Ulster is 'safer place to be'

Northern Ireland is a safer place because of the Good Friday Agreement, Ulster Unionists were told at their annual conference today.

In the first ever address to an Ulster Unionist conference by a Northern Ireland Secretary, Paul Murphy said unionists had gained a lot under the 1998 accord.

He told them: “People have asked me what the Agreement has delivered for unionism.

“I say this: ’The peace process and the Good Friday Agreement have delivered between them a better Northern Ireland.

“It’s a safer place in which to live.

“We cannot, and will not, forget the names and the faces of those who were killed in the 30 years of conflict but neither should we forget that murders in Northern Ireland are counted now in tens and not in hundreds.”

Mr Murphy paid tribute to the Ulster unionist leadership for their handling of the peace process in recent years.

He acknowledged that there had been difficulties for unionists.

However, he rejected those who claimed that things had got worse in recent times.

“A process that perhaps 10 years ago, that past an historic milestone with the Belfast Agreement and that is leading to lasting peace, has already brought with it greater security for Northern Ireland.

“Its completion is at hand.

“I am not saying that we don’t still face problems. We do.

“But that is why we are currently all engaged – not least David Trimble – in trying to bring about the definitive end of paramilitary activity and the full implementation of that Good Friday Agreement.”