Post by smudger on Mar 28, 2007 6:44:26 GMT 10
Northern Ireland Rivals Reach Deal
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By EAMON QUINN and ALAN COWELL
Published: March 26, 2007
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, March 26 — After years of mutual hostility and recrimination, the leaders of Northern Ireland’s dominant rival groups, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and the Protestant leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, met today for their first face-to-face talks and agreed to form a joint administration for the province on May 8.
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Pool photo by Paul Faith
Ian Paisley, left, and Gerry Adams announced the breakthrough while sitting side by side, a first, in the Stormont Parliament building in Belfast.
Multimedia
Back Story With Eamon QuinnThe deal was hailed by Britain and Ireland as a historic breakthrough, more than four years after Northern Ireland’s local government was suspended in October, 2002, after a dispute over espionage activities by the Irish Republican Army.
“The word ‘historic’ has to be used,” said Brian Feeny, a historian at St. Mary’s University College in Belfast, “It was the only way it was ever going to work. The two leaders of the two traditions had to do the deal.”
If implemented, the agreement means Britain will formally hand back responsibility for running many of Northern Ireland’s internal affairs to an administration composed of Protestants and Catholics, with Mr. Paisley, the leader of the biggest party in the province, as First Minister and Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, as his deputy. Other smaller parties will also have seats in the government proportionate to their electoral showing.
“Today the clouds have lifted and people can see their future,” said Peter Hain, Britain’s Northern Ireland minister. British officials depicted the agreement as critically different from many previous false starts because the two main parties had made the deal themselves in direct talks that broke the province’s long-standing taboos on such encounters.
“The first time the two parties have ever met is today,” Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman, who customarily requests anonymity, told reporters in London. “In the past, it’s been us imposing dates on the parties. The crucial difference today is that this was an agreement reached by the parties themselves.”
The deal was announced by Mr. Adams and Mr. Paisley as they sat close together at a diamond-shaped table in the Stormont Parliament building — a sight that would have seemed impossible in the days when Mr. Paisley labeled Mr. Adams and his followers terrorists because of Sinn Fein’s affiliation with the I.R.A.
Such was Mr. Paisley’s opposition to any kind of settlement with Sinn Fein that he earned the nickname “Doctor No.” He was renowned for railing against the Vatican and what he called “popery,” once labeling the Roman Catholic Church “the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth.”
While the province’s leaders failed to meet a March 26 deadline set by Britain and Ireland to restore local government, the fact that the two men named a date themselves — and sat together to say so — was taken as what Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain called “a very remarkable coming together of people who, for very obvious reasons, have been strongly opposed in the past.”
Indeed, the sight of the two men, once sworn enemies, sitting feet apart was all the more striking in contrast to the once-familiar images of bloodshed that scarred Northern Ireland for decades. Some 3,720 people died in three decades of sectarian strife known as The Troubles that ended with an I.R.A. ceasefire 10 years ago and the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.
After reading their statements, Mr. Adams and Mr. Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, shuffled their papers but did not shake hands. Nonetheless, in prepared statements, they sounded similar, conciliatory themes.
“We are very conscious of the many people who have suffered,” Mr. Adams said. “We owe it to them to build the best possible future. It is a time for generosity, a time to be mindful of the common good and of the future of all our people.”
A few minutes earlier, Mr. Paisley, who had insisted on the delay until May 8, had said: “We must not allow our justified loathing of the horrors and tragedies of the past to become a barrier to creating a better and more stable future. In looking to the future we must never forget those who have suffered during the dark period from which we are, please God, emerging.”
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By EAMON QUINN and ALAN COWELL
Published: March 26, 2007
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, March 26 — After years of mutual hostility and recrimination, the leaders of Northern Ireland’s dominant rival groups, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and the Protestant leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, met today for their first face-to-face talks and agreed to form a joint administration for the province on May 8.
Skip to next paragraph
Pool photo by Paul Faith
Ian Paisley, left, and Gerry Adams announced the breakthrough while sitting side by side, a first, in the Stormont Parliament building in Belfast.
Multimedia
Back Story With Eamon QuinnThe deal was hailed by Britain and Ireland as a historic breakthrough, more than four years after Northern Ireland’s local government was suspended in October, 2002, after a dispute over espionage activities by the Irish Republican Army.
“The word ‘historic’ has to be used,” said Brian Feeny, a historian at St. Mary’s University College in Belfast, “It was the only way it was ever going to work. The two leaders of the two traditions had to do the deal.”
If implemented, the agreement means Britain will formally hand back responsibility for running many of Northern Ireland’s internal affairs to an administration composed of Protestants and Catholics, with Mr. Paisley, the leader of the biggest party in the province, as First Minister and Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein’s chief negotiator, as his deputy. Other smaller parties will also have seats in the government proportionate to their electoral showing.
“Today the clouds have lifted and people can see their future,” said Peter Hain, Britain’s Northern Ireland minister. British officials depicted the agreement as critically different from many previous false starts because the two main parties had made the deal themselves in direct talks that broke the province’s long-standing taboos on such encounters.
“The first time the two parties have ever met is today,” Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman, who customarily requests anonymity, told reporters in London. “In the past, it’s been us imposing dates on the parties. The crucial difference today is that this was an agreement reached by the parties themselves.”
The deal was announced by Mr. Adams and Mr. Paisley as they sat close together at a diamond-shaped table in the Stormont Parliament building — a sight that would have seemed impossible in the days when Mr. Paisley labeled Mr. Adams and his followers terrorists because of Sinn Fein’s affiliation with the I.R.A.
Such was Mr. Paisley’s opposition to any kind of settlement with Sinn Fein that he earned the nickname “Doctor No.” He was renowned for railing against the Vatican and what he called “popery,” once labeling the Roman Catholic Church “the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth.”
While the province’s leaders failed to meet a March 26 deadline set by Britain and Ireland to restore local government, the fact that the two men named a date themselves — and sat together to say so — was taken as what Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain called “a very remarkable coming together of people who, for very obvious reasons, have been strongly opposed in the past.”
Indeed, the sight of the two men, once sworn enemies, sitting feet apart was all the more striking in contrast to the once-familiar images of bloodshed that scarred Northern Ireland for decades. Some 3,720 people died in three decades of sectarian strife known as The Troubles that ended with an I.R.A. ceasefire 10 years ago and the Good Friday peace agreement in 1998.
After reading their statements, Mr. Adams and Mr. Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, shuffled their papers but did not shake hands. Nonetheless, in prepared statements, they sounded similar, conciliatory themes.
“We are very conscious of the many people who have suffered,” Mr. Adams said. “We owe it to them to build the best possible future. It is a time for generosity, a time to be mindful of the common good and of the future of all our people.”
A few minutes earlier, Mr. Paisley, who had insisted on the delay until May 8, had said: “We must not allow our justified loathing of the horrors and tragedies of the past to become a barrier to creating a better and more stable future. In looking to the future we must never forget those who have suffered during the dark period from which we are, please God, emerging.”
