PEACE A BEACON IN DARKEST DAYS
Peace a beacon in darkest days
ONE of the most helpful remarks I've heard in a long time was a quote from someone in South Africa saying that we should be judging the success of our peace process in decades, not years or even months as we are inclined to do.
If we don't look to the long term, then our mood is bound to go up and down, as things look hopeful or calamitous. Omagh could plunge us into the depths of despair, but what good would that be to those we collectively have to support through the years ahead?
It is obvious why Omagh has had such a massive effect here, in Britain and abroad - and why it won't go away. It's the children. Anyone who has ever seen children or grandchildren develop and grow knows and loves their innocence and enthusiasm. They are our future, capable of anything, and when we see such lives cut short by tragedy, we can only weep.
When it is not only tragedy, but atrocity, we are even more downcast. Children died because some psychopath decided that a bomb in Omagh would help to kill the Assembly and the Agreement - destroying the democratic structures that can deliver the only possible peace.
Like the Quinn brothers in Ballymoney, what happened to them in all its horror has already had more effect on the general situation than anything.
They have united people in grief, and that has put pressure not only on the governments and the bombers but on the politicians to stick to their task.
A few weeks ago, when the Northern Ireland Bill passed through the Commons without a single unionist vote cast in its favour, things looked grim.
The election of the Assembly and its leaders had changed nothing, it seemed, and David Trimble was in trouble.
Omagh has proved that changes do follow when people get a taste of democracy. Sinn Fein could condemn the Real IRA bomb, not only because of its barbarity, but because it was an attack on the process they have been elected to pursue.
The loyalist paramilitaries held their fire, and I hope will continue to do so, because people who represent their interests have been elected to the Assembly. They need credibility to make an impact, and the normal knee-jerk paramilitary reaction would be disastrous.
What was started when John Hume first started talking to Gerry Adams is still working its way through the system. It has brought much pain, because it is such a radical attack on the problem for both sides, but gradually it can be seen as the only way forward.
There were bound to be diehards who could not accept the pragmatism that has left Gerry Adams looking for a place in the Assembly, in order - so the Bill says - to carry out executive functions on Her Majesty's behalf.
He has sold out, they think, for the dubious prize of North-South institutions, so they want to bring him and the Assembly down by the well-worn tactic of splitting the unionists.
What they have achieved, of course, is further isolation for the physical force cause - although that does not mean its demise. Their mandate comes, they say, from the justice of the cause, not the people. They alone decide what is just, as all fascists do.
There will always be someone with a gun or bomb, so long as Northern Ireland is part of the UK. But they are becoming a tiny minority, shunned by every brand of republican, and due to become even more isolated next February.
When the Assembly takes on devolved powers, the important changes to the Irish constitution come into effect. From that point on, militant republicans will be fighting a losing battle, against a consent principle enshrined in Ireland and the UK.
The best answer to them, and the way to a peaceful future, is to show democracy can work.
If the Assembly succeeds, it will bring unionist and nationalist closer together, to produce a Northern Ireland that has a special relationship with both the United Kingdom and Republic.
That is the context in which a solution might eventually emerge. But don't look for it in years. It took 30 years and a revolution in unionist and nationalist thinking to get this far; the mechanisms are in place and now we need peace, leadership, trust and a couple of decades of mental adjustment.
ONE of the most helpful remarks I've heard in a long time was a quote from someone in South Africa saying that we should be judging the success of our peace process in decades, not years or even months as we are inclined to do.
If we don't look to the long term, then our mood is bound to go up and down, as things look hopeful or calamitous. Omagh could plunge us into the depths of despair, but what good would that be to those we collectively have to support through the years ahead?
It is obvious why Omagh has had such a massive effect here, in Britain and abroad - and why it won't go away. It's the children. Anyone who has ever seen children or grandchildren develop and grow knows and loves their innocence and enthusiasm. They are our future, capable of anything, and when we see such lives cut short by tragedy, we can only weep.
When it is not only tragedy, but atrocity, we are even more downcast. Children died because some psychopath decided that a bomb in Omagh would help to kill the Assembly and the Agreement - destroying the democratic structures that can deliver the only possible peace.
Like the Quinn brothers in Ballymoney, what happened to them in all its horror has already had more effect on the general situation than anything.
They have united people in grief, and that has put pressure not only on the governments and the bombers but on the politicians to stick to their task.
A few weeks ago, when the Northern Ireland Bill passed through the Commons without a single unionist vote cast in its favour, things looked grim.
The election of the Assembly and its leaders had changed nothing, it seemed, and David Trimble was in trouble.
Omagh has proved that changes do follow when people get a taste of democracy. Sinn Fein could condemn the Real IRA bomb, not only because of its barbarity, but because it was an attack on the process they have been elected to pursue.
The loyalist paramilitaries held their fire, and I hope will continue to do so, because people who represent their interests have been elected to the Assembly. They need credibility to make an impact, and the normal knee-jerk paramilitary reaction would be disastrous.
What was started when John Hume first started talking to Gerry Adams is still working its way through the system. It has brought much pain, because it is such a radical attack on the problem for both sides, but gradually it can be seen as the only way forward.
There were bound to be diehards who could not accept the pragmatism that has left Gerry Adams looking for a place in the Assembly, in order - so the Bill says - to carry out executive functions on Her Majesty's behalf.
He has sold out, they think, for the dubious prize of North-South institutions, so they want to bring him and the Assembly down by the well-worn tactic of splitting the unionists.
What they have achieved, of course, is further isolation for the physical force cause - although that does not mean its demise. Their mandate comes, they say, from the justice of the cause, not the people. They alone decide what is just, as all fascists do.
There will always be someone with a gun or bomb, so long as Northern Ireland is part of the UK. But they are becoming a tiny minority, shunned by every brand of republican, and due to become even more isolated next February.
When the Assembly takes on devolved powers, the important changes to the Irish constitution come into effect. From that point on, militant republicans will be fighting a losing battle, against a consent principle enshrined in Ireland and the UK.
The best answer to them, and the way to a peaceful future, is to show democracy can work.
If the Assembly succeeds, it will bring unionist and nationalist closer together, to produce a Northern Ireland that has a special relationship with both the United Kingdom and Republic.
That is the context in which a solution might eventually emerge. But don't look for it in years. It took 30 years and a revolution in unionist and nationalist thinking to get this far; the mechanisms are in place and now we need peace, leadership, trust and a couple of decades of mental adjustment.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0165
Published Date: 21-Aug-98
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