World Notes

Slowly but perceptibly, some of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority are joining the province's middle class. And that bodes well for the success of new negotiations to decide Ulster's future announced in London last week. The talks culminate 14 months of intricate diplomacy and are slated to begin by the end of April. They will include three separate, interlocking conferences: one will involve Northern Ireland's mainly Protestant unionist political parties, which want to see the province remain part of Britain, and the principally Catholic nationalist parties, which want Ulster to be part of Ireland. Other talks will be between delegates from Ulster and the Irish Republic, and between Ireland and Britain.

The immediate goal is to restore limited self-government to Northern Ireland, which has been ruled directly by London since 1972. But the hope is that the talks will eventually lead to a permanent end to the conflict, and the improving prosperity of the Catholics should help. "People want an end to all the killings," said Seamus Mallon, a leader of the liberal Social Democratic and Labour Party. Protestant extremists and the Irish Republican Army, whose political wing, Sinn Fein, was denied a seat at the talks, are expected to respond with a new wave of violence.