will be seriously undermined by (a) its perceived failure to meet its commitments on illegal arms and (b) more especially, its recent associations with the FARC.
"Since the beginning of the peace process, the Irish-American caucus in Congress has, with minor exceptions, been supportive of the republican movement's progressive engagement with democratic politics, notwithstanding its militant past.
"With both sides of Congress now apparently sharing the Administration's view that the US is at war with terrorism, Irish-American Congressmen may now feel the need to adopt a more exacting approach in their dealings with the republican movement.
"The ‘whiff of cordite’ dimension (albeit at a respectable distance from its militant past) has contributed to the celebrity status of the Sinn Fein leadership in the US and to their appeal among Irish-America.
"In the very different ‘Attack on America’ environment which now pertains in the US, that same dimension may now become a drag on Sinn Fein's respectability and access."
Also on the day following the attacks, then taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed Ireland’s "deep and heartfelt condolences" to Americans, in a letter to President Bush.
Mr Ahern wrote: "I am deeply shocked and enormously saddened by the terrible and evil events that have occurred in the United States.
"I utterly condemn these horrendous and unprecedented attacks.
"It is difficult to come to terms with the scale of this dreadful outrage but our hearts go out to the American people as they try to come to grips with it."
[Based on document 2023/50/525]
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