Peace appears to be at hand in Northern Ireland. After centuries of violence and mistrust between Catholics and Protestants it now appears they will sit together in a joint executive government for the province.
It now appears that 11 weeks of deadlock over the timing of disarmament by the Irish Republican Army the IRA had refused to begin handing in its huge arsenal of guns and bombs until after its political wing, Sinn Fein, got a position in the executive to be formed from the new Northern Ireland Assembly. Now the IRA has given some ground and so have the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party led by David Trimble.
The mediator between the two sides, former US Senator, George Mitchell, has brokered an arrangement whereby there would be a simultaneous creation of a coalition government of Protestants and Catholics and talks on disarming the IRA. That was a remarkable achievement. People in Northern Ireland must be hoping it can happen as soon as possible.
Both sides are still retaining their ultimate aims. The Protestants want Northern Ireland to remain an integral, if self-governing, part of the United Kingdom and Sinn Fein and presumably most of the Catholic community would ultimately like to see Northern Ireland as part of a united Ireland. The fact that those two aims are incompatible should not prevent cooperative government by the two sides in Northern Ireland in the meantime.
Sinn Fein’s leader, Gerry Adams, once said that Irish unity should be fought with the ballot box in one hand and an Armalite rifle in the other. This week’s events, and indeed earlier pronouncements, reveal that Mr Adams has dropped the Armalite at least metaphorically. It is now up to the IRA to drop the Armalite physically. Hitherto the IRA has been deeply suspicious that once it disarms the British Government will return to what it sees as provocation of and discrimination against the Catholic community and in the face of that the Catholics would have no means of retaliation. It now seems after two years of relative peace in the province that the IRA has had a change of heart. That is very welcome. It remains to be seen whether Mr Adams will be able to ensure that IRA leaders will be able to command all militant members of the IRA to ensure that there are no breaches.
The external environment has also enabled the Protestant side to be more conciliatory and hopeful about cooperative governing arrangements with the Catholics. Ireland’s entry into the European Union has had an enormous impact on Irish society and has resulted in changes that have removed many of the phobias the Protestants in the north had against the south. Human rights changes, the lessening of the influence of the Catholic Church, large economic improvements and EU-mandated freedom of commence and intercourse across the north-south divide, have all contributed to a softening of attitude across the religious divide.
The critical thing now is for the new cooperative government to begin its task. Once it gets enmeshed in the mundane minutiae of government the fear and loathing created by religious animosity and historical exaggeration of differences will fall away. The world will be hoping that peaceful argument over such things as drains, electricity, roads, education and health will replace the heated, violent and often meaningless disputes of the past.