by Mark Bailey
The contact, following agreed-upon instructions, took the letter and stood on Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge on a damp night. A woman eventually appeared out of the fog. “Do you think Dublin will win the game on Sunday?” That was the signal, and the courier handed over the letter without a word.
O’Dowd quickly received a written response that seemed positive: the group should be prepared to return to Belfast. The timing was unclear, so he made a phone call. “When should I take my holidays?” O’Dowd asked, a coded inquiry about when they needed to be in Belfast. “Why don’t you try the last week in August,” was the reply.
On August 25, the original four—O’Dowd, Morrison, Flynn, and Feeney—arrived back in Ireland, this time joined by labor union executives Joe Jamison and Bill Lenihan. The group’s presence at what seemed likely to be a historic moment was reassuring to IRA leaders, who wanted to know (and wanted the world to know) that Irish America was behind them. “It reinforced the American dimension to those in the IRA army council who were about to make what was to them a momentous decision to call off their war,” wrote Conor O’Clery, an Irish Times journalist and author of Daring Diplomacy: Clinton’s Secret Search for Peace in Ireland.
They met Irish prime minister Reynolds, who was adamant that anything less than a permanent IRA cease-fire would be unacceptable. The group moved to Belfast and met with Adams and other top Sinn Féin leaders, expecting some sort of last-minute complications. That fear disappeared when a relaxed looking Adams breezed into the room and said, “The army is going to call a complete cessation.”
O’Dowd was jubilant but knew that until the IRA said that publicly, the deal could still fall apart. But just before noon on August 31, 1994, as O’Dowd listened to the radio while exercising in a Dublin hotel, a young woman’s voice made the IRA announcement. As of midnight, “there will be a complete cessation of military operations.”
O’Dowd stepped off the treadmill and broke down in tears.
“I had had just a huge amount of personal involvement,” he said. “I had completely dedicated my life to this. I lost the relationship I was in at the time, and there were just an awful lot of things I put to one side for the best part of four years. It was a huge moment.”
A few minutes later, O’Dowd was called to the hotel phone. It was Senator Kennedy. “Ted was like a five year old; he was so happy.” Later that day, as O’Dowd waited at a television station to give an interview, Reynolds “literally bounded in and squeeze my hand so hard I thought he was going to fracture it.”
The following year, Clinton made a triumphant visit to Ireland. O’Dowd trailed the president’s plane on Air Force Two, with the other members of his group and Irish American leaders from across the country. Clinton spoke to more than two hundred thousand people, the crowd chanting his name at Belfast’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony. He received an equally rapturous reception at an outdoor speech in Dublin. Clinton called it the “two best days of my presidency.”
The euphoria did not hold. Nor did the peace. Mistrust and missteps continued, and seventeen months later the IRA resumed bombing, this time at London’s Canary Wharf in 1996. More negotiations and more cease-fires followed and persistent peace talks led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell finally, in April 1998, led to the Good Friday Agreement. That deal created a peace that has held to this day, built largely on a foundation laid by Niall O’Dowd.
Adams, who in 2016 was still the president of Sinn Féin, as well as a member of the Irish Parliament, said O’Dowd’s journalism, and the secret channels that he created to help kick-start the peace process, provided just the right pressure at just the right time. “I have a huge affection for him,” Adams said. “He would be able to feel the pulse of what was happening in the States, and the pulse of what was happening here [in Ireland]. I cannot stress enough the very central role that he played. There probably would have been a peace process, but there certainly wouldn’t have been a peace process at that time, if Niall hadn’t been so centrally involved.” Adams continued:
Sometimes, and I believe this truly, one person can make a difference. It’s the difference between having a good idea, and doing it. You may have a very good idea, and you may be very genuine—as genuine as Niall O’Dowd is about Ireland—but you’re busy and you have responsibilities, and so on. And you might think, “Who am I? How can I do this?” It’s the difference between being a dreamer and being a visionary. The visionaries deliver.
O’Dowd, he said, delivered for Ireland.
Acknowledgments
This book was brought to life by a great many different people to whom I am indebted.
I want to thank the following family, friends, and colleagues who, in one way or another, helped me along in this journey: Sascha Alper, Ed Beason, Veronica Brady, Joe Conason, Dan Dibble, Karen Duffy, Eamon Harrington, Shannon and Drew Hayden, Taylor Johns, Steven Johnson, Douglas Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr., Sheila and Chris Kennedy, Vicki Kennedy, Edward Klaris, John Lambros, Kasey Madden, Jonathan Mahler, Domenic Mastrippolito, Bridget McCarthy, Michael McDonnell, Joe McDougall, Jeanne Pepler, Robin Pogrebin, Ed Saxon, Rosie Schaap, Jeanine Shriver, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, Terry Ward, and Larry Weissman.
I also want to thank:
My brother-in-law Max Kennedy for his encouragement and support, especially in the early days—when it mattered most. My former editor, now friend, Andra Miller, who was there for me too. Emma Taylor, essential in organizing Tom Hayden’s work, and Tom Deignan, essential to its completion. Barbara Williams, an incredibly loving wife and friend to Tom Hayden—thank you for your trust, kindness, and direction.
My researchers, dedicated and thorough: Barbara Clark, Kathleen Geier, Michelle Hovanetz, and Alex Singal. My consulting editors, for the invaluable advice, collaboration, and feedback: Janette Barber, Neil A. Grauer, and Jeff Swimmer. My terrific agent, David McCormick of McCormick Literary; David always knows just what to do. And Ed Hemingway, my friend and partner on my last three books, for so readily offering up his beautiful illustrations. I know Ed did it for me—as well as for his mother, Valerie, who came here from Dublin.
I want to thank Elisabeth Scharlatt, the publisher of Algonquin Books, the remarkable leader of what is a remarkable team. This includes Jackie Burke, Algonquin’s amazing publicity manager, along with the whole publicity and marketing group. And in particular, Betsy Gleick, my editor, whose sure hands guided this effort. Not just smart, she is at once persistent and a pleasure—a rare combination. Thank you, Betsy, for getting us here.
My extraordinary contributors, without whom there would simply be no book: Pierce Brosnan, Terry Golway, Tom Hayden, Kathleen Hill, Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, Jill McDonough, Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, and Mark K. Shriver. This was hard work, and your commitment to the project and your patience with me, especially given your own busy lives, was very moving. You brought compassion, talent, intelligence, and courage. I hope, holding this book in your hands, you feel it was worth all the trouble.
On a personal note: My mother, Madelyne, my father, Ed, and my brother, Paul, the nearest branches on my family tree, the ones who taught me the very meaning of family. And Ethel Kennedy and my Kennedy in-laws, who came here from Counties Cavan, Cork, Limerick, and Wexford, for showing me, in word and deed, what service means.
And to my wife Rory: I am lucky to have a partner whom I love so much and whom, after all these years side by side in both life and work, I so admire. To our children, Georgia, Bridget, and Zachary: when it’s more fully your turn, here in America, I know that you’ll do your best—and undoubtedly better than we.
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THE REVOLUTIONARY: THOMAS ADDIS EMMET
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THE CARETAKER: MARGERT HAUGHERY
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THE ORGANIZER: MARY “MOTHER” JONES
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THE MUCKRAKER: SAMUEL S. MCCLURE
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