Hamilton Mayor Glen Gilmore has confirmed, without saying so, what many had suspected: His snub of a group of visiting London constables last month stemmed directly from his personal distaste for British policy in Northern Ireland.
In a letter published in The Times yesterday, the mayor described a visit he made to Belfast in which he personally witnessed the persecution of Catholic residents and the "blind eye" turned to it by what he described as "British police." At the end, he wrote:
"Despite this experience, I harbor no ill will against anyone based on national origin. In fact, I commend our [Hamilton] officers for recently hosting a delegation of British police. Yet, I also hope that the British police who visited Hamilton will forgive the fact that my schedule did not allow me time to stop for a photo-op presentation - just as I hope that the neighborhood I visited in Belfast will find it in their hearts to forgive the British police who could not find time in their schedules to protect them from constant, vicious attacks. We in America must not ignore injustice simply because it is committed by a friend."
The mayor's description of what he witnessed abroad - which clearly was a deplorable act of governmental nonfeasance - was compelling. But he apparently has confused the forces responsible for keeping order in Northern Ireland, such as the British Army, with those represented by the visiting London bobbies, who have no more to do with controlling neighborhood violence in Belfast than any six Hamilton cops chosen at random. As we said earlier, his refusal to meet with the visitors and accept the good-will plaque that they wanted to give him was petty, rude and a disservice to the people of Hamilton, who elected Mr. Gilmore not only to oversee municipal government but also to represent them on ceremonial occasions.
If the mayor intended the snub to be a statement of opposition to British government policy, as he clearly did, he should be forthright enough to say so. His claim, which he had made earlier, that he had no time on his schedule for a brief photo-op - the kind of event that is mother's milk to politicians campaigning for re-election - is ludicrous.
Some sensible words were written about the episode by another Hamilton Irish-American political figure, Kevin Meara, who yields to no one in this area in his understanding of the conflict in his ancestral country and his hopes for peace in a united Ireland. In a letter of his own to The Times published last Saturday, Mr. Meara praised the dialogue that the Hamilton and London police officers had established. "[T]he one common bond shared by discerning [Irish, British and American] politicians," he wrote, "is the belief that dialogue is the road map to peace." Mayor Gilmore would do well to heed that wisdom and example.
