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JOHN HUMPHRYS: At the start of last week things
were looking very bleak indeed in Northern Ireland. Today there are grounds
for real hope. The IRA has gone further than ever before in promising
to begin the process which MAY lead to disarmament. We still don't know
whether that's going to be enough to meet the demands of those Ulster Unionists
who rejected the Good Friday agreement. I'll be talking to one of their
leading figures and to Sinn Fein after this report from Robin Aitken.
ROBIN AITKEN: When on Thursday Bertie Ahern
and Tony Blair arrived at Hillsborough there was a fair degree of cynicism
in the air. The two premiers said they'd come to revive an ailing peace
process; many in the media pack believed Mr Blair was conveniently absenting
himself from London on Labour's black day at the polls. But the cynics
were wrong. Yesterday's statement from the IRA is clearly a significant
advance with the potential to open a new chapter in the peace process.
BAIRBRE DE BRUIN AM: I am optimistic. I think that
there's a very good chance. I welcome this development. I hope others will
also welcome it. I think there's an extremely good chance. Obviously we've
been down this road before and therefore there is this small part, I think
in everyone, from whatever political persuasion they are that says we raised
our hopes before, let's not raise them too much, but my view would be that
notwithstanding that tiny core in all of us, I am very, very optimistic.
DAVID ERVINE I think that whilst we have
come a long way we have but a short distance to travel now to complete
the course. And I advocate that we get on with it and I know that the two
premiers advocate the same.
AITKEN: But the week had started
on a much grimmer note. On Tuesday the Gardai, the Irish police force,
resumed their search for the "disappeared" - victims murdered by the IRA
and buried in concealed graves. On this remote bog in County Monaghan they
were looking for the body of a seventeen year old abducted and murdered
by the IRA twenty-five years ago. The ghosts of Northern Ireland's bloody
past were not, it seemed about to be shaken off.
The legacy of the violence
seemed to have wrecked the prospects of the new Northern Ireland Executive.
It began work in December but was suspended in February because the IRA
had failed to decommission its weapons. The leaderships of both the Sinn
Fein and the Ulster Unionists had invested heavily in the Good Friday Agreement.
After the executive's suspension both seemed weakened.
DE BRUIN: For every time that we
have engaged in bringing our people forward in taking our views out and
discussing them with our membership in trying to persuade the wider republican
community that this is the way forward and that we have had a slap in the
face, we have lost some of that credibility. It can be rebuilt obviously
and it has a strong basis, but I don't think that you can endlessly go
and stretch your political constituency and take the kind of leadership
moves that we have done as political leaders, if you don't see the fruits
of that.
AITKEN: David Trimble survived
a leadership challenge but the result revealed deep divisions in his party
- forty three per cent voted against him and it seemed he might be unable
to overcome growing opposition to the Good Friday Agreement. Yesterday's
statement from the IRA might be the lifeline he needs to reassert himself.
TOMMY McKEARNEY: We have a strange case where the
political future of both Trimble and Gerry Adams is closely intertwined.
In some ways I think it is obvious that Sinn Fein would much prefer to
deal with Trimble than the ultra right-wing of unionism. Sinn Fein has
based its position on a restoration of the executive. Without an executive
the Sinn Fein programme is very difficult to affect. Without Trimble there
is absolutely no chance that the right wing of unionism will deal in any
meaningful sense with Sinn Fein.
DAVID McCLARTY: I see great parallels. David Trimble
does has his difficulties within the Ulster Unionist Party but I believe
those difficulties pale into insignificance compared to the difficulties
that Gerry Adams has within Sinn Fein. And I believe that if he is determined
to stand up to the rejectionists within Sinn Fein, then he is showing a
great deal of courage.
AITKEN: On Friday, Sinn Fein's
leadership was seeking common ground with the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Gerry Adams seems to have got what he needs from the IRA. Now the Ulster
Unionist leader has to sell that deal to the doubters within the Ulster
Unionist Council - his party's sovereign body - who have always demanded
actual weaponry to be handed over as a prerequisite for Sinn Fein in government.....
MCCLARTY: We do have rejectionists,
that's plain for all to see that we have rejectionists. But I believe that
within the Ulster Unionist Council, who will ultimately make the decision
whether to accept whatever proposal is on the table, I believe that David
has a majority support within the Ulster unionist Council and if there
is certainty this time that decommissioning is going to happen then I believe
they will accept that.
AITKEN: ` Yesterday David Trimble
was still sounding a note of caution but his chances of winning his internal
party critics round must have been improved greatly by these latest developments.
And if he does get agreement to go back into the executive with Sinn
Fein that is not an irrevocable decision.
JOHN BRUTON: One must recognise that the
Unionists under the Belfast Agreement if they are not satisfied at any
stage in the future with progress in regard to demilitarisation or decommissioning
or any issue have the power to collapse the executive. So also do the SDLP
on the nationalist side. So it isn't too difficult therefore to go back
in on the basis that you have got some fundamental commitments and you
are awaiting full delivery of the implications of those commitments.
AITKEN The streets of
Northern Ireland have become accustomed to a kind of peace; the Royal
Ulster Constabulary can afford to be a little more relaxed these days.
But the future of the RUC is itself meshed in controversy ; the loss of
its name and the distinctive cap badge have become a rallying point for
opponents of the Good Friday Agreement.. But though that debate's highly
charged it's likely to become submerged in the search for a wider political
settlement..
MCKEARNEY: I think unionism will have
to take on board the fact that they will not see a huge scale decommissioning.
On the other hand the republican community, the republican leadership
will have to take on board the fears of the unionist and the demands of
the unionist leadership that there is a clear commitment that the war is
over.
AITKEN: ` The gardai have given
themselves three weeks to try to find the bodies of the disappeared and
bring some solace to their families. The goal Northern Ireland's politicians
have set themselves - a peaceful settlement of a generations old blood
feud - has at times seemed almost impossible. But this weekend is one of
those occasional moments of hope which intermittently illuminate the political
landscape.
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