Grasp this opportunity, says Durkan

All sides in Northern Ireland must seize a “rare chance” to rescue the Good Friday Agreement in the coming weeks, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said today.

With time running out to break the deadlocked peace process and restore devolution, Mr Durkan insisted that unionists and nationalists could not afford to let the opportunity slip away.

He said in a speech in Lowell, Massachusetts, that the power-sharing institutions at Stormont had only been operating on one St Patrick’s Day since the Belfast accord was signed five years ago.

Even though British Prime Minister Tony Blair has delayed elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly by four weeks until May 29 in a bid to resolve the outstanding issues, a resolution has yet to be found.

Unionists have demanded a huge IRA disarmament move before going back into government with Sinn Fein, while republicans have resisted calls for sanctions against parties breaking the rules at Stormont, claiming it was an attempt to humiliate them.

Mr Durkan said: “In these next few weeks, we have the chance to change this: to secure the Agreement, to bed it down in our government and our society, for now and for good.

“It is a rare chance. It is chance that we must not miss.”

He blamed the political turmoil on the failure of all parties to cement the principles of equality, partnership and mutual respect enshrined in the Agreement.

The SDLP leader also told his American hosts that without US political and economic aid the peace process in Northern Ireland would have foundered.

He added: “Nor would we have made the progress that we have particularly in recent weeks in getting it implemented.

“As nationalists and unionists, we the politicians of Ireland owe it to ourselves to get this Agreement working.

“We owe it to each other. And we owe it to America, particularly Irish Americans, who have helped us so much.”