Ireland shows 'that peace can happen'

Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen tonight told a US audience that Ireland could now send out a positive message to other parts of the world where peace processes were in difficulty.

He said following last week’s IRA disarmament move, the Irish had shown that ‘‘peace can happen, that politics can work, that mind-sets, as well as guns, can be decommissioned and that the enemies of peace must not be allowed to succeed or to veto the process.’’