Devolved government - A new day dawns in the North
What was unthinkable just a few short years ago has become reality.
For its war-weary people, the North’s bloodshed and violence are over.
The end of direct rule by London and the return to power sharing will rekindle lasting peace, restore normality, and, hopefully, mark the dawning of a new prosperity.
In communities riven by conflict and internecine strife, the hope is that people will no longer have to look over their shoulders in fear nor worry about the safety and future of their children. That is a glittering prize indeed.
Despite predictions that the parliament would be run on the basis of a battle day, it appears the opposing sides are more inclined to unite in battle to secure the resources and support the North needs so urgently.
In his pithy way, First Minister Paisley caught the true significance of yesterday’s event.
Affirming his pledge of office, he promised to work towards making Northern Ireland fair, equal and a place of justice, a place where everybody signed up to partnership.
The people of the North, he said, could at long last breathe a sigh of relief that hostility would be replaced by neighbourliness.
It was, he added, history not hype.
For the first time since the Troubles engulfed the streets of Belfast and Derry’s Bogside 40 years ago, republican and loyalist guns are silent. It can now truly be said that the bomb and bullet have been supplanted by the ballot box.
Underlining the dramatic nature of this political and social progress, the Assembly has met for the first time since it was suspended nearly five years ago in October 2002.
Symbolising the diamond-hard grit of loyalism, the gravelly voice of its undisputed leader, 81-year-old Mr Paisley, reminded listeners that he had not changed his unionism. But the words and sentiments uttered by a man notorious for his rabble rousing and for his anti-republicanism and anti-Catholicism, were refreshingly inclusive and conciliatory.
His speech could not have been more positive, constructive or forward-looking.
An even more ruthless figure from the North’s troubled past, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, the new Deputy First Minister, stressed that they were all stepping forward on the greatest and most exciting challenge of their lives. As he put it, the critics have been astounded and the sceptics confounded.
Yet, in a reminder of the republican goal of a united Ireland, he began his pledge in Irish, another symbol of political division.
Appropriately, pride of place at the ceremonial resumption of parliament was rightly afforded to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Both politicians have reason to be proud of their role in getting the North back on track. Through thick and thin, they invested time and effort unstintingly in the search for a resolution of its complex and difficult questions.
In a more relaxed moment, Mr Blair mused that ever since childhood holidays in Donegal, Ireland had been a special place but his family had stopped coming here because of the Troubles.
Recalling the never-ending obstacles on the North’s tortuous road to peace, Mr Ahern welcomed the occasion as a milestone on the road to create a working executive that would be totally inclusive, especially on a day that went without a hitch.
Among other names that will be recorded on the North’s blood-spattered path to peace, are John Hume, Séamus Mallon, David Trimble, Gerry Adams, John Mitchell, Albert Reynolds, Garret FitzGerald and Margaret Thatcher. The litany goes on.
After 40 years of pain, as President Mary McAleese observed, now was a time for fun and laughter.
However, describing the return to power sharing as “a wonderful opportunity crafted out of needless, scandalous pain”, she said it should have happened 40 years ago.
Posing the imponderable question being asked by children who wonder why their father had to die, the president said that for now it should remain unanswered but that if ever the temptation came to slide back into old sectarian ways and the easy use of violence, it should be close to the top of the agenda.
Hopefully, the newly forged partnership between former foes will not turn out to be skin-deep.
If that happens, it will be a betrayal of all the people of this island.
It has taken four decades of bloodshed and 4,000 lives to persuade both sides in the North that a war of words is better than violence and the death of innocents.
While the hawks may not have become doves, they have become peacemakers and that makes the North’s achievement a model for peace in other strife-torn regions.
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