Peace plea to former paramilitaries

Former paramilitary member were today urged by the President Mary McAleese to do all they can to ensure that Northern Ireland has another quiet summer.

During an address to a peace conference at the International School for Peace Studies in Messines in Belgium, the President said many advances had been made during the peace process in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement.

But she appealed to loyalists and republicans to do everything they could in their power to ensure that there was no violence in sectarian flash-point areas in the province over the summer months.

“Six years on the euphoria of Good Friday has given way as it inevitably had to, to the more muted tones provoked by the painstaking, daily grind of building trust and extracting from each of us the price we are prepared to pay for the noble goal of peace,” Mrs McAleese said.

“The peace process is a human process with its periods of doubt and disappointment, yes, but also it’s steady tally of big and small advances, each of which takes us further from the days of bomb and bullet and closer to humanly decent neighbourliness.

“The progress to date has been nothing short of miraculous and little by little even the most reluctant are joining the peacemakers.

“In fact, some of its most radical champions today are to be found among former paramilitaries or their supporters.

“I want to particularly encourage them to keep giving the leadership that is keeping Northern Ireland’s streets and its marching season quiet.

“Their efforts are bringing a new dignity and confidence to Northern Ireland and broadening the operating base of peace to a very reassuring degree. The evidence is that peace is taking root but the process is working.”

President McAleese was commenting 24 hours after police in south Belfast were called to a sectarian flash-point area where petrol bomb-style devices were thrown at loyalists’ homes.

Democratic Unionist councillor, Ruth Patterson, blamed nationalist youths for the incident, which resulted in one device igniting on waste ground and another unexploded device being confiscated by police.

The incident followed hard on a statement last week by senior DUP members, Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds, appealing for another calm marching season, following last year’s success.

That statement was welcomed by Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams.

Republicans have also been concerned about loyalist paramilitary activity, with a Sinn Féin member, Michael Agnew, discovering a pipe bomb under his van yesterday outside his home in Ballymena, Co. Antrim.

The incident was condemned by Northern Ireland Office Security Minister, Ian Pearson.