Albany's Irish museum hosts panel on 1998 peace agreement tonight

ALBANY — The Troubles seems a mild phrase to describe more than 30 years of bombs, shootings, stabbings and beatings that left about 3,600 dead in Northern Ireland. Catholics and Protestants living a few streets from each other became lethal enemies.

No wonder April 10, 1998's Good Friday Peace Agreement seemed like an Easter miracle to Albany historian and former assemblyman Jack McEneny, who traces his roots to Belfast, He flew on his own dime to Northern Ireland many times, often supporting Pres. Bill Clinton who helped negotiate the agreement.

"I remember sitting in cars at checkpoints with soldiers holding machine guns on us in the 1990s because the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was so dangerous," McEneny said. "It was like an armed camp in the 1980s, it was so dangerous, You had to show your passport when traveling between certain counties within Belfast. There were blast walls everywhere in case of car bombs. All that changed for the better when peace came."

Now, the border is porous with people crossing it easily every day for work or fun. But since Britain voted to leave the European Union, aka Brexit, many inside and outside Northern Ireland worry violence might erupt again.

On the 20th anniversary of the Peace Agreement, McEneny will be at the Irish American Heritage Museum with a panel that examines why the peace may or may not hold. He will be joined by Siena College professor Karen Sonnelitter, an expert in Irish and British history, museum trustee Ed Collins and Boston College professor Peter Moloney who is both Irish and an expert on Brexit. The panelists know how to wrestle a complex topic into compelling insights.

"The peace agreement promised the United States, Ireland and Europe would protect the civil rights of Northern Ireland's residents regardless of religion," Moloney said, simplifying for his listener's sake. "The agreement promised an end to employment and housing discrimination based on faith."

While many in Northern Ireland distrusted Britain, it was part of the European Union and they liked feeling that Europe had their backs. Brexit or Britain's exit from the European Union has caused many in Northern Ireland to worry whether Europe would still want to referee civil rights conflicts in a non-EU nation. Interestingly, 64 percent of voters on Northern Ireland's border wanted to remain in the EU, while 55.8 percent of all voters were also in favor of staying in the EU.

"Current tension is partly a reflection on how Norther Ireland still tends to self-segregate into Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods," Sonnelitter said. People of different faiths may mingle in the workplace but "most children in Catholic neighborhoods attend Catholic schools."

During the Troubles, Sonnelitter says much of the violence started in working class neighborhoods where high unemployment fueled anger. She sees hope in the north's healthy economy. But she is aware of how fresh the scars are.

She notes that Sinn Féin political party president Gerry Adams was implicated in and questioned by police about the kidnapping and murder of a mother of 10 children, Jean McConville, as recently as 2014. McConnville was suspected by the Irish Republican Army of being a spy for British soldiers.

The panel's April 10 audience will have a chance to explore all this as well as Moloney's belief in how those who have suffered can maintain a peace and create a future together.

"It must be a strange feeling, a terrible feeling to know the guy on the next street killed my brother during the Troubles and he's never been in jail," Moloney said. "But if the Irish can see a greater good for everyone, then the dead haven't died in vain. And you don't have endless score settling and feuds that continue the bloodshed. Yes, that murderer is alive, a guy may think, but so am I. And maybe this is where the war ends."